Boy-o-boy

Boyeo in the 1880s (J.Pickering)

I was on a mission to photograph the schools or school sites across the Wimmera region, and after spending the day searching for plaques or signposts, usually surrounded by a ring of sugar gums, I was on the lookout for the Boyeo site. I knew it had been sold at auction, so was amazed to see the wooden building across a paddock. After negotiating an arm of what in winter would be swamp,arrived at the precariously leaning Boyeo School building. 

My first view of the school building

Boyeo School No. 2577 (formerly Tarranginnie North became Boyeo in 1888) opened in February 1884 in a temporary building with an iron roof, timber floor, 2 doors & 1 window built by selectors, on Patterson’s selection. A 2 acre site was gazetted 15.5.1885, near the southeast corner of a block largely taken up by a large swamp. 

In 1885 the Department erected a timber building with an attached four-room residence. An underground tank was provided in 1887. The Boyeo Post Office was established in the residence in 1888, changing the name from Tarranginnie North to Boyeo. In 1898 permission was given to construct an underground room to combat the excessive heat. By 1910 in an unusually wetter year, the school was completely surrounded by water. Children arrived in boats or waded knee-deep (the school closed from September until January). It finally closed in February 1944.

This is essentially the published article submitted by Joan Pickering (Joan Beacom attended Boyeo in the 1930s) in the “Vision and realisation” book. Fortunately the Library also has her book "Tarranginnie Schools" which has a section devoted to the Boyeo school.

The swamp - interesting to park a school near it - in 1909 the teacher Janet McVicar found "the school is almost surrounded by a swamp and the flies and other insects are often so troublesome that the children have to work in a state of torment", she was requesting a wire door & wire windows.

The sagging residence held up by its chimney

The flood of August 1910 led to the school becoming an island, some parents refused to send their children till the water receded. A month later the school closed when the water rose to cover the schoolhouse floor, entered the outlet pipe of the underground tank,polluting it. The water fell at the end of the year, but rose again with February rains. There were several attempts to shift the school but with no agreement, it remained perched on the edge of the swamp.

The rear of the school faces the prevailing winds

At the other extreme - The underground room was requested by the teacher Thomas Posser as his wife and child had found the heat so intense he had been obliged to send them away to Western Port. He proposed to excavate 8' square by 6' deep with wooden steps leading down, a roof of iron with hessian beneath, with a draught pipe, and whitewashed walls. The Department did not object, provided he filled the hole in should he cease teaching at the school.

The heavily raftered roof gives it stability

Like many other small schools Boyeo suffered from bouts of measles, whooping cough and scarletina. The children (with assistance) tended a school garden and trees for Arbor Days (they won the prize for best garden). And finally like most rural schools it succumbed to declining attendance and closed in 1944, and the school building was sold at auction in Kaniva.

The old weatherboard building still sits on a rise above the timbered swamp, part of a Crown Land red-gum reserve. Erected in March 1886 it has stood for 127 years, 63 of them as an abandoned, derelict structure. Its stability must be due to the construction which has the rafters spaced only a couple of feet apart, though how much longer this will be true is uncertain. I spent nearly an hour strolling around the school, peering in through the doors and windows, checking out the bits and pieces strewn around the yard.

Some of the detritus, yes I found its mate about 20 metres away