LETTER TO ALAN T REES

from Eleanor Lello Daniel

33 Wattle Road

Hawthorn, Vic 3122

28 March l990

Dear Mr Rees

My daughter, who was recently travelling around Tasmania, brought me back a copy of your fine book "One Hundred Years of Education" about the Strahan Public School. I am a Queenstowner and had several years of association with Strahan, so I thought you might like to have some of my memories and add them to the school archives.

The first article I seized on was about the era of a head-teacher in the 1920's, Mr. George McPhail. You had found a photo of his football team, but I was disappointed to see that there was no picture of my baseball team¹. On one memorable occasion, Mr. McPhail and I took our teams around several small towns and we were all billetted at the homes of our rivals. I am enclosing a copy of my baseball team studio photograph, which you might like to see.

I also read the booklet written by H. E. Bates, describing his time as head teacher in more modern times and am glad to say that Strahan was a quieter and cleaner place to live in when I was there. I am glad to know that Mr. F. O. Henry's lovely mansion² is still there, opposite the school. I had the pleasure of making several trips on his beautiful yacht The Valkyrie.

My first visit to Strahan was in 1906, when there was a measles epidemic in Queenstown, so my father and another man packed their families off to stay in a furnished cottage at the top of the hill in Strahan – behind the banks, Hamer's Hotel and the quay. These two families of young children had a wonderful time, playing around on the rather wet boggy area of mossy land. Once I was sent to buy bread, but I dropped a precious shilling into a clover patch on the road-side. I loved small flowers and was looking for clover blossom, when I lost the coin. Never before or since was a clover patch so thoroughly searched – to no avail!

One night my brother Tommy, aged eight, was missing at bed-time. My mother was quite distracted and walked miles looking for him, searching the water front and the few streets that then existed. No Tommy! However he turned up at last at ten o'clock, quite well and excited. It seems there was a pilot boat at the wharf and the pilot took him out to the Heads to bring a boat into Strahan harbour.

Years later, in about 1922 (when I was 21 years old) I was appointed to teach at the Strahan School, with Mr McPhail as the headmaster. Phoebe Tabart was the infants teacher and the junior teacher Rhyllis Andrews ("Mick", she was usually called). I stayed at Hamer's Hotel for a while and then moved to Mr. and Mrs. Andrews' rooms, which were over the Bank. There I was very comfortable.

One episode stands out in my memory. Mr. Luttrell, an elderly gentleman, took a party of us on a two-day boat trip in his launch, intending to visit Shelly Beach and the old convict settlement island. Unhappily a big storm blew up and after spending the first night at Settlement Island (with the men on the island and the women and the McPhails' little girl on the boat), the skipper decided to make for the mouth of the Gordon River. There we found some flour left in a wooden shack by lumber workers and we made some dampers to allay our hunger a little. Any other food we kept for little Gwenny McPhail. On this trip were the McPhails, Phoebe Tabart, myself and several others, whom you will see in the enclosed snap taken with the timber cutters. We were kept there for several days by the bad weather and meanwhile the school was kept open by a quick-minded gentleman with the help of Mick Andrews, so that the children were kept busy away from the wharf. I think it was Councillor Kemp – I had his two bright small boys in my class. At last a boat came out of Strahan to guide us back home. When we finally arrived back in Strahan, it was after dark but most of the townsfolk were there to greet us and we were none the worse for the adventure!However, we did have two days' pay docked for our absence!In the photo, you will see the four women standing – Mrs. McPhail, Edie Luttrel, myself Nell Lello and Phoebe Tabart. In the back row behind us you can see Mr. McPhail with his hat on askew!

At that time there were about 250 children attending the school. The light-house at the Heads was managed by a Swedish family named Amundsen, with children who were taught by a correspondence course. Later the two girls were sent to Strahan to further their education and we found those two blond children had received a first class if limited education. Their writing, reading, arithmetic and general behaviour were excellent, which spoke well for their parents

The Andrews girls were very capable with boats and could swim like fish. Mick and I used to go out in a canoe, weather permitting, and often followed in the wake of a steamer. Old men sitting on the wharf would shake their heads and say we would overturn the canoe, but we never did! We adults formed a couple of teams and played hockey; to this my bumpy shins bore witness!

Much later, when I was living in England with my husband and five children, Mr and Mrs McPhail came and stayed with us in Norwich, for part of their long-service leave. It was so good to see them again. Also Mr and Mrs Hughes visited us there. It was Mr. Hughes of Queenstown who was responsible for my becoming a teacher. In 1973, while visiting my married daughter who was at that time in Melbourne, my husband and I travelled around Tasmania and we called in at the Strahan school. We found a smart new building and the young headmaster invited me inside. To him it seemed impossible that I had taught there 50 years before, but he rummaged around and found an old musty register where he saw my name, E Lello, heading the page. What intrigued him most was that some of the children's names existed locally even then. Unhappily during our visit to the area, it rained and rained, as it can on the west coast, and we saw nothing of the lovely area.

By the way, my maiden name, Eleanora Lello, sounds foreign but it is very English³. My family comes from Ludlow⁴ in Shropshire and the name may be a contraction of the town's name. There are members of the Lello family all around Tasmania and some live in Melbourne and Queensland.

I hope you will find these reminiscences of interest and that some time they may be added to the historical records of the Strahan School where I was so happy.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs. Eleanora Daniel