Pittwater Life November 2023 Issue

Times Past
Barrenjoey High School memories
When Barrenjoey High School
opened in 1968 there were
almost a quarter of a million
students engaged in secondary school
education under the new Wyndham
Scheme. The first school magazine, produced
in 1971 and called ‘Kulka’, named
the 751 students who attended that year.
The Government Architect’s Office
helped to alleviate the pressing problem
of increasing student numbers using
what were called ‘doughnut buildings’,
with Michael Dysart as the brainchild.
They were usually sited around a central
area creating a large open space but, as
some students recalled, they created
a cold wind tunnel effect, especially
in winter. Apparently Dysart hadn’t
anticipated the prevailing sou-easterlies
of Avalon Beach sufficiently and one
ex-student recollected: “The wind would
blow off the ocean between the headland
and Avalon Beach sandhills but we
wouldn’t lower the hems on our uniforms
for anything.”
There are times when the history of an
event is best recounted by those present
as prime sources. Here are some recollections
to stir the memories.
“I remember jumping off the first floor
into the fibreglass insulation bags when
it was being built. We were so itchy after
the bags split open and the fibreglass got
into our skin.”
“We initially lived in Elaine Avenue
right behind the school and when
construction started and the pile driver
began thumping its way to bedrock, the
shudder was deafening.”
Up to eight students used to ride to
school and one student recalled “the
horse paddock gate would be ‘accidentally’
left unlatched at lunch time. Then,
shock, horror… classes would notice that
the horses had escaped, requiring students
to rush out of class to rescue the
THROUGH THE YEARS:
BHS after construction
in 1968; a recent aerial
which shows clearly
the squared ‘donut
design’ by Dysart; the
striking cover a 1974
issue of ‘Kulka’.
horses”. Another recalled “several horses
jumped the barricade in the mood of
a stampede and the other horses just
ploughed through it. They formed a herd
of around seven horses clattering down
Tasman Road”.
Milton Brown, one of the teachers, was
a member of the NSW School Surfing
Association and after intense lobbying of
the Department of Education from 1976
to 1980, managed to have Barrenjoey
High School declared the first school
to have surfing officially approved as
a school sport. As a consequence, one
recollection claimed that “not everyone
who entered the cross country through
he sandhills returned, they got lost in
the surf.”
Another recalled that “some boys
would go for a surf at lunch and return
covered in sand – if they returned at all”.
TIMES PAST is supplied by local historian
and President of the Avalon Beach
Historical Society GEOFF SEARL. Visit
the Society’s showroom in Bowling
Green Lane, Avalon Beach.
Times Past
The Local Voice Since 1991
NOVEMBER 2023 79