Helen Paton (née Whibley)

On the first morning all the new students, accepted through an entrance exam, gathered in front of this huge building which threw ominous shadows. We were then directed up the front steps and stairs to Brookman Hall for class divisions. In those days there were no orientation tours or ‘meet the teacher days’. Our days seemed to consist of climbing up and down seemingly endless flights of stairs to class rooms, recess and lunch.

During good weather lunch time was spent at the tennis courts, down Frome Road, near the present Dental School – girls one end, and boys at the other. In the hot weather, the girls went to a small shaded area along side the Elder Conservatorium. During wet weather the girls were allowed to dance in Brookman Hall while the boys looked on from the gallery upstairs. Recess was spent standing on the Frome Road corner of the building.

The teachers were not employed by the Education Department but by the School of Mines. They were older but good teachers. The headmaster, Sidney Moyle, taught English to combined girls and boys Leaving classes. In the combined English class of the Leaving year there were three Malaysian boys who generally out-shone us all in English.

In latter years I have been picked by strangers as having been educated at ‘Tech’ by some of my grammar, for example, ‘this item is different from that.’ We had ‘detentions’ most afternoons after school hours. These were generally used to receive regular test results, to do corrections or any ‘catch up’ work.

Other teachers were Miss Jessica Topperwein, Miss Irene Balchin, Miss Greta Crane and Miss McGregor. Miss McGregor was the typing teacher in whose class we bashed away on heavy old Remingtons and L C Smiths with our hands under metal covers. Miss McGregor was of a solid build with auburn hair in a bun. She was the one who could make you shake in your shoes! Up to the Leaving year we had two or three boys in our commercial classes.

I didn’t recognise a photo of Dave Dallwitz³⁰ in the Advertiser in the 1990s as my recollections of him were of a tall, thin, almost gaunt and somewhat serious man in an ‘American khaki’ suit. He took the commercial girls for excursions to the Art Gallery – quite a treat as he was our only male teacher – and quite a change from our bookkeeping and Hansard shorthand rates.

I used to leave home on the 7.45 am bus, change to a trolley bus and arrive home, laden with a heavy case of books, about 5 pm or later. There was a ‘gang’ who travelled to and from each day on the bus and we were generally quite popular with the drivers and conductors.³¹ We had quite a bit of fun but were well-behaved and never ‘reported’ – not like some train travellers! The senior school was allowed to have a social evening in Brookman Hall, after which certain teachers were known to follow groups or couples down the street to Sigalas’ or wherever to see who went home with whom! While we were a segregated school, many romances blossomed. Some married and still are – 40 or 50 years on!

We had no ‘extra curriculum’ activities and no ‘tuck shop’. There were sports teams but those participating were frowned upon as they sometimes had to miss a class to travel to the venue. The final two lessons on Fridays were our sports periods which meant carrying heavy cases down to the tennis courts then back up Frome Road to Rundle Street or to the train station.

Homework consisted of four subjects a night except for Wednesdays when we had only two. Fridays usually meant heavier loads for the weekend. One hour per subject was expected during the week with two on weekends. The times were to be entered in our diaries and signed by parents and teachers. We had weekly tests and yearly exams. The public exams were held at Wayville where we had to travel to by tram from Victoria Square. Formal lessons continued through to the last day of term and I don’t remember teachers having ‘non-contact’ days or us having days off. The school had a very good reputation and the students gained very good results. Any ‘extra’ activities were held in our own time. For example the music and photographic clubs were held at lunch time.

Dave Dallwitz could not be induced to play for us but he did concede to play an accompaniment for an annual concert item when each class had to present one. There were regular whole school singing classes in Brookman Hall under the direction of Reg Bowman and Elsie Woolley. We even ‘cut’ a record. The girls also pranced around Brookman Hall in our junior navy blue pleated, wide-legged shorts doing Dalcroze Eurhythmics.³² The annual sports day was another ‘highlight’ when we got to wear ‘those’ shorts, play tunnel ball and cheer on those wonderfully athletic boys.

We all knew our school ‘War Cry’

Warrigarooma, Warrigarooma, Warrigarooma, Roo,
Techs we are, techs we are, hurrah for the gold and blue
At football, cricket, tennis, we play the game right through
Tech School, Adelaide, hurrah for the gold and blue!

Our annual magazine consisted of reports and items by students, photographs, sports teams, school and public examination results. The back cover was for autographs.

The commercial class had one excursion which was held during our Intermediate year which was a trip across to Port Lincoln on the SS Minnipa and back by bus. On this study tour with Miss Balchin we all fell in love with the bus driver. Miss Balchin was of petite build with a cute little mouth. She wore her hair in a bun and minced along in little steps on high heels with a somewhat coy look about her. She saw her students as individuals. About 10 years after leaving school I saw her in town one day; she called me by name and spoke about many of our class by name.

Miss Topperwein was a dear – a little eccentric. She lived in a big, old castle-style house with a turret at Mount Lofty. She talked of her white and black terrier as ‘the aristocrat of the doggy world’ and had a habit of finishing her sentences with ‘for it’. Shorthand rates were often interrupted as a phrase reminded her of something that she proceeded to tell us about. She taught us what she called ‘association of ideas’ which has, at times, been a bother as it makes it difficult for the mind to ‘turn off.’ She wore a grey and white suit with a false ‘dickie’ blouse front pinned on with large safety pins, made obvious as she frequently flipped the jacket open as though trying to pull it up on her shoulders. She also wore a black coat tied at the waist with binder twine.

The subjects were compulsory English, arithmetic, shorthand, typing, bookkeeping, geology up to Intermediate and taught by Mr Haskard and domestic science to sub-Intermediate where we did cooking and laundry under Miss Doyle. We also participated in the annual demonstration night for the School of Mines. Until 1950 the Leaving Certificate was attained in three years with the boys’ technical classes going on to a Leaving Honours year. After that date the Leaving took four years. Not many girls went beyond Intermediate. There were only 10 girls in our Leaving class.

There was strict adherence to the school uniform of navy, box-pleated uniform, white blouse with blue and gold striped tie, navy jumper and flannel blazer with navy velour hat for winter and navy dress with white collar and cuffs and straw hat for summer. The boys wore grey suits, the same tie and navy caps. We had school prefects. Generally students took pride in attending ATHS and old scholars speak endearingly of their years there.

Our teachers commanded a healthy respect from us. There were no student counsellors, no United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, no Equal Opportunity Commission and I’m sure we were all better for it and certainly better educated – even if a little is slipping now.

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