Sir Eric Neal AC, CVO

Governor of South Australia 1996 - 2001

I enrolled at the Thebarton Boys Technical School at Torrensville in 1937, at the age of 12 years. My choice of school was influenced, of course, by my parents as was customary in those days but I was very happy with their recommendation. There seemed to be three groups of secondary schools in the state education system in those days. Central schools which took young people after primary school for two or three years until they usually started work in a range of occupations. These schools gave a general education and taught a wide range of practical subjects.

Then there were high schools, typical of which Adelaide, Unley, Woodville and Norwood stand out. Their courses led to matriculation particularly in those subjects which were pre-requisites for university courses in law, medicine, commerce, but it was appropriate to say that most students would not have gone through matriculation (a four year syllabus) but would have left school after two or three years to be employed in offices, banks, government departments and so on; perhaps continuing tertiary studies at evening classes, or with time off from their employment to attend day lectures.

The third group of secondary schools were the specialised high schools. Adelaide Technical High School located in the building of the South Australian School of Mines and Industries on North Terrace was a great co-educational school with competitive examination for entry, with emphasis on subjects leading subsequently to degrees or diploma courses. Urrbrae Agricultural High School encouraged students who wished to follow a career associated with the land and many students went on to attend Roseworthy Agricultural College, a tertiary level institution.

Thebarton Boys Technical School was of this special group of high schools, and commenced operations in the 1920s. It had an innovative curriculum for those times and seemed to attract high calibre teachers.

My interests at that age lay in matters of construction, of building, of engineering, of maritime construction and I recognise today that my overarching interest was really in management but in those days it had yet to be identified, in Australia at least, as a profession.

At Thebarton Technical in the first year all boys studied English, French or German, mathematics, physics, drawing art, and a range of trade skills, metalworking, carpentry, blacksmithing, machining.

By the end of second year it was becoming clear to the teachers, to the parents, and undoubtedly to the boys as to whom were going to be more successful as tradesmen or draughtsmen, engineers or surveyors but many boys were not able to follow careers of their choice for financial reasons.

Many boys left after second and third years to go into industry while some continued on to fourth year, (matriculation) and went on to The University of Adelaide or to the South Australian School of Mines and Industry. It is important to recognise that there were no Commonwealth Scholarships in those days and that even high schools charged fees for students over the age of 14, and university education had to be paid for so a very high percentage of people qualified as accountants, lawyers, chemists, engineers, surveyors by working during the day and undertaking evening courses at the university or the School of Mines.

I have mentioned that the teachers were of high quality. Art teachers included Dave Dallwitz, and Geoff Mainwaring. Other outstanding teachers I recall were Sid Harvey, T.S.B. Bennett, ‘Curly’ Martin, ‘Taffy’ Pennells, ‘Hoot’ Gibson, Dr Naegeli, and headmaster Cant.

The extra-curricular activities were also important. The school of about 600 boys was organised into six houses, each with a house captain or prefect. In my final year I was elected prefect of Light House.

There were sporting teams and a variety of clubs including cycling and stamp collecting. Teachers seemed to be able to find the time to assist these clubs. For example, Tim Bennett led the cycle club and about six times a year a whole day on Saturday was devoted to leading a score or two of cyclists to places like Mt Bold Reservoir, Outer Harbour, Parafield Airport, Osborne Power Station usually with someone waiting there to show us around.

There was an excellent school magazine which encouraged articles from pupils, and occasional interstate excursions during holidays but lack of money in those days meant that these were not generally well supported. Overseas travel for the average pupil was unheard of!

I still see from time to time former students of Thebarton Technical: Eric Day who went on to become a senior engineer with the former Commonwealth Department of Works and Housing, Mostyn Lower who became at a very early age the City Engineer of Enfield, John Dyer the former Mayor of the City of Charles Sturt, Lance Bertram who, after aircrew service over Europe in World War II, became Works Superintendent of the South Australian Gas Company, Bobby Limb AO, whose interests, even at Thebarton, lay in music and went on to become a television and stage star and Tom Baker who became the first Chief Executive of the Federal Pipelines Commission in Canberra.

My days at Thebarton Technical I recall as happy ones and it seemed to me to provide a very good education even judged by the standards of today.

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