Site of first school commemorated

By Marjorie Cook

The location of European settlers’ first Wanaka school site, in Templeton St, Albert Town, has been formally acknowledged with a plaque.

Albert Town resident and Upper Clutha engineering identity Ralph Templeton, and his wife Ethel, spent many years lobbying the Wanaka Community Board to acknowledge the site.

Mr Templeton was born in 1930 and died in 2018 aged 87.

He did all his primary schooling at Wanaka School in Albert Town and would tell many stories of his time there, his wife said.

But his project was stalled when former chairwoman Margaret Barrow moved to Mosgiel about 10 years ago.

Mrs Templeton finally saw her late husband’s wish come true last month, when she and present board chairman Simon Telfer unveiled the rock memorial.

"From my point of view, it is a privilege to be here on behalf of Ralph. That was his wish ... he had many, many stories," Mrs Templeton said.

Wanaka-Upper Clutha Community Board chairman Simon Telfer and Ethel Templeton uncover the plaque, which is beside State Highway 6 near Monteith Rd, marking the original site of Albert Town’s first school. Photo: Marjorie Cook

Mr Telfer congratulated the Albert Town Community Association for picking up the project.

"We have to remember as town grows, it is really important we don’t lose touch with the past. This is the foundation on which this community and the wider Upper Clutha community was built on. It is wonderful to have these reminders," Mr Telfer said.

The original school site was surveyed in 1869 and it was known as Wanaka School from 1888 to 1945.

In 1902, the population dropped, the school was closed and classes were taught in the dining room of the Albert Hotel, near the Clutha River.

By 1911, the roll was big enough to move back to the original building and the school remained open until 1945.

In 1956, during construction of the Lake Hawea dam, the school building was removed to Hawea Flat School.

In 1966, it was taken to Wanaka Primary School in Tenby St, Wanaka, and used for education for at least another two decades.

It is now on a farm at Tarras.

Ralph Templeton (seen here as a child, front row, at right) long hoped the original site of Wanaka’s first school at Albert Town would be commemorated with a plaque. His school mates (rear, from left) were Maurice Anderson, Stafford Weatherall, Neil Collings, Alan Anderson, Sheila Templeton, Olive Templeton, Bernard Gunn, Tom Gunn; (front row) Bill Halliday and David Templeton. Photo: Supplied

Bruce Hebbard said his late mother, Ella Hebbard (nee Templeton), went to the school from 1925-1930, when pupils walked from Mount Barker, Mount Brown and Maungawera.

His mother recalled in a 2005 memoir the school was very small, with a porch where the children hung their coats and bags.

There were never more than eight or nine pupils in her day.

There was an organ to accompany singing, and a cast iron potbelly stove with a kettle for pupils to make cocoa.

"The floor was stepped up on three levels with the juniors at the front and the seniors at the back. Our desks were long ones, with a shelf underneath for our books. Up to four pupils could be seated together at these desks on wooden forms with no backs," the memoir reads.