8-13th

November

Yr 10 Exams

14th

November

Students leave for

Desi

15 - 17th

November

Fishing Club @

Tuross

17th

November

Students return from

DESI

18 - 29th

November

Year 10 Work

Experience

20 - 22nd

November

Year 7 2014

22nd

November

Orientation Day

Transition Program

23-24th

November

Shooting @ Bowral

29-30th

November

Prefect Leadership

Camp

2-6th

December

Excursion week

2nd

December

Yr 11 2014

Orientation Day.

Year 10 return from

Work Experience

2-12th

December

Yr 10 Leadership

Program

13th

December

Speech Day 10am

Parents collect

students for Xmas

vacation

2014 Wednesday

January 29th

Students return to

school

Private Mail Bag Telephone: 02 69511500

YANCO NSW 2703 Fax: 02 69557297

Email: yancoag-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Tuesday, 12th November, 2013

Term 4, Week 5

As you sow, so

shall you reap

Yanco Agricultural High School

Newsletter

UPCOMING

EVENTS

Prefects April Worland and Murray Smith presenting cheques to Friends of Luro representative

Mr Eric Hudson ($2000) and Careflight representative Mr John Ebbott ($1500) at the final

luncheon for Year 12.

The YAHS Sheep Showstock team at Royal Melbourne Show with the school’s Reserve

Interbreed Champion Ewe – this is the highest ribbon the school’s sheep flock has

attained in the history of exhibiting sheep.

Highest aggregate GEM scores for Term 3 – top two students from each year group

Yr 7: Bryce Johnston. Yr 8: Alison Treloar, Loren Gregory.

Yr 9: Cody Brown, Deanna Johnston. Year 10: Rebecca Ritchie, Caitlyn Beer.

Year 11: Grace Alexander. Year 12: Courtney Cheers, Lauren Pattison.

(Absent: Zoe Thomas Year 7, Jack Webster Year 11

Worldskills VET in Schools Riverina/Murray Regional Presentations held in Wagga:

Harry Carey, Georgina Murdoch, Teia Oliver and Jack Pippin proudly displaying their medals

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

The HSC is over for another year and the 2013

cohort of Year 12 have left us and many are hard at

work on properties throughout the state with harvest

well under way in the western parts of the NSW.

Speaking with most of them as they left Yanco for

the last time was indeed a great experience and to

see the many aspirations and hopes for the future

was very special. Let‘s hope all their plans come to

be in the very near. A few are taking a gap year but

a large proportion will enter tertiary studies with

some already being accepted into their courses by

early entry. All students agreed the Yanco

experience was something most unique and

although difficult at times something that will

remain with them for the rest of their lives. They all

agree they are better people as a result of the

opportunities and experiences. One indicated to me

that she had taken every opportunity offered to her

over the six years and did not have and regrets and

just loved her time here. There were lots of tears

from many of the students as they moved out and

waved goodbye. Even though all students finished

their exams on Wednesday the last Year 12 finally

made the break on Friday afternoon. We look

forward to compiling the exit data to see where each

one has moved onto it.

The new Head Teacher Agriculture will commence

at Yanco at the beginning of Week 7. The position

will be filled by Mrs Amanda Conley. Mrs Conley

is a highly credentialed agriculture teacher who has

taught at Mt Austin High School in Wagga. She has

extensive knowledge in many areas of agriculture

and we look forward to welcoming her to Yanco.

Some students who have achieved at a very high

level this term include

Worldskills VET in Schools Riverina/Murray

region

At a recent presentation four of our students

received medals for their efforts in these regional

finals.

Primary Industries

Georgina Murdoch (Year 10) – Gold Medal

Harry Carey (Year 11) – Silver Medal

Jack Pippin(Year 10) – Bronze Medal

Business Services Teia Oliver (Year 11) – Silver medal

It is hoped the our first and second placed students

will have the opportunity to contest the State finals

early next year but there is no assurance these will

be held due to the availability of staff to run such

events in the future.

Mehak Bhangu (Year 7) – NSW State under 15

Girls Cricket representing Riverina – Taree.

Daniel Guilford (Year 7) – Contesting the

Australian Team Roping Championships in

Queensland.

Reid Burley (Year 8) – Acceptance into the

Southern Sport Basketball Academy.

Jordon Burley (Year 11) – Continues his quest to

be selected in the Sydney Roosters Jersey Flegg

team by travelling to Sydney weekly to participate

in training and trials.

Jack Moran-Turner and Harry Carey (both Year

11) – selected to participate in ―Generation 2050:

Project Feed the World‖ at the University of New

England in the first week of December. These

students will be totally sponsored by the University

for this Event.

Erin Goldsworthy (Year 12) – will compete in

New Zealand in the first week of December at the

NSW representative contesting the Australian final

of the Sheep Meat Breeds Junior Judging.

Brittany Whiteley (Year 11) and Royce Johnston

(Year 12) will compete this week in New Zealand at

Canterbury Show representing NSW in junior

judging for in Beef Cattle.

Keejana Zhang-MacKellar (Year 12) has been

accepted into the ‗Latitude Volunteering Program‘.

She will spend four months in China commencing

in February, volunteering to teach conversational

English to secondary and tertiary students.

The Drum Corp has played at this last weekend‘s

Leeton Bands Spectacular with great success and

was the lead in group for the Kapooka Band which

was great news.

Our livestock teams have had fabulous success this

term with Cootamundra Show being a real

highlight. This show was a qualifier for Junior

Judging in many areas trying to qualify for Sydney

next year. All four teams participated – sheep,

cattle, poultry and equine. Yanco won the schools

team event for most successful school in Junior

Judging – winning the Southern Weekly Shield for

Overall Champion School in Junior Judging

Competitions for the seventh time since 2001. This

is a fine achievement.

At Albury Show the cattle, equine and poultry

teams again had great success with many

champions. The final show of the season was at

Holbrook with both the equine and poultry teams

competing and being very successful. Well done to

all involved and special thanks to the staff involved

as without their efforts and time given these

opportunities would not be available to our

students.

Next week sees our Transition Program take place.

This has been an enormous undertaking and I would

like to recognise the work of the team, led by Lisa

O‘Brien, who has made this happen. Having read

the program it is a mammoth undertaking and with

incoming students from Years 8, 9 and 10 joining

the previous run group of new Year 7s it will be all

go from the Tuesday to Friday, with the two groups

having parallel programs running at the same time.

Thank you in anticipation for the parents that will

be joining us over these few days. To see the

students entering years 8, 9 and 10 being part of the

program for the first time completes the initiative

that the school commenced four years ago and has

been so successful in improving our retention rates.

New Year 11 students for 2014 will have their

leadership program over the last two weeks of term

after the Year 10 students complete their work

experience or work placement. The school looks

forward to a great week with our new families

coming on board.

I would like to thank all parents for using the

exemption forms indicating students will be away.

The guidelines for granting these exemptions are

very clear and not being at school in order to work

at home is not among the reasons acceptable. I will

be circulating a letter of explanation to all parents in

the next week or so. I hope this will explain the

situation as I have had to not grant some requested

exemptions of late and now have a very clear

direction from the DEC after a period of

consultation. Having the exemption requests arrive

on the day the student is leaving does make it

difficult and I would request parents complete the

request, if possible, at least 2 weeks prior to the

commencement date. Any exemptions not granted

will go down in the attendance register as

unjustified leave. If you have any concerns please

don‘t hesitate to contact me at the school. I would

also request giving adequate explanations for these

exemptions so that parents don‘t need to be called

which costs more time.

Parents and students need to be aware that

exemptions from school do not give exemptions

from assessment tasks. This particularly applies to

Years 10, 11 and 12. Students not able to complete

their tasks on the due date will need to complete

misadventure appeals if they are going to receive

marks for that task. This policy is very clearly

explained to Years 11 and 12 and fully explained in

the assessment guide.

Last week the ‗Rural and Remote Education‘ paper

– ‗A Blueprint for the Future‘ was released by our

minister. After reading the documents it is unclear

how this will affect Yanco. It is great to see the

initiatives with early learning and younger students

and I fully endorse these as it is these early years

which format much of the learning in later years,

especially the love of learning. I would hope Yanco

has access to the ‗virtual school‘ as this could be

important in assuring our curriculum choices are

kept broad. Unfortunately Yanco is only classified

as a 1 point school and the surrounding government

schools have a much larger point scores. The

Principals of the Griffith area, which includes us,

are already talking about the future and working

together and I full endorse this initiative and

standing alone and continually reinventing the

wheel is not something we can continue to do.

We have recently received our proposed RAM

(Resource Allocation Model) for 2014. It is slightly

higher than 2013 funds but most of this is the on

costs of 19 ½% to support casual relief. In the long

run we really are only a small school and funding

does reflect that. Up to now the hostel has

contributed over $100,000 to support education in

the school on a yearly basis or about 28% of the

dollars spent on education in the school. The

greatest concern is that utilities funds allocated is

only about 14% of the actual cost which again will

place more pressure on the hostel. We have had

indicated to us the hostel funding for 2014 will

again have the reduction of about $160,000 so

much thought is going into planning for next year

but there will be reductions as we must make wise

decisions to continue our present programs which

we will do.

The total indigenous and equity funding in the

RAM is only $26000 which is disappointing. The

equity funding is based on the FOEI (Family

Occupation and Education Index). This is filled in

on the student enrolment form. Unfortunately we

have 80 families who have not completed this

component of the form and this has disadvantaged

our future funding. Those families are presently

receiving letters of request to complete the

information and return urgently so we can complete

the data on the school systems prior to the DEC

next harvesting the data which we think will be

prior to the end of term. When completing this data

it is important that parents accurately complete as

our equity funding is dependent on this data. The

lower the parent final education status and selecting

employment from the groups 3 and 4 the higher our

final funding. If you receive this letter please

complete urgently and return to the school. It is

most important.

The other area that the school will request support is

that if you are not intending to send your son or

daughter back to Yanco (Year 12 excepted) in 2014

could you please notify the school as soon as

possible. The school policy is that 4 weeks‘ notice

must be given and this will be enforced. Sometimes

this is not possible due to urgent family issues and

the school is most understanding of this. For 2014

we have very long waiting lists in most years and it

is most unfair as we need to consider those on

waiting lists and ensure they have enough time to

organise their entry into the school.

The year is drawing to a close quickly and

Presentation Day will take place on December 13,

commencing at 10.00 am in the Roxy Theatre in

Leeton. I hope to see all parents present to help

celebrate a wonderful year at Yanco.

A VISIT FROM AN OLD YANCONIAN –

LAURIE DICKER

On 24th Oct a group of year 11 students including

the prefect body and a few staff members were

lucky enough to spend the evening in the company

of old Yanconian and author of ‗We are

Yanconians‘, Laurie Dicker. Laurie came down

from his home town on the Queensland coast for a

trip back to his childhood hometown of Barellan

and a visit to our school. We started off with dinner

in the dining room at the teachers table where we

spoke to Laurie about our school back in Laurie‘s

day compared to now; Laurie shared stories, and

answered all of our questions about his time at

Yanco Ag.

After Dinner we all headed over to McCaughey

mansion where we sat down to tea and biscuits,

after Laurie pointed out his old sleeping quarters in

McCaughey and told us a few more stories from the

old days, he started a conversation on Leadership.

Laurie spoke about what it takes to become a good

leader and he gave us his four key element of

leadership; Power, Authority, Status, and Influence.

Laurie asked us questions where we identified areas

of strength in our leadership abilities, and also

pointed out some areas where improvement was

needed. I found Laurie to be a very inspirational

speaker, and I learnt a lot from his wise words. I

have no doubt that every one of us in that room

learnt something that day, whether it was about

leadership, communication, problem solving, old

Yanco traditions or the mischief that the old Yanco

Boys used to get up to. It was an absolute privilege

to meet Laurie, and I hope that he will be able to

return in the future so he can inspire more future

leaders of our school.

Jessica Power

MELBOURNE ROYAL SHOW - CATTLE

Melbourne Royal saw Miss Weller leave for

England and Miss North our music teacher join the

highly awarded cattle show stock team. With yet

another early morning rise we headed down to

Melbourne with 8 head of cattle. A change in the

show timetable saw the animals settle into

Melbourne for a few days before competition

began, which gave both the steers and students

ample time to prepare.

Paraders was the first event to be contested, with

Logan Manwaring, Darcy Booth, and Rebecca

Ritchie all receiving first place. Laura Harris and

Zoe Howe received second place in their respective

heats. Toby Commens and Odette Mara placed in a

close third and Caitlyn Beer and Mitchell Cattle

both received fifth and sixth place.

The following day started off with our live classes

for animals which saw three of our steers being

awarded ribbons. We received two second places

with Limousin steers, one of which was donated by

the Fairley family and the other being bred by

YAHS. Panda an Angus X Simmental steer that

was donated by Hardy Family, based at Tarcutta

was judged 5th on the hoof.

On the last morning all the boys got up at 2:30am

to load out the animals on to the truck, heading to

the abattoirs. The animals hung up well with a

shorthorn steer from Nagol Park Shorthorns scoring

over 90 points and was

awarded 2nd place in the

medium domestic section.

Our own Limousin steer,

Big Wheels placed third in

the Export section, which

is a great achievement.

A big Thank you to Miss

North for joining our team

and being a great cook, you

are welcome any time.

To Mr Collins we

appreciate your time

and dedication to the

team. Also many thanks

to the supporters of our

cattle show stock team

who donated animals,

those being the Hardy

Family, Nagol Park

Shorthorns, Fairley

family, Kingsley Vale

Shorthorns and Yarrandabbie Herefords, without

your support none of this would be possible.

ROYAL MELBOURNE SHOW - SHEEP

SHOWSTOCK REPORT

This year we took six students and seven sheep to

the Royal Melbourne Show. The students were

Zachary Liley, Max Booth, Simon Miller, Chantelle

Gorman, Emma Gale and Will McLean.

The show was over the first three days of the school

holidays. We all received placings and ribbons in

the School‘s competition, where we had to judge

Short and Long Wool Meat Breeds of Sheep and

Junior Handling. We did extremely well with our

White Suffolk ewes, winning several first places

and the Champion and Reserve Champion ewes.

The Champion ewe went on to compete in the

Interbreeds, against some of the top studs in

Australia. This ewe, number 12093, handled by

Emma Gale, won the Reserve Champion Interbreed

ewe, narrowly beaten by a superb Poll Dorset ewe

from Armdale Park. This earned us a prize of $250,

and overall it was the best prize the sheep team has

ever received. We also came second in the School‘s

Competition and second in the School‘s Best

Maintained Team.

The students had comments from the public on how

well dressed and polite they were. We led out the

show rams and ewes to let kids and tourists pat

them, take photos and ask us questions about the

sheep and the school. During the show, when

weren‘t showing our own sheep we helped other

breeders prepare and show their sheep in the arena

which we all enjoyed.

The sheep show stock kids thanked Mrs Quinn and

Ms O‘Brien with flowers and presents for taking

them to the show and for devoting their time for us,

it is greatly appreciated.

Emma Gale and Will McLean

MELBOURNE SHOW - CLYDESDALES

On Saturday 28th

of September, during the holidays,

my mum and I travelled down to Melbourne Royal

Show to show the two school Clydesdales, Tess and

Georgina. On Sunday was the parade which I just

had to lead Georgina around with all the other

Clydesdales in the show arena. It came to Monday

when I had to lead Tess in her class which was

Mare in Foal; she placed 6th

. There was Georgina‘s

class in the

afternoon, the

class was

called ―3 years

old‖; she

placed 3rd

. On

the Tuesday

we didn‘t have

any events but when it came to the Wednesday we

had to get ready for Tess‘s ―Driven‖. In the Driven

Handler class I placed 3rd

and in the Mare Driven

Tess won that class. Once all the excitement was

over we had to quickly help pack up the truck, say

our goodbyes then travel back home.

Erika Quinn

Toby Commens

Pictured is Gerald Spry (Sprys Shorthorns)

congratulating Yanco on their success at the Shorthorn

Youth Expo – Photo courtesy of Clear Vision Imaging

The Shorthorn Youth Expo Team

SHORTHORN HEIFER SHOW

On the last weekend of the Term 3 School holidays

a group of 7 students and Mr Collins took time out

of their holidays to attend the 2013 Shorthorn

Heifer show in Cootamundra, with our team

consisting of 5 heifers and one steer. The weekend

was great fun and a huge success for the students

and cattle coming away with multiple awards.

Every student received a ribbon; Toby Commens

winning 1st in his class and Champion Intermediate

Parade; Odette Mara receiving 2nd in her Paraders

class; Keiley Obrien came 1st in her Paraders class;

Andrew Thorn received a highly commended;

James Littlehales received 3rd place; Darcy Booth

received a

High Accolade

being an

encourage-

ment award

and Brittany

Whiteley came

5th

place in

Intermediate

Junior Judging.

The weekend culminated in Yanco being awarded

Champion School, which was a huge honour with

the prize being a

registered stud Heifer

donated by Spry‘s

Shorthorns. Overall the

weekend was a huge

success and the

students enjoyed a

great weekend before

their return to school.

NATIONAL SHORTHORN YOUTH EXPO -

COOTAMUNDRA

Yanco Agricultural High School students recently

travelled to Cootamundra to attend the 27th

National

Shorthorn Youth Expo. Yanco had a successful

weekend with students participating in a range of

activities from Paraders to Junior Judging. Our

students performed well on an individual basis with

a number of ribbons being awarded, particularly to

Toby Commens being crowned Champion

Intermediate Parader. The students also performed

well as group with the weekend culminating in

Yanco Agricultural High School being awarded

Champion School, which was calculated as an

aggregate of our student‘s individual performance

from all activities throughout the show. This was an

outstanding achievement from our students with the

prize being a registered short-horn stud heifer

kindly donated by Sprys Shorthorns, Wagga

Wagga.

Mr Collins, Toby Commens and Darcy Booth

Prefects demonstrate teamwork, communication and

balancing ability on some low ropes.

PREFECT CAMP REPORT

It was Wednesday 16th

of November when the

newly elected prefect body left for the first

instalment of prefect camp as we travelled far, far

away, to the Wagga Scout Camp. Well it‘s not that

far away but it took a lot of time as Mr Press

purposely and frustratingly took the longest

possible route. Upon arrival we worked late into the

night cooking our meal, half of which Dustin burnt

onto the barbeque, and unpacking Mr Press‘s vast

array of leadership materials and technological

aides. An anonymous member of the prefect body

(Stephen) also discovered that is always, always

helpful to pack a towel and toiletries when going

away from school.

After our meal of barbequed chicken on Wednesday

night, we begun the process of learning how to be a

good prefects as we brainstormed our opinions

about why there should be a prefect body at YAHS

and what we thought a good prefect should do, as

well as what we thought the roles of the captains,

vice-captains and prefects were. There were many

complaints when Joshua took his turn at being

scribe but these brainstorms inspired a never ending

train of thought as all of us went to bed considering

the ideas thrown up by other prefects and the staff.

Thursday saw us continuing on from the previous

night discussions as well as the commencement of

Mrs Rolfe‘s human statue and minute speech games

which were very difficult as they could be on

anything your fellow prefects found interesting. Mr

Press gave us a task involving a partner and a short

rope held by each partner which they had to

untangle without becoming disconnected from the

rope. This was to test our problem solving skills and

certain members of the prefect body still found this

particularly challenging even after the activity was

fully explained by Mr Press himself. After our

lunch break we did some of the team-building and

leadership activities that were placed around the

scout camp, that is to say the activities that weren‘t

old and broken. These built up our team work and

communication skills as well as showing us who

had the best balance, who could hold someone on

their shoulders and who could best fit through a

human sized spider web. Thursday evening saw us

organising our meal for Friday night which we were

to have in Wagga. This frustrating process which

had the staff with us making sure we had every

single little detail organised eventually took one

hour. Although this may seem like a long time

apparently the record is 4.5 hours so we did pretty

well in our opinion.

The 2013 Prefect body:

Joshua Beer Grace Alexander

Steven Butler Zoe Dunn

Dustin Manwaring Melanie Guttler

Lachlan Pellow Lilly Serafin

James Rapley Brittany Whiteley

BARELLAN HEAVY HORSE

MURRUMBATEMAN FIELD DAY

A visit from the NSW Mounted Police

Former Yanconian, Richard Post, talks about old times with

Thomas Kimpton

Tom gets a kiss

Tom gets held up

Grace admires the rugs

Horse tricks

Let’s talk horses

Chris and Montana with a

special friend

YEAR 11 BIOCLIP EXCURSION TO HAY

On Tuesday the 29th

of October Mr Collins and Mrs

Quinn took their Year 11 Agriculture classes on an

excursion to ―Warrendale‖, a property near Hay,

owned by Ian and Stacey Lugsdin. We were going

to spend the day learning about Bioclip. Bioclip is

an innovation in

wool harvesting by

Heiniger, where the

sheep are injected

with a protein and

fitted with a net, and

the injection causes

the wool to break.

After six weeks of

having the net on, the sheep are then brought back

to the wool shed for the harvesting of their wool.

Ian and Stacey Lugsdin invited us over to watch

and help with the harvesting the wool from their

weaner lambs.

Some of the students, and occasionally Mr Collins,

worked in the yards pushing the lambs up and into

the Bioclip trailer, where more students were

stationed to roll

the lambs into

the cradles

where all the

action was

happening. At

the two stations

the nets were

cut and re-

moved from the lambs, the fleeces and lambs were

weighted and each lamb checked for impurities and

given a wrinkle/skin score. Ian and Stacey

explained that the reason they use Bioclip on their

weaners is to class and

breed sheep with flat

skins, and high density,

pearly white wool with

a high comfort factor,

and to cull out any

sheep with black spots.

Any sheep that don‘t

meet the standards are

removed from the wool

breeding program and

used for breeding

prime lambs instead.

We all took turns at removing the fleeces. Those

who weren‘t removing the fleece from the sheep

were, with the

help of Ian and

Stacey, removing

the fleece from the

net and pressing

the wool.

The whole process

was pretty mind

blowing as Bioclip

was a new experience to all of us and we all learnt a

great deal from our excursion to Hay. Hopefully the

Lugsdins will have

the Year 11 classes

over again next year

so they can also be

blown away by this

strange technology

called Bioclip. I

would like to say a

big thank you to Ian

and Stacey for having

us over and teaching

us all about Bioclip, it

was a great hands-on

experience and I think every one of us came back to

school a little more educated than we were the day

before.

Jessica Power.

Emma Cullen

Abbie Hurst, Hannah Kolve

and Loren Gregory

Loren Gregory & Hayley Dowling

Jake Smyth &

Rose Nevinson

Cameron Saul

Jack Moran-Turner

NO FOWL FOR DIXIE CHICKS

The Poultry Show

Team has had another

very successful term

competing at the

Leeton, Junee and

Cootamundra Shows.

There were many

firsts and seconds at

the Leeton Show but

unfortunately the team could not bring as many

chickens to Cootamundra due to a trailer shortage.

The major results for Leeton were:

• Champion Junior (Emma Cullen) and Junior

Bird (Gertrude)

• Champion Soft feather Bantam Male (Cyril)

• Champion Soft feather Bantam Female

(Cuddles)

Cootamundra was the

most successful show

of the year with the

Poultry Team winning

Champion and Reserve

Champion Bird in

Show. The results

were:

• Champion Bird in Show (Superman)

• Champion Soft Feather Bantam Male

(Superman)

• Reserve Champion Bird in Show (Hercules)

• Champion Soft Feather Large (Hercules)

• Reserve Champion Soft Feather Large

(Gertrude)

• Champion Breeding Pair (Pip and Lucy)

A special thankyou goes to Peter Irvine for his

experience and help with our Old English Game

Bantam.

COOTAMUNDRA SHOW

On Friday 18th October,

Poultry, Cattle and Sheep

Show teams travelled to

Cootamundra to participate

in junior judging qualifying

events for Sydney Royal

Show in 2014. Judging

categories included Fruit

and Veg, Merino, Fleece,

Beef Cattle and Grain.

Those who qualified were

Laura Harris, Caitlyn

Beer, Jack Moran-Turner,

Breanna Carr, Adele

Ruigrok and Rose

Nevinson. Students who

qualified for cattle

paraders on the Saturday

were Hayley Fairfull, Troy

Kylstra, Odette Mara,

Caitlyn Beer and Logan Mainwaring.

After a freezing night,

the show teams got up

at a more reasonable

hour, with poultry,

sheep and cattle being

penned, paraded and

judged.

The Poultry Show

Team won Champion

Soft Feather Bantam

Male and Best Soft

Feather in Show with

Rosecomb, Cyril, as

well as Champion Soft

feather Bantam Female

with white Pekin Cuddles. The Sheep Show Team

received Champion White Suffolk Ram, Ewe and

Ram Lambs.

The Cattle Show

Team won

Champion with

their Shorthorn

Cow.

Reports by Breanna Carr

COOTAMUNDRA SHOW

YAHS SHEARING

A & G ENGINEERING OPEN DAY

On the 16th of

October 2013,

23 of Yanco

Ag‘s best and

brightest, along

with ‗Careers-

Advisor-in-the-

making‘ Mr

Cassilles, took a trip to Griffith for A & G Group‘s

open day. A & G - Griffith is a huge operation,

encompassing a John Deere dealership, an

engineering division, and a retail sector. The

engineering section is also responsible for

manufacturing tanks for the local wineries, up to 3

million litres in capacity.

Flavour Tech is also owned by A & G, and again

based in Griffith. They design, build, and

commission favour extraction machines to be sent

all over the world.

On arrival, the group were taken for a tour around

the engineering site, and saw the amazing computer

controlled machines the workshop has to offer. The

whole production line can be controlled from a

laptop, from the

machine that

unrolls the

stainless steel,

the plasma

cutting bay, and

even the

welding bay.

The result is

consistent,

quality results. Next up was ‗FlavourTech.‘ The

intricate electrics, pipe-work and mechanics of the

flavour extracting machines had the students in awe

of the engineering genius required in their design

and manufacture.

The John Deere dealership was next, and students

were taken through the frontline retail section and

the machine monitoring section where information

is sent from all John Deere machinery in the area to

the central net-work at the dealership. A tour of the

parts inventory was to follow, before a tour of the

maintenance workshop. This was followed the

customary sausage sizzle, before embarking on the

trip back to school.

Overall a great day was had by all students involved

and I am sure A & G Engineering will be on the

radar for some

students‘ future

career plans.

Written by

Steven Butler

Safer Divers Course

This Safer Drivers Course has been designed by the Roads and Maritime Services (formerly the RTA) to establish safer driving practices for learner drivers under 25 years old who already have 50 hours real driving experience.

It will assist young learner drivers to: - Improve their own levels of safety when

driving, by learning how to manage road safety risks. - Increase current driving skills and acquire new ones through a combination of classroom learning and practical supervised instruction from a professional driving instructor.

After the successful completion of module one and two of the course the learner will receive a twenty hours reduction in their log book (from 120 hours to 100 hours).

NRMA Safer Driving is facilitating this course on the following dates. November 14th and December 5th. The course will be held at the Leeton Shire Library for a total cost of $140. Course numbers are limited to twelve people with a minimum of nine people required to run the course. For further information and booking visit the NRMA Safer Driving website at: http://www.nrmasaferdriving.com.au or visit the NRMA office.

Darcy Booth

Steve Burrows

PRIMARY INDUSTURIES – “KOOBA

STATION”

During Terms 3 and 4

students studying Primary

Industries have had the

opportunity to take part in

industry visits to nearby

Kooba Station to

undertake livestock

handling skills and to

complete competencies.

The students found this to

be a positive learning

experience, with state of the art facilities and a

strong focus on their business objectives.

Through visiting Kooba

to help draft, mark and

move cattle, our students

are being exposed to

range of industry

practices and personnel.

The techniques they learn

are key to them being

able to transition into the

workforce easily. We

look forward to a

continued partnership with Kooba Station and the

benefits that this provides to our students.

KIDZFIX CAR RALLY

On the 16th

on

September the

Kidzfix Car Rally

came to school. The

rally was a

fundraiser for

critically injured

children and they

were driving from

Bathurst to Temora via

Broken Hill. We were

supposed to have a BBQ

out on the front lawn of

McCaughey but the

weather wasn‘t nice for

the occasion with it

raining so we just

had lunch up in top

McCaughey. They

were all very

friendly people

from the city that

were interested in

our country lives.

There were twenty cars all up that came and they

were all painted and fancied up. We were very

fortunate that we were part of their rally. They also

gave the school a donation that we were very

thankful for.

Deanna Johnston, SRC Representative

ALBURY SHOW – EQUINE

On Saturday November 2nd

at around 5am Paul,

Sheri and Courtney left the school with three

horses, to compete at

the Albury Show. First

we had the Lead

Classes and were very

successful with a 2nd

and 1st place from

Courtney leading

Wallawest Kaos and

Sheri Leading Willow

Crest Dreams. Rayma

Justa Doll received

2nd

place, a 1st place

and overall Open Lead

Champion. In the breed ring she achieved a 1st and

another Champion. We then had the Ridden

Classes and received a 3rd

place in the Stockhorse

Hack, 2nd

in the Stockhorse Working and 1st in the

Junior Stockhorse Hack (working with Courtney

and Wallawest Kaos). In the Open and Breed Rings

Rayma Justa doll was 1st in her Open Hack Ridden

then Reserve Champion Ridden Hack. Willow

Crest Dreams won Best Novice pony and 1st in her

Open Ridden Pony and then was Reserve

Champion Ridden Pony. Overall we had a great day

and would like to thank Paul Bandy.

By Courtney Stubberfield and Sheri Hammet

Meg Potter and Adam Saul with Mr Gifford

THE AUSTRALIAN MATHEMATICS

COMPETITION 2013

On the 4th August 2013, 181 Yanco Agricultural

High School students entered the Australian

Mathematics Competition, one of the world‘s great

competitions.

Students were treated to a smorgasbord of

Mathematics, testing their knowledge in fields such

as arithmetic, geometry, algebra, calculus,

combinatorics, probability, sequences, series and

topology.

In an eventful hour and fifteen minutes, students

watched a gripping game of hockey, watched on in

horror as Earth collided with the Moon; they

listened to Dan lie about a two digit number and

visited a Llama and Alpaca ranch in Peru. Along

the way they learnt a lot about Mathematics and,

indeed, themselves.

Students who achieved a Credit Award were placed

in the top 50% of the candidature Australia wide.

Congratulations to the 31 students who achieved

this level.

Credit Awardees:

Year 7:

Cameron Saul, Mehak Bhangu, Jayden Pippen, Zoe

Thomas, Daniel Kimpton, Daniel Guilford, John

Mullins, Michael Bensley, Bryce Johnston, Brianna

McAuliffe, Will Barnes, Annabella Thorpe.

Year 8: Charlotte Butt, Matthew Young, Zac Saddler

Year 9:

Chelsea Pratt, Kymberley Brain, Matt Guttler,

Cambell McMaster, Grace Armour, Amber Arthur,

Justin Bolam, Liam James

Year 10: Breanna Carr, Natalia Henderson, Sarah Oost,

Colleen Head, Phoebe Priestley

Year 11: Grace Alexander, Steven Butler, Brody Macdonald

Students who achieved a Distinction Award were

placed in the top 15% of the candidature Australia

wide. A special congratulation is extended to Meg

Potter (Year 10) who was successful at this level.

An excellent level of achievement was awarded to

Year 11 student Adam Saul who was been

recognized with a High Distinction Award, this

level of achievement placed Adam in the top 2% of

the candidature Australia wide. This is a truly

momentous achievement from a talented young

Mathematician. Well done Adam!

For those of you playing at home, the final question

from the Senior Division paper this year was

presented as follows:

“An acute-angled triangle lies in the plane such

that the coordinates of its vertices are all different

integers and no sides are parallel to the coordinate

axes. If the triangle has area 348 and one side of

length 29, what is the product of the lengths of the

other two sides?”

Of the tens of thousands of candidates in this year‘s

senior division, not one achieved the correct answer

for this question!

By exposing ourselves to Mathematics, such as in

these competitions, we begin to understand that

Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only

perfect truth, but supreme beauty – a beauty cold

and austere, like that of sculpture.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr

Gifford for his organisation and management of this

year‘s competition, it was conducted under very

trying conditions with students involved in many

different other activities and excursions that were

also running concurrently with the competition day.

Maths Department

YAHS STUDENT RAISING FUNDS FOR

STARLIGHT FOUNDATION

Year 12 Student, Emelia Keenan, is looking for

financial support for her fundraising effort for the

Starlight Foundation.

On December 4th

she will shave her beautiful, long

golden hair for the cause and would sincerely

appreciate your support – no matter how large or

small! If you would like to support Emelia, details

can be found at the following website:

http://makingadifference.gofunraise.com.au/Page/ke

enanE

AUSTRALASIAN TEAM ROPING

Early in September I travelled to Capella in Central

Queensland with my family and four of our best

horses to compete in the Australasian Team Roping

National Finals. I qualified by placing at the

Regional Ropings during the year.

At the National finals I roped in the 7s, 9s and

junior team roping as a heeler. As a heeler my job is

to rope the two back legs after my partner (header)

ropes the steer around the horns. I had a good first

round with a few fast times but had no luck after

that.

After leaving Capella we travelled to Tamworth

where I competed in the Australian Round in the

World Series of Team Roping to defend my 2012

title. Unfortunately the competition was too good

this year and I had no luck there either.

Daniel Guilford

NSW UNDER 15’s CRICKET - TAREE

On Friday 4th

October we left our coach‘s house

around 7:00am and arrived in Taree around 5:30pm.

On Saturday we had our first two matches. The first

match was at 9:00am against East Coast, it was a

35/35 over match and it was a draw.

The second match was at 2:15pm against Illawara

North and was a 20/20. We won this match.

On Sunday we had our second two matches. The

first match was at 9:00am against Central North,

this match was a 20/20. We lost this match but only

just. This match decided who we were playing the

last match with and if we were playing for 1st and

2nd or 3rd and 4th. Since we lost this match we

were playing for 3rd and 4th. Our second match

was a 20/20 against Central North again. We lost by

a few runs and we came 4th in NSW. On Sunday

night we left Taree to go to Port Macquarie to

watch the NSW Women‘s Country Team play

against the NSW Women‘s City Team. NSW

Country won.

We left Port Macquarie around 7a.m. and arrived at

the coach‘s house at 6pm on Monday. My parents

came and took me back to school that night. This

was a great experience for everyone involved.

Mehak Bhangu

VOLUNTEERING IN CHINA 2014

My name is Keejana Zhang-MacKellar and I have

been accepted into the ‗Latitude Volunteering

Program‘ in 2014. I am part of an organisation

called The Smith Family, in which I have a sponsor

who supports me with any needs that I may have

involving my schooling i.e. supplies, uniforms etc.

During Term 3 of school, the coordinator of the

branch of The Smith Family that I fall under

contacted my mum to ask me whether or not I

would be interested in applying for a chance to

volunteer overseas, all expenses paid and all I

needed to do was apply. Let‘s just say I was

interested before I even knew I was interested.

Towards the end of Term 3, I applied to Lattitude:

Global Volunteering for an opportunity to go and

volunteer in China, India or Vietnam. I had the

choice of teaching conversational English in China,

teaching conversational English or sport coaching

in Vietnam or just general volunteering around a

community in India. Being half Chinese, I chose

China as my first preference. During the first week

of the holidays I received an email telling me that I

had been shortlisted and my application had been

submitted into the next stage of the selection

process. A few days later I was called by the co-

ordinator of the Asia/Pacific for Lattitude to set up

my interview time. In the second week of the

holidays I had my interview over the phone and was

told that I would find out if I had been accepted or

not the next week. On the following Monday I

received the email saying that I had been accepted

to volunteer and teach conversational English to

students ranging from secondary school to

university. The placement takes place for four

months starting in February.

YANCO HIGH SCHOOL IN THE 1930’S

By Russ Godden

Introduction

I was born in 1920, a ―Baby Boomer‖ after World

War 1 and reared on a small family farm in the

Tocumwal district. My parents had only received a

Primary School education, but saw to it that each of

their seven children, of whom I was the eldest, had

the opportunity of a Secondary education.

Our local Primary School was a one room, one

teacher weatherboard building set in a two acre

block. Enrolment in my last year had dropped to 11

students.

In those days there were few country High Schools

and Yanco, some 100 miles away, was probably the

closest. In 1931 I was enrolled as a boarder. School

fees were £25 per year. It was not till much later

that I realised how poor we were in the depths of

the depression, and what sacrifice my parents must

have made for me.

School work was hard going, partly I think because

I had lacked competition in Primary School, and

partly because I was almost the youngest in the

class. However, determination eventually paid off.

On gaining the Intermediate Certificate I was

awarded a Scholarship which took me to

Hawkesbury Agricultural College (now a campus of

the University of Western Sydney), and so on to a

career in the Department of Agriculture.

Early Impressions

As I recollect them after 80 years the first was the

magnificent dense line of weeping willows along

the original McCaughey canal from the Euroley

Road to the bridge across it south of the school hall.

The willows were probably at their prime in those

days though the waterway was obstructed by fallen

branches, some of which were growing in the water,

and by the leaf fall of some twenty to thirty years.

McCaughey House was set in what were then very

beautiful grounds with lawns, gardens, trees and

lakes, all superbly maintained. The lawns, as I

learned in due course, were mown with a horse

drawn mower and the main lawn was irrigated from

the brick drain along the driveway. Water level in

the lakes was maintained at a fairly constant level,

which promoted reed growth and a waterfowl

population. The islands were connected by

footbridges. I recall a Norfolk Island hibiscus in

front of the Headmasters residence, lovely lemon

scented Gums on one island and two long pergolas

covered by rambler roses, which I doubt had ever

been pruned. When in flower they were truly

beautiful.

Buildings

McCaughey House remains in my mind an

architectural gem. My first year dormitory was the

large ground floor room at the north east corner. Of

the foyer I recall the staircase and stained glass

window, as well as the oil painting od Sir Samuel.

The dispensary was on the southern side towards

the rear, whilst in the 1935 measles epidemic the

ground floor, south eastern room became a sick bay.

I became one of its occupants.

The kitchen, dining room and Mutch House were

well established. Opposite was a locker room with

the laundry behind it. A little further along the road

was the gymnasium with a boxthorn hedge between

the two buildings. A room in the gym building was

used by one or more senior boys as a barber shop.

I‘ve long since forgotten what they charged!

Dining room furniture comprised tables for the boys

with stools along opposite sides, a ―high table‖ for

teachers and another to one side for field staff. All I

remember of the menu is boiled rice and prunes one

day a week – the rice was a gluey lump, no

absorption method of cooking then! Prunes were

commonly known as ‗depth charges‘. We were

generally healthy so I suppose the diet was

adequate. There seemed to be plenty of bread,

butter, jam and golden syrup. The syrup came in 7lb

tins, which when empty made good ‗billies‘ for tea

making and cooking crays in the bush. A good deal

of bread left the dining room under clothing for

making toast over camp fires.

A footbridge over the canal at the end of the

roadway was replaced in1935 by a bridge for

vehicular traffic. Across from the bridge and over

the road was the blacksmith shop in the corner of a

sports field. A brick paved path along from the

sports filed led to the class rooms.

Four classrooms had originally been station

quarters, each room having once comprised of four

bedrooms. When 4th

and 5th

years commenced they

used what I now presume had been the field staff

kitchen/dining room. A 3rd

year classroom and

chemistry lab had been added to the original

building. It was all a bit primitive by modern

standards. One of the features was the complete

absence of any form of heating or cooling. A few

boys were known to heat bricks after tea on cold

winter evenings to use as foot warmers during prep.

(a regular two hour evening chore on week nights).

To the west of the sports fields was a huge hay

shed. There was a similar one in the vicinity of the

water tower, and both were demolished in 1935.

Material from them was used to build stable etc..

The dairy was west of the hall. I think there were

four or five bails. Hand milking was a new

experience for many city/town boys, until milking

machines were installed probably in 1934.

Further along, near the bung (is that term still used

for the creeks?), was the piggery. Pens ran down to

the bung to provide wallows.

When I arrived at the school the vegetable garden

was located near the water tower. Everything was

done by hand, and I remember how hard the

digging in that heavy soil was for a small boy! It

was probably in 1934 that a new and much larger

site was established to the north of the classrooms,

and horse power replaced some of the manual

labour. As an aside, the Riverina Welfare Farm was

a source of supply of meat and, I think, vegetables.

As a matter of historic interest there were two

earlier homesteads on site then. The original was a

slab hut permanently closed and seemingly

neglected. The second was a substantial

weatherboard building to the south of McCaughey,

which was used as maid‘s quarters and which, of

course, was strictly ‗out of bounds‘. I believe it was

destroyed by fire years ago. My mother had photos

of all three which unfortunately have been lost.

On the riverbank was the remnant of a pumping

station which supplied water for the original Yanco

Station irrigation development. Two quite large

diameter suction pipes remained. Associated with

the pumping installation had been a saw mill, of

which little remained. A short distance along the

riverbank was the Blacksmith‘s cottage. He and his

wife ran a tuckshop at their front fence. As this was

on the way to the school beach it was well

patronised through the swimming season.

Teaching Staff

For my first year the Headmaster was O T (Ollie)

Gardiner, whom I remember as a sort of fatherly

figure. Kindly Mrs. Gardiner ran the dispensary.

They left at the end of that year when he was

promoted to Inspector of Schools in the Mudgee

area (I think).

The new Headmaster was Percy Hindmarsh, who

quickly earned the dislike of many of the boys, and

a very unflattering nickname, for his bullying

manner. As I think back my year seemed to bear the

brunt of his most trenchant criticism. The boys

became particularly critical when he enrolled his

daughter, a lone girl among the boys. I wonder how

she felt? At some stage later he was transferred to

Hurlstone Ag. High School.

I think all members of the teaching staff were single

men at that time. Those I recall were: Edgar Smiles,

who taught Botany and probably Agriculture. He

correctly forecast nearly all of the questions in the

1935 Intermediate Certificate Botany paper. When I

came to Tamworth he was Principal of Farrer

Memorial Ag. High School and I came to know him

afresh. L A (Darky) Proctor taught French (which I

did not do). He was a neighbour when we lived in

Albury and became Principal of Gunnedah High

School in the 1970‘s. F N (Frank) Buckley taught

Maths; I remember him as a stern disciplinarian and

a good teacher. I remember ‗Frosty‘ Monaghan

only because he once gave me ‗six of the best‘,

which I richly deserved and perhaps one of the best

lessons I learnt at Yanco!

Outdoor Staff

If memory serves me correctly K T (Kerry) Thomas

was responsible for farm work. ‗Bluey‘ McBean

was dairyman and left the school on appointment as

Administrator, Lord Howe Island. ‗Sos‘ Kenny was

vegetable gardener and I seem to remember he

smoked an evil smelling pipe. ‗Willy‘ Bible was the

Blacksmith. Short of stature and a no-nonsense

man, he was an artisan as was evidenced by the

ornamental entrance gates made without the

convenience of oxywelding. ‗Paddy‘ Drury was the

gardener – he left for Sydney, but I do not know if

it was on transfer.

Personal Matters

I was not the only boy to experience homesickness,

which did not last long for me. One lad in my

intake, from Berrigan, absconded and was not seen

at the school again.

A continuing embarrassment was the very limited

amount of pocket money my parents could afford to

give me, compared to what others had. I may well

have been thought to be mean.

I soon had a couple of friends, one of whom I

maintained contact with till after the war. Another

was a dubious character and I think left school

early. In my final year I joined with two other boys

in cutting bee colonies out of trees in the bush. (I

had been interested in bees from primary school

days). We collected the honey and strained it in out

lockers, boxed the bees in packing cases and hid

them in secluded places on school grounds.

Towards the end of the year we robbed the hives,

about ten from memory, and then moved them

before the bees had time to settle down again. As a

result they took off in one huge swarm! We had a

spot of trouble with a rival group at one stage, as a

result of which we undertook an after ‗lights out‘

escapade in the bush, and got away with it!

I am no footballer, cricketer or athlete, but I did

learn to play tennis. Swimming was a popular

summer pastime at the school beach, above Euroley

Bridge. It was teacher supervised and I did not hear

of any problems. I was a near casualty though,

before I could swim, by dashing into the water

when the beach contour had changed after a flood

and getting out of my depth. One of the boys saw

my predicament and pulled me out. (Soon after the

war, as a member of the School Council, I was

involved in the first School Fete to raise funds for a

swimming pool).

The river provided the venue for a good deal of

weekend activity. Unauthorised swimming took

place upstream and well away from prying eyes.

Fishing and walking upstream and down were

popular recreations in which I took part. At one

time two or three of us made a crayfish trap which

worked well, but it soon disappeared, presumably

stolen.

Many lads, and I was one, were involved in

building log cabins in the bush. One even built his

up a tree. Naturally we selected the straightest

saplings for building, which of course was not

appreciated by the Forestry Commission officers.

Roof material was scrap corrugated iron, which I

imagine was frequently recycled over the years.

It was probably in the spring of 1934 that the river

came down in a rather big flood, with water deep

enough to cover the flats and float a canoe. I recall

three of us paddling a canoe made from a sheet of

corrugated iron, across open ground and a bung on

the boundary near the Euroly Road, to a group of

boys on the opposite bank. All went well until on

our return someone gave us a push, the bow went

under and we had to swim across and wade the rest

of the way back to dry ground.

It may have been in the following autumn the

school experienced a grasshopper plague. They

were in such vast numbers that they ate out great

patches of the lovely buffalo lawn along the

driveway.

I remember being envious of boys whose mothers

seemed so young and pretty compared with my

own. I guess they were a deal younger and probably

had not experienced tough conditions and hard

work, the lot of my mother.

Epilogue

My three years at Yanco were a very significant

period in my life. Not only was I growing up and

gaining a wider appreciation of life and human

nature in a generally enjoyable environment, but it

provided a base from which my career in

agriculture developed. The school played a

significant role in the moulding of most unlikely

material!

On the down side, and this only became evident to

me many years later, the male only society,

followed by a further 3 years of the same, became a

social handicap. I sense that the same problem still

occurs with some boys and girls who do not

experience co-ed schooling. It was a surprise to me

when I learned that it had been adopted at Yanco,

since it was rejected at Farrer.

G.R. Godden

Tamworth

September 2013

Kevin Piddington & Don

Lewis “catching up”

THE YANCONIAN 49-ERS ANNUAL

WEEKEND GET TOGETHER 2013

Ballarat - 13th

through 16th

September 2013.

September has come and gone yet again, and with it

another successful Yanconian 49-ers Weekend.

Early announcement last January of plans for our

annual gathering for 2013 in Ballarat (because very

few of us had been there before!) was necessary to

get planning underway. Initial responses were most

encouraging with 17 Old Yanconians, plus our two

stalwart ladies, Betty Oag and Pat Tout, expressing

interest, a potential attendance of 36 people!

Of course, as is the nature of these things, some had

to drop out for various reasons and we eventually

got cancellations from six Old Boys who had

expressed interest – four in the last week! Of these

late withdrawals, one (I understand due to an

assertive shearing contractor) had to decide whether

to have the sheep shorn or come to the gathering,

and three others had illness strike their spouses.

Lillian Crane was hospitalised a week before our

event, Ann Goddard fell ill on the Thursday, whilst

en-route, and I understand Betty Kirkup succumbed

to some sort of malign bug on the Friday morning.

Maybe starting our gathering on Black Friday13th

wasn‘t our best idea? Happily, my recent enquiries

indicate all who had been on sick parade were well

on the way to recovered good health within the next

week.

Everyone drove to Ballarat and all but one couple

arrived at the Begonia City Motor Inn, Sebastopol,

on Friday afternoon, the balance of which was spent

―on who is here‖ as they arrived and catching-up

with those who had. The final adjusted count was to

be 25 in total for our Annual Dinner on Saturday

evening. Steve and Cheryl King were still driving

through South Australia on Friday but they had

confirmed their arrival on Saturday afternoon.

Happily the motel fully met our expectations – the

rooms were clean, spacious and of a good standard,

with friendly and helpful owners, who willingly

provided advice on what to do/see in Ballarat and

who also offered and arranged discount seniors

tickets for entry to Sovereign Hill.

Needless to say, with the last minute loss of several

couples, there was a bit of housekeeping that

needed to be done - rejigging the bus tour and

Saturday dinner arrangements for our reduced

numbers & etc. Happily, despite our needing only

13 rooms rather than the originally required 16,

which had ―booked out‖ all of the motel‘s rooms,

our hosts were most understanding that regardless

of what is planned, individual‘s situations can and

do change. A minor adjustment to the bus tour price

covered the fixed quote price and the Club was

advised of our reduced numbers for the Saturday

evening dinner.

Despite our initial gathering of the group occurring

on Friday 13th - and threatening rain being

encountered on our drive between Bendigo and

Ballarat - the weather gods decided ultimately to be

kind and pleasant weather, conducive to our being

―out and about‖, prevailed for the rest of the

weekend.

Our choice of motel

had been based both

on ability to meet our

original requirement

for 16 rooms and

reasonable proximity

to a suitable venue for

our Saturday dinner.

However, despite the good restaurants to be found

in the city centre, the easy walking distance from

our motel to the Sebastopol Bowling Club proved

an overwhelmingly powerful attraction to everyone

on Friday evening. It seemed that, after a full day of

travel, most were more interested in a quiet meal,

some catching up and a reasonably early night of

rest, rather than any serious partying.

Whilst there were many interesting things to do in

Ballarat, the idea of doing everything as a group

activity was deemed inappropriate – we are all too

old to be ―joined at the hip‖! So it was decided that

the only ―official group activities‖ would be an

introductory overview of Ballarat and the dinner,

both on the Saturday. The first of these was by

means of a two hour guided tour by bus on the

Saturday morning, which everyone acclaimed to be

a great success. Our two guides were not only

knowledgeable and interesting but also very

professional, covering in the two+ hour tour the

majority of Ballarat‘s significant historical

buildings and other points of potential interest to

interstate visitors. They especially pleased ―the

ladies‖ (and a few of the blokes) with the inclusion

of several of the old residential areas of Ballarat and

Albert Jones & Steve King

Our Lady Diners

providing a very informed running commentary on

the many interesting old homes dating from the

mid-1800s, quite a few of which are of historical

significance. This bus tour was a success in that it

provided us with not only an entertaining several

hours but also a very good basis for individual

couples to plan the rest of their weekend activities.

These options included, but were not limited to,

visits to Sovereign Hill and its‘ associated

attractions, the Gold Museum, the Historic

Tramway and Museum, the Botanic Gardens

adjacent to Lake Wendouree, the Ballarat

Observatory, the Mill Markets and the Australian

Ex-prisoners of War Memorial.

I know that others of the group visited most of the

above points of interest on the Saturday afternoon.

It seems the majority of us left visiting Sovereign

Hill and Gold Museum for a Sunday activity.

Personally, I can vouch only for the Keelings and

Piddingtons, who had lunch at Craig‘s Historic

Hotel and then spent the rest of Saturday afternoon

together with:

to start of the Ballarat Eisteddfod)

Wendouree and visit to the Tram Museum,

ough the blooms in the Botanic

Gardens and Glass House, and

After that full-on foray, it was back to the motel for

a bit more catching up and rest in preparations for

the envisaged riotous evening to come - our annual

group dinner at the Bowling Club.

As is becoming

traditional, The

Piddingtons de-

clared it was

wine and cheese

time in their

room before we

headed off for

our ―get-to-

gether dinner‖. Somehow, almost everyone found

somewhere to sit/stand and there was plenty of

animated conversation as we exchanged stories on

what we had been up to for a year - or maybe the

last 15 or more!

Despite the Club initially indicating they were not

very happy with

the late reduction

in final numbers

for our dinner,

after some

negotiation with

the management,

we were able to

revise the

numbers for our Saturday evening dinner from the

original booking for 33 to 25 without a price

penalty. The Sebastopol Bowling Club proved to be

a good choice for our 2013 function – the private

room venue gave us privacy for our gathering and

the meals met with general approval and were of

such good size that, to my knowledge, no one opted

for dessert.

Our dinner comprised a pre-selected menu of two

courses (two dishes of each Entrée & Main), both

50/50 alternate serve (dessert an optional extra):

Sunday was another fine day and the majority

seemed to head for Sovereign Hill. I had anticipated

Diana and I might spend an hour or so there but, to

my surprise, the time passed quickly and we had

lunch at one of the eateries in the Sovereign Hill

historic village and then spent yet more time

wandering the past in the village streets before

heading over to the Gold Museum

By the time we had spent an hour at the Gold

Museum, it was time to go into town for a caffeine

fix and look at the photographic exhibition at the

Mechanics Institute.

The 49er Diners

R > L - Front Row: Albert Jones, Roy Brain,

Neale Obst, David Stewart, Kevin Piddington.

R > L - Back Row - Merv Kohlhagen, Steve

King, Norm Alexander, Don Lewis, Les

Southwell, Ken Keeling

Our final evening at Ballarat was spent, yet again, at

the Bowling Club, this time a little better organised

than the Friday night as, this time, we had requested

they set up several tables to cope with us as a group.

A quiet evening was a fitting finale to our

Yanconian 49-ers Annual Weekend 2013 at

Ballarat.

Worthy of comment is that of the 35 names on the

current contact list, I received 25 responses to the

invitation to attend our Ballarat get-together,

comprised of 19 initial expressions of interest and 6

apologies, which I believe is a record. Of particular

note is the fact that this year we had 4 ―first time‖

Old Boys responding positively: Roy Brain, Brad

Fawns, Ted Goddard and David Stewart. As is the

way of these things, inevitably other events

somehow intervene so that some people cannot

come. Unfortunately, this year we had 6

cancellations from those intending to attend,

including Brad and Ted. The list of attendees,

cancellations and apologies is attached for your

information at the end of this report.

Of course, the final bit of ―official business‖ was to

agree on a location and sponsor for our function for

2014 - 13th

- 16th

September 2013. And – as they

say for the Olympics – THE WINNER IS ….

MERIMBULA! A very picturesque choice too,

with historic Eden nearby - We may even get to see

some whales!

The 2014 gathering will be co-ordinated by Albert

Jones and Barbara and Kevin Piddington, who will

contact you all in due course. However, I am sure

they would appreciate early indications of your

intention to attend.

In closing, our accommodation and the Sebastopol

Bowling Club both fit for purpose and very

satisfactory, the food was good and wine (and other

refreshment‘s) more than enough – and the

camaraderie was, as is usual, excellent! I believe we

all enjoyed yet another successful Yanconian 49-ers

get-together.

IMPORTANT Message – 2014 is the 65th

Anniversary for the Yanconian 49-ers. This coming

year's YAHS Reunion is on Friday 14th

March with

Gala Day on Saturday 15th

March 2014. Neale Obst

has volunteered to co-ordinate our attendance. In

preparation, Neale has reserved 9 double rooms for

Friday & Saturday nights at the Motel Riverina in

the name of Neale OBST (so as not to be confused

with other Yanconians wanting to book for the

reunion). Neale is hopeful that 9 rooms will suffice

as that is all that are available! If you are intending

to go to the YAHS 2014 Reunion, please make your

booking direct with the motel ASAP and advise

Neale. Contact details for the motel are:

Motel Riverina, 1 Yanco Ave, Leeton, NSW 2705

(02) 6953 2955. Hosts: Jan & Gary Eagles

We hope to see you all once again in 2014!

Old Yanconians - Ballarat Get-together

Friday 13th

- Monday 16th

September 2013

List of Attendees - Updated 17 Sept 2013

1 Alexander, Norm & Juanita (2)

2 Brain, Roy & Anita (2)

3 Jones, Albert & Marion (2)

4 Keeling, Ken & Diana (2)

5 King, Steve & Cheryl (2)

6 Kohlhagan, Merv plus 2 (3)

(Joyce & Kevin)

7 Lewis, Don & Pat (2)

8 Piddington, Kevin & Barbara (2)

9 Southwell, Les & Bev (2)

10 Stewart, David & Jan Mills (2)

11 Obst, Neale & Robyn (2)

12 Oag, Betty (1)

13 Tout, Pat (1)

Total 25

Absent Friends

1. Alexander, Malcolm & Ann Peacock dates now

conflict with shearing contractor

2. Crain, Ralph & Lillian Lillian in hospital

3. Fawns, Brad medical appointment

4. Goddard, Barry & Janet Janet unwell

5. Goddard, Ted & Ann Ann taken ill @ Deni - 15

Sept

6. Kirkup, Warren & Betty Betty taken ill 16 Sept

Apologies received

7. Barber, Alan & Gillian Apology – can‘t attend

8. Donaldson, Bill & Babs Apology – conflict of

commitments

9. Huon, George & Judy Apology – still consulting

10. King, Bruce & Laurie Apology – can‘t attend

11. Seberry, John & Pauline Apology – can‘t attend

12. Tickle, Alan & Jan Apology – too far from WA

Best regards,

Ken (& Diana) Keeling

Tel: (02) 6251 0966

Mobile: 0427 510 965

e-mail: kendiana@bigpond.net.au

LEETON REPRESENTATIVE BASKETBALL

TRIALS FOR 2014 TEAMS

Girls and Boys

U12 - Born 2003 & 2004 – 4.30pm

U14— Born 2001 & 2002 – 5.30pm

U16— Born 1999 & 2000 – 6.30pm

U18— Born 1997 & 1998 – 7.30pm

Tuesday 12th

November, 2013

WHAT TO BRING – A basketball and drink bottle.

INQUIRES – Lisa Schmetzer 02 6953 6365 or

Kerren Barnes 0428 516 690

Round 1 - Feb 22nd – 23rd Riverina

Round 2 - March 22nd – 23rd Bathurst

Round 3 - 12th & 13th April Riverina,

Finals - Orange date TBC

Arrive 10 minutes before start time please.

(Players MUST attend if interested in playing in

teams for 2014 season)

SCHOOLS SPECTACULAR

Schools Spectacular welcomes the Nine Network!

The 2013 Schools Spectacular will be broadcast

nationally on Channel 9. You can watch our

students on:

Channel 9 Saturday 30 November 2013;

with a replay on GO! Sunday 1 December 2013.

Stay tuned for an update on broadcast times.

The Schools Spectacular features 3,600 students

from 400 NSW public schools. It showcases the

amazing talents of our students and teachers in an

epic production of music, song and dance. This year

is the 30th year of the Spec – one of public

educations most colourful and inspiring

entertainment events. Tickets to watch the Schools

Spectacular live at the Sydney Entertainment

Centre are available from Ticketmaster

www.ticketmaster.com.au.

For more information on Schools Spectacular,

check out www.schoolsspectacular.com.au .

Elyse North