By KATH GANNAWAY
HODDLES Creek community celebrated on Saturday, 19 March, the building that has been the hub of their rural community for the past 100 years.
State School No 2541 was a small one-room rural school when it was built for the mining community of Hoddles Creek in 1915. The first 31 students took to their desks in 1916, and the building is still used today by the 27 students.
Among highlights of the day were the opening of the Centenary Garden, designed by renown landscape architect Andrew Laidlaw, community stalls, a photo display in a recreation of the class of 2016, old-time games on the oval, the introduction of new principal, Ben Zimmerle, and a Centenary Dinner.
School council president, Carolyn Cole-Sinclair, spoke of the history of the school, including a tribute to former student and world-famous nuclear physicist Sir Harrie Massey, and thanked the Centenary Committee, volunteers and sponsors for a year-long commitment to the commemoration.
Ms Cole-Sinclair said the garden was for everyone.
“This garden is available for all to enjoy, and is here as a living testament to both the school and broader communities of Hoddles Creek,” she said as she announced a dual ribbon cutting representing the older generation at one end and today’s generation at the other.
