Category: Guest Post

  • Armidale: The Gang of Four

    Armidale: The Gang of Four

    This is a guest post by Gordon Forth, a fellow student at Armidale Teachers College, who started there in 1962, a year after me. Gordon writes: Please find attached my somewhat scurrilous account of my time at ATC. I really had a lovely time at College, but was immature, a rather lazy student, who just…

  • Memories of a Country Education

    Memories of a Country Education

    by Ian Harry Wells (Wellsy) Armidale is a city of learning, being home to the first NSW Teachers’ College established outside of Sydney. The Armidale Teachers’ College is a heritage-listed (now former) tertiary college at 122–132 Mossman Street, Armidale. It was designed by the New South Wales Government Architect, Mr Tolhurst, and after the demolition of…

  • Things Come in Threes by Ian Wells

    Things Come in Threes by Ian Wells

    What would you do, if you lost your long-term partner? How would you cope with the grief? My Armidale Teachers’ College classmate, Ian, writes about just this. Feel free to share your own experiences of loss in the comments, and we will get back to you. Successes, disasters and catastrophes, good things, not so good…

  • Coping With Covid

    Covid isolation and protesters as seen through the (younger) eyes and voices of 2 women I am proud to call relatives: https://www.facebook.com/coronavirus_info/?page_source=covid_vaccine_faxit&hoisted_module_type=covid_vaccine_development Ange R questions deniers and ‘rebels without a clue’ on Facebook: I ask you this, why are you protesting about lockdowns when there is so much other shit in the world to get…

  • A Story of a Genteel Ghost told by Roger Britton

    A Story of a Genteel Ghost told by Roger Britton

    A Genteel Ghost a true story by Roger Britton I never believed in ghosts before, but now I am not quite sure … perhaps a “presence” is what I mean … St Mary’s Convent and school, in Warren, central New South Wales, had been the home for Josephite nuns for over one hundred years. A…

  • “Kids Will Be Kids” by Ian Harry Wells

    Here’s a story from my Teachers’ College friend, Ian Wells. It’s great for me to re-live that all-important primary school teaching experience through his words. It’s the kids’ future that is at stake, and they do it well in small schools. One Police School visit in the mid-seventies was particularly memorable, but it wasn’t so…

  • a father’s tale … by Ian (Harry) Wells

    a father’s tale … by Ian (Harry) Wells

    There really are FEELINGS IN YOUR HEART you don’t even know exist until you have a child of your own. It’s a sensation without description. When our first-born finally arrived, it was the greatest day of my life. A fortnight after the expected time of birth, my wife was put into hospital, as the doctor…

  • “Snakey” by Roger Britton

    “Snakey” by Roger Britton

    “Snakey” by Roger Britton I soon learnt Death Adders were dangerous in more ways than one. The common belief among us school boys was that, once you were bitten by a death adder, you only had three minutes before your tongue went black, the whites of your eyes turned pink and you fell over and…

  • A Guest Post by Ian Wells

    A Happy Childhood … by the beach Memories of Freedom and Security As a kid, I lived in a treasured place and time. It was the forties and fifties in Brighton-le-Sands. Life was simpler then. Kids could—and did—play outside all day. The crime rate was lower, we were happy with simple things, and only came…

  • Life is a Beach: a guest post by Ian Wells

    Life is a Beach: a guest post by Ian Wells

    Life is a Beach Have you heard the saying, Life is a beach? Have you ever strolled along a sandy shore? Scrunching wet sand deliciously between your toes? I have I’ve watched the spray fly, heard the waves pound marvelled at dolphins dancing enjoyed the birds’ aerobatic antics. I’ve felt the sting of the hot…