Early Days

Jenny Hill

The school name was registered on the 20th of May 1982 at a cost of $20

Not far from a lake stood a huge convent. A corner of the grounds was filled with singing and running and jumping and laughter, squeezing oranges, kneading dough, tahini and honey sandwiches…..and dreams.

To raise money for the dreams David Helfgott played magnificent music in Judy Read’s lounge, David Gulpilil danced for us in a warehouse in Fremantle, and we made cakes! Margaret Meyerkort, the grand dame of Steiner Kindergartens, brought her wisdom to this distant place but her english sensibilities cried “Too much light!”. Susan Haris let her hungarian hair fly in the wind in a sports car on the way to a workshop in Balingup.

After a few years the children had to move away from the lake, a long way away, taking their colour and stories and songs to cold vast dormitories beside a huge river where they gathered beside small heaters as the rain beat on the tin roof. The deep flowing Canning slid through the grounds reflecting the changing seasons, offering up sand and mud from its banks for moulding. We sewed 20 foot pink curtains to make it more cosy!

Then on a warm day in November in 1986 with a deposit of $10,000 wrapped in a plastic bag 3 of us set out nervously to bid for land; bushland beside a lake and dreams begin to find their way to earth. Not quite the block we wanted but still successful.

1987. Back beside the great river our first Class One had it’s very first main lesson with Dorothy Prince. Thank you Ted McGowan for painting the roof the day before! And so work and birthday celebrations, festivals, study groups and kitchen meetings were in swing.

School Newsletter March 1987

1988. We gather beside Bibra Lake. Carrying a shell filled with its nourishing water a dusty procession, led by the little ones, walks up the hill and through the bush to the solid earth walls of our school.

There are so many wonderful characters from those early days!!!

The imagination, study and hard work brought the dreams to earth. Over the years we have come to know the lake more and are still learning about its history, its plants, birds and animals, honouring and caring for the land of this school.

1982     Registration of ‘The Waldorf School for Rudolf Steiner Education’ 
             May 20th. Incorporated in December

1983     Playgroup begins at The Home of the Good Shepherd. Leederville
             The first Kindergarten in September.

1986     Moved to Castledare beside the Canning River.
             Purchased the land at auction. November.

1987     First Class One. Cleared and built the first classrooms a Bibra      
             Lake.

1988     The school opens on site. Our first Kindies and Classes One and 
              Two.