Page 20 - J Delaney - City of Cessnock Education and Schools

15.

ABERMAIN PRIMARY SCHOOL

site were called. The successful tenderer was Reece Lewis with a price
of £369.8.0. ($738.80). This was for a two classroom building, forty-
three (43) feet by twenty-two (22) feet. It also had a twenty (20) feet
by twelve (12) feet lobby and a verandah twenty-four (24) feet by twelve
(12) feet on one side. The school was completed on 4th January 1906,
although a delay in the supply of furniture prolonged the opening.
An early railway record shows that on 26th February 1906, six (6) desks,
three (3) forms, eighteen (18) standards, twelve (12) tablets and one
maphook were received at Abermain Station. On the same day, 26th February
1906, the Catholic Hall was vacated and the new school opened the next
day. Pupil numbers immediately grew and by the latter part of the year
were almost one hundred and fifty (150) with only two (2) classrooms,
which were very much overcrowded. Agitations and petitions by the Abermain
Progress Committee for increased accommodation were answered by the new
Inspector, Mr. Friend, who declared no more buildings were to be carried
out because with the opening of another colliery at Neath, the school
might have to be re-located in a new, more central position.

With an increased number of miners employed, the following year
also saw additional school 'starters'. By April 1907, this urgently
necessitated more classrooms. 'Abel's Hall', close to the hotel, was
hired for £2.0.0. ($4.00) per month. The hall was sixty (60) feet long
and twenty-five (25) feet wide and twelve (12) feet high. When a problem
arose because of a new Cessnock Shire 'sanitary pan service' requirement,
the school was given notice to quit the building. The nearby Presbyterian
hall, which measured forty (40) feet long by twenty-five (25) feet wide
by fourteen (14) feet high, was leased at a rental of £1.0.0. ($2.00)
per week to r·eplace 'Abel's Hall'. Education Department records reveal
that on 28th June 1907, Halliday Bros. of 30 Erskine Street, Sydney,
supplied a bell to Abermain School.

The school population, like the township of Abermain, continued
to grow steadily. The school records of December 1908 showed an increase
of just over one hundred (100) pupils in the twelve months to make a
total of two hundred and forty one (241) pupils. The Presbyterian Church