The First Students

Zoe Cochrane

I think on some level all students can relate to the strange mix of anticipation and nervousness that heralds the publishing of their semester timetables. Whilst plugging subjects into the timetable wizard, one may find themselves muttering “please not another 8am class!”

But whatever your feelings about early mornings or chilly late nights, most of us look forward to the blank parts of the timetable, for each one represents the illusive thing we all seek and rarely find: free time.

Our world is full of noise and distraction, and between work, classes, friendships, romances, and family, it’s hard to find time to simply relax. But if you think your timetable is full, take a step back with me to the late 1800s, and see what an average day was like for Avondale’s first students.

A Day in the Life of an 1800s Student

It’s 5am, and whether you like it or not, it’s time to get up Your 82 fellow students are rising also, and the ladies go about putting on their many layers of skirts

At 5:30 everyone is expected at morning worship and if you miss even one session without notice or reason, you can be expelled from the campus.

After worship you have an hour of supervised study time in the chapel, breakfast, and then you must rush to your 8:30am mandatory daily spelling class before the rest of your studies begin

It’s now time for hours of class What will you study? Physiology, bookkeeping, teaching, mathematics, botany, astronomy, classic history, English, business, or scripture? By 1901, you’ll be in class Sunday through Thursday, with Friday set aside for manual labour until sunset

After a 1:30 ‘dinner’ you can enjoy the lovely Australian sunshine during your 3-hour work program. You have a choice of duties Fancy bee-keeping?

Cassius Hughes, the equivalent of a male RA, keeps “fine Italian bees”. You also have the choices of farming, bottling fruit, selling books, milling timber, helping in the kitchen, working in the printing press, cataloguing library books, milking cows, picking fruit, and more!

In your limited spare time there are few moments for romance, in fact it is highly discouraged, with the most popular phrase on campus being, “courting is not to be carried on in the school”.

Even on walks girls and boys are separated by separate tracks which you will notice still bear the names “Girl’s Walk” and “Boy’s Walk” When walking to and from worship you are also chaperoned in separate lines.

After an optional supper you attend the 6:30pm worship session before completing silent personal devotions (supervised, of course) Finally, after a hard day’s work it’s 8:45pm, time for bed But banish those thoughts of late-night cramming, you won’t get electric lighting until 1908!

That's a hectic schedule, isn't it?

From 5:00am til 8:30pm is 15.5 hours of active time on campus At the time, this schedule was set to cultivate the mind and avoid providing time for students to be poorly influenced While the reins have certainly loosened, the next time you see an 8am lecture on your timetable, remember it's not so bad, and spare a thought for the students of the past.