By Jessica Micallef
The stories of an old primary school have come to life in a book.
Gisborne resident Bryan Power has released his book Remembering St John’s, about St John’s Primary School in Geelong.
Mr Power said the idea to write the book was ignited by an old friend.
“A girl I went to school with knew I had a website called North Shore and Norlane Stories, about people I knew and grew up with in North Shore in Geelong – I’ve got about 40 stories on that,” he said.
“She said ‘well why don’t you write a story about our old school’ and I said ‘OK’. I looked for some official records, the parish had nothing, the Catholic Education Office had nothing [and] the State Library had nothing.
“So I decided to make it oral history. I put an advertisement in the Geelong Advertiser last year. Thirty people have given me full stories and 10 have given me anecdotes and lots of photos.”
Published by PB Publishing, Mr Power said it took him two years to complete the book about a school that was only “a two-room school”.
“It was a good little school, it was run by the Mercy nuns … they were excellent teachers,” he said.
“It’s quite a big book actually, it weighs three quarters of a kilogram and it’s been produced beautifully.”
