THE ENTIRE contents of the now defunct Five Mile Tree School have been unceremoniously dumped at the Crookwell rubbish tip – including valuable educational equipment and irreplaceable memorabilia.
Fortunately a proportion of these items have been salvaged, but much more still lies open to the elements at the Crookwell tip.
It is believed that none of the neighbouring public schools were given the opportunity to choose such valuable items as a television screen, furniture, computers and books before the dumping occurred.
Bigga, Binda, Crookwell and Laggan schools are all well within an hour’s travel from the Five Mile Tree.
Five Mile Tree School was put into recess in 2008 and eventually officially closed by the Department of Education.
The school building is now up for sale, despite a request by the Upper Lachlan Council that it be retained for possible future use again for education.
The Education Department was unable to reply to questions from the Gazette in time for today’s publication.
Their answers will be published in Thursday’s edition.
Among the irreplaceable items of historic and local value that were retrieved from the tip are:
# A large and colourful hand-made school banner, the work of Ruth Robertson was among the memorabilia sent to rot at the dump – this was able to be saved.
# Two trophies were also rescued by Mrs Kathy Robertson owner of the Binda Store.
One was a mug donated to the school by the Principal at the time, Doug Folkard, as a sporting award.
The other, a cup, was donated by Nicholson Farm Machinery for competition at the Combined District Small School Sports Association.
# An historically important item is a framed Golden Jubilee plaque made by Bill McLeod and Ruth Robertson carrying the names of all Principals from 1927 to 1977.
The first any local knew of the destination of the school’s contents was when the contractor pulled up in front of Binda store with their vehicle fully loaded.
Asked what they were doing they replied: “It’s all going to the tip.”
Mrs Robertson summed up the feeling of residents and ex-pupils: “It makes me sick to the stomach something like this could happen in a small community.
“My family members attended this school and the events that have happened over the past few years are disgraceful.
“The dispersal of the school contents could have been handled a lot better than it has.”
Ted Robertson, a former pupil, told the Gazette: “This has made me very angry.”
Sharon Hammond, who was the last P. and C. Association President at the school, had all her three children complete their seven years of primary school education at Five Mile Tree.
“Five Mile Tree was a small community based school which offered a range of opportunities to its students and their families,” Sharon said.
“Making the decision to put the school into recess wasn’t an easy one to make, because we knew it would lead to its closure.
“The kindness, respect and dignity that we were treated with by a Department representative, Paul Greer, helped us through it.
“He assured us that the P. and C. would have a say in dispersal of the resources, many of which were paid through either the efforts of the Association or the children’s fund raising efforts.
“The children competed in and won many competitions such as the Annual Schools Web Awards and today we find all of our combined efforts, along with children’s awards, certificates, prizes and library books – some donated by friends of the school – all smashed and left to be ruined by the weather at the Crookwell tip.”
Sharon added that she felt the way the Association was ignored was “disgraceful”.
“We need to voice our feelings and ask that this never happens to another small school and its extended community.”
It is believed that some schools in the area have managed to benefit through their salvage efforts.
But there is concern that as well as the material dumped at the tip there are items such as a whipper-snipper, a refrigerator, an aluminium stepladder and a ride-on lawn mower which have not been accounted for.
One resident familiar with the school believes less than fifty per cent of the school’s assets have been retrieved, and the value of that loss would run into many thousands of dollars.
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