Extracts from "Reporting on Australasia's Schools, Department of Education and the Arts", Aurelia, May 1892
The North Mount Lyell Company was formed September 1885 and their railway was opened for traffic 1888. The site for the Crotty smelter was chosen in 1889. The town was named after James Crotty, founder of the North Mount Lyell Copper Co, who had split from the Mount Lyell company of his hated rival Bowes Kelly. In 1890, the North Mount Lyell Copper Co. fired up two furnaces and the ore bins were stocked daily by “long ore trains”. While these furnaces were supposed to be ultra modern they were a failure and lost 45% of the copper in slag, and gold was lost through the furnace cracks never to be seen again. Meanwhile, it's rival Mount Lyell through Robert Sticht was “dazzling the mining world” with its’ profits and dividends.
But by 1891 the Mount Lyell Mining Company was having its’ own problems. The ore bodies being worked were perilously poor in copper content to the extent that the company would make a loss in 1892. North Mount Lyell had rich ore and no effective smelters, Mount Lyell had effective smelters but no quality ore. Crotty died in 1891. It opened the way for a solution. The two would merge. There were now two mines, two railways and two smelters. Henceforth all ore would be smelted at Queenstown. The Crotty smelters shut down on Sunday morning the last day in October 1891.
Unfortunately, the long awaited Crotty state school had opened in October 1891. It had only been open a week with Mr Blakett as master before being closed. Most of the fittings were removed to Gormanston. A great exodus began and within three weeks a town of almost 900 people and three hotels was almost deserted. Crotty did not die immediately. The railway was kept open and used for timber traffic. Wood for the mines and domestic firewood supplies being the main traffic. By 1892 Crotty was almost deserted and only had a population of 39, being mainly railway gang men and woodcutters.
The new master of the Crotty school was a less than desirable appointment. At the end of 1891 school year, he was “found wandering and declared mentally deficient”, being sent to the Hospital for Insane. Times were tough at Crotty. The school building was looted of most of it's fittings, in 1892 being just a bare shell with chairs and benches, the desks being removed. The new teacher was a 17 year old girl, her only training as an assistant. She would teach the remaining 12 pupils, who ranged in age from 5 to 16, making lunch for them from a pot belly stove in winter.
Geelong Grammar School was widely regarded as the premier institution in Australasia for the education of young men, as Melbourne Ladies College was for women. Facilities were many. A cricket pitch and ground, a football oval, chapel, facilities for tennis, rowing, hockey and a library with 30,000 books. There was capacity for students to board, with a full fledged kitchen facility and mess hall, all set on over 200 acres. However, at 450 Pounds per annum, it was well out of reach of the average person.
These were the worst and best of the country's schools. All lay somewhere in between. Generally, in most states, in more urban areas, all schools were co-educational, boy and girls studying together. Lower school was offered for children 6 to 13. High School for students 14 to 17. In all, twelve years of school were possible, although only Lower School was compulsory. It is not generally considered a disadvantage to have attended a school run by the state, with most school providing good results for students, especially state run High School. School was free for all students, paid for by the various state governments.
It was for that reason that, although private school existed, they were not common. This produced a mixing of social classes and ethnicities, with only those that were truly affluent sending their children to private schools.
Australasia was home to 17 universities, which were present in all state except Fiji, Riverina, North Australia and Combined Islands.