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According to an agreement between the Melbourne City Council and the Education Department, the Council built a largish annexe to the Infant Department at Pigdon Street, while the Education Department supplied the teachers3. ’ The Centre was open to children under the age of four and a half. Intent on representing a cross-section of the community, the kindergarten only accepted children recommended by the Health Department Medical Officers; the school staff had no say in the selection.
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Few enrolment records for the kindergarten have survived, but we do know that in 1940, twenty children were enrolled in the Nursery Class under the care of Miss Bennett, and another 34 attended kindergarten under the care of Miss Frier. By 1949, enrolments in the Nursery School had increased to fifty4. A nursing sister was also in attendance. Marjorie, who was a student in the late 1930s, remembers Sister Smith, ‘an older woman with white hair, rather tall and slim. She was kind and friendly and we were not in awe of her or scared of her.’ When Marjorie’s own children attended the Health Centre in the 1950s, Marjorie and other mothers assisted the staff with morning lunches.
The years between 1937 and 1944 were difficult difficult for the centre. Closed through staff shortages for all of 1938 and much of 19395, the centre was again closed temporarily during the polio epidemic of 1939.6 By 1940, the building had deteriorated to a disgraceful extent. Numerous leaks in the roof had stained and corroded the ceilings;7 the building was so dirty that it had to be disinfected.8 Staff shortages again closed the kindergarten class in 1942. Two years later, tired of the disruptions, 22 mothers petitioned the Education Department to appoint specialised teachers to the Centre. The constant staff changes, they argued, were harming their children emotionally.9
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