The first Mothers’ Club in Australia was founded at Princes Hill School in 1917 at the initiative of Infant Mistress Lillian Horner. Pleased by the response to her invitation that mothers visit the school and observe their children in the classroom, Lillian Horner suggested that mothers return each month and read stories to the children. So the Princes Hill Mothers’ Story Telling Club was formed. The experiment was quickly copied elsewhere, culminating with the founding of the Victoria Federation of State School Mothers’ Clubs in 1925. The Federation had as its motto, ‘We serve the children’. Its constitution clearly set out the Clubs’ intentions: to provide mothers with opportunities to tell stories to children; to promote a true spirit of helpfulness and friendliness among members; and to further the interests of children attending school.1
The earliest surviving records of the Princes Hill Mothers’ Club are a Visitors Book recording the annual birthday festivities of the Club since 1932, and Minutes of Meetings from 1948. Medals were awarded to members who had served ten years or more. More than two hundred guests attended the club’s fiftieth anniversary party in 1967. In 1977, the Mothers’ Club celebrated its Diamond Jubilee.
Story-telling, which ended at Princes Hill Primary School in 1967,2 was only one aspect of the club’s activities. Equal effort was concentrated on raising money, supporting public charities and, on occasion, entering into educational debates.
Fundraising has been at the forefront of the Mothers’ Club’s activities. Large amounts of money were raised by fairs, street stalls in Lygon Street and Sydney Road, annual fétes and bazaars, raffles, monthly card nights, picture nights, dances and ‘Bingo Nights’. In 1966, there was a mannequin parade, with teachers, mothers and even the Infant Mistress, Mrs Matson, parading in frocks to the delight of all present. Donations were solicited from public companies such as Noon Pies and General Motors-Holden.
The two schools have benefited much from the generosity of the women in the Mothers’ Clubs. For many years the children were treated to Christmas parties, where gifts, sweets and ice-cream were distributed by Mr Clarke impersonating Father Christmas. Book prizes and scholarships to reward the top students, food and clothing for the poor, bedding for the sick bay, tumbling mats for the gymnasts, a projector and tape recorder, uniforms for the School Band, a piano for the Class for the Partially Sighted, are only a tiny proportion of the gifts to the schools from the Mothers’ Clubs. In 1952, the Mothers’ Club even arranged a reunion of old scholars. The high-school Mothers’ Club funded an annual scholarship, contributed £100 to the school magazine each year, and paid for fixtures and equipment for the school, such as $1274 for a new piano and electronic equipment in 1975. In 1977, the club sponsored a memorial to John Thurgood, who was killed in a motor accident returning from Mirimbah; in 1978, it sponsored another for Alleyne Sier.3
One of the Mothers’ Club’s favourite charitable activities was the funding of a cot at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. In 1964, the hospital bestowed life membership on Mrs Elizabeth Rodgers in appreciation of her forty years’ work as convener of the Princes Hill School auxiliary.4 Unfortunately, dwindling membership forced the club to cease its association with the hospital in 1972.5
Another task of the Mothers’ Clubs was organising guest speakers to address mothers on a variety of community and women’s issues. Over the years, the speakers have included a policewoman, a representative of the Council of Christian Education in the Schools and Miss Leavis of the Gas and Fuel Corporation, who spoke on ‘Hasty and Tasty Meals’, as well as demonstrators from the Hoover and Singer companies.6
On occasions, the Mothers’ Club also entered into the educational debate. In 1960 and 1963, the Mothers’ Club sent delegates to the National Education Congress. In 1965, it petitioned the District Inspector to support a library at Pigdon Street and donated £30 towards the cost of one. In 1974, it expressed dissatisfaction with the Education Department about staffing at the school.
It is impossible to record every member of the Princes Hill Schools Mothers’ Clubs, although everyone deserves to be mentioned. The foundation president of the Princes Hill Mothers’ Story Telling Club was Mrs Chinnock.7 Mrs Rogers, a foundation member, served the Club for some forty years. Others include Mrs Aphee, Mrs Davies, Mrs Hogan, Mrs Cook, Mrs Moyes, Mrs Lord, Mrs Thornycroft, Mrs Murray, Mrs Hillier, Mrs Symon, Mrs Wall, Mrs Seburg, Mrs Gray, Mrs ‘Holloway, Mrs Coath, Mrs McKenzie, Mrs Bracchi, Mrs Klooger, Mrs Lennox, Mrs Pritchard, Mrs Sparks; the list is near endless.
The Diamond Jubilee Celebration in October 1977 honouring the foundation of the Princes Hill Mothers’ Story Telling Club was the last major function of the Princes Hill Primary School Mothers’ Club. Dwindling membership during the 1970s had seen average monthly attendance at meetings shrink from twenty-odd to only a handful of members. Similarly, only six members were present to witness the disbandment of the Princes Hill High School Mothers’ Club at its final meeting in October 1978. Migrant parents had seldom participated, and the larger proportions of working mothers and single-parent families meant that fewer women had the time during the day to devote to the Club’s activities. The Mothers’ Club was formally suspended and replaced by the Parents’ Club in 1974. Harking back to the original role of the Mothers’ Story Telling Club, parents returned to the classroom, to assist with reading, games and excursions, to work on the school programmes such as the Disadvantaged Schools Grant, the school magazine, and the after school programme, and provide an information conduit between the School Committee, parents and teachers.8 In memory, of the Mothers’ Club, the Parents’ Club organised the very successful Diamond Jubilee ‘Back to Princes Hill’ Celebration.