It is too much to expect the present generation to visualize Avondale as I knew it during my six years there as a student from 1914. The College was still in its infancy, being only seventeen years old. Cassius Hughes, the first principal, reporting on the first school year, wrote: “Our first regular term of The Avondale College for Christian Workers began on April 28, 1897 and continued for twenty-five weeks, closing October 19. During the first week there were less than twenty students in attendance, but for three months students continued to come, and the total enrollment was eighty-two”.
Over seventeen years there had been continuous development so that by the time I arrived, there was a fine campus with many commendable buildings, all of timber and painted white with green trim. They consisted of the Girl’s Hall, kitchen and dining room, laundry, Chapel, Boys’ Hall, and five houses for the staff. There was also a small store, a barn and the Health Food factory, the only factory in Australia. This was housed in the old saw mill building with an old fashioned steam engine for power. A large number of acres had been cleared by the students and there was a flourishing farm. There was an extensive orchard, mainly of citrus, and grapes, but stone fruit also. There was also a fine vegetable garden and a dairy herd. We were growing most of our fruit, vegetables and dairy products. Besides, we had poultry and bees. It was a far cry from the prediction of the government officer who had said the nature of the soil “wouldn’t keep a bandicoot”.
Between the Girls’ Hall and the Chapel stood a 10,000 gallon galvanized tank on a stand some fifty feet high. Almost adjoining the factory was the Avondale Press where we printed the “Record” and “The Young Peoples Leader”, besides much more in the form of books and pamphlets. Our regular railway station was Dora Creek, and this river, running right by the factory, was our main means of transport. We had two launches and a barge. The passenger launch with enclosed canopy was used to bring students to and from the station, while the large open launch, “The Avondale”, and the barge brought tons of wheat for the factory, as well as other goods. Also it was used for taking factory products to the railway loading dock.
Related to the above is an incident worth recording, though I was not involved. One Friday afternoon the “Avondale” came with its barge loaded down with some tons of wheat for the factory. There was no time to unload this before Sabbath, so it was left tied up at the landing wharf. Walking by early Sabbath one of the boys saw that the barge was sunk and practically all the wheat was under water. The Principal was notified, and other boys came down to see. They all stook silent and shocked, for this represented a big loss for the infant factory. While the students were discussing the disaster, or stood dumb at the serious loss for which nothing could be done on a Sabbath morning, the Principal pulled off his coat, waded in, and began to haul out the bags of wheat. The students immediately followed him; off went their coats and into the water they went, reaching for the wheat and heaving the bags onto the wharf. The barge lightened as the bags were lifted out, and as they bailed out the water, the sodden bags were easier to remove. Soon the barge was empty and the bags left to drain and dry out till the Sunday morning. The wheat was then spread out to dry and saved for use in making Granose biscuits.
Picture the college campus then as you approached it from Cooranbong village. Coming through the entrance gate by the Avondale Church, there was the old Health Retreat, a large white building, two storied, similar in structure to the college halls. This stood on the right coming to the college, opposite the gate where now stands the retirement complex called Kressvile. From then on, with a little break for the cemetery, there was nothing but forest with trees for timber, until you came half way down the hill approaching the College proper. Here were paddocks for cattle right up to the turn of the road leading to the factory. On the left also there was bush and semi-cleared country to beyond where the water tower is now.
The water tower was not there till 1917, about the time when the factory was extended and rebuilt. In fact Ted Streeter and I, working in the plumbing department at the time, installed the first six inch wood pipes. These were the mains to the college, an unusual type of pipe, each section being ten feet long and constructed of wooden segments like a cask, wrapped around spiral fashion with thick wire, and heavily coated with tar. They were neatly milled at the ends so that one could be driven tightly into the other. We laid these pipes with branches and outlets all the way to the college. No water could be turned on till the whole work was complete. The trenches were left open, and with some anxiety we faced the moment when we must turn on the big valves to let the pressure of 50,000 gallons of water with a sixty foot fall surge into our unique pipes. As we did so we were horrified! There were fountains of all sizes all the way to the college, and the trenches were soon filled with water. There was nothing we could do but keep the water on. The next day the leaks were not so many, and after a few days the wood had so swollen that there were no leaks at all. The trench was then filled in.
Beyond the water tower on the left there were some cleared paddocks and the large red barn which was the hub of all farming activities. The vegetable garden was next to the barn. Next came the first teacher’s home on the left. Two other homes were on the right as you turned off to the factory. That parcel of land between the factory road and the chapel contained an orange orchard. Now it is filled with administration buildings, classrooms and library. Then there was not a building on it, except beyond the Boys’ Hall in the factory area there stood a primary school. Ignoring the fork of the factory road, proceeding up the way to the main buildings, two more houses and a small store stood on the left. Then came the Girls Hall, the Chapel and the Boys’ Hall, just three buildings on the hill; that was all. Down in the factory area was a paint shop and boot repair shop occupying the same small building. Then the carpenter shop, the blacksmith and engineering and plumbing, all in the one long building. Finally the printing press and food factory completed the list of buildings when I arrived at Avondale in 1914. It was a small unpretentious fledgling of a college, but we thought it was wonderful.
The principals, or college presidents, during my time, were in the following order: George Teasdale, Joseph Mills (he was usually referred to as “Joe”), Charles Showe, and H. Kirk. These were all good men with plenty of problems trying to guide, educate and spiritualize a lot of spirited youth, some of whom carelessly contravened the rules. They were ordered before the faculty and disciplined. If unrepentant, they were dismissed. Only once was I summoned before this august assembly, and this was just before my graduation.
