Bush School By Peter O'Brien as reviewed by Christopher Dawson
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Certain books describe the best of Australia.
A.B. Facey's A Fortunate Life is one and Peter O'Brien's is very much in this genre.
His description of a two year sentence as a 21 year-old freshly minted school teacher to a single teacher school in remote New England is inspiring.
Weabonga is a small village on Swamp Oak Creek, 37 kms south west of Walcha.
His initiation is a solitary bed on a timber floor and little to give him privacy from a nearby road.
The walls were flimsy, the bedroom bare, no rug and no book shelf - much in common with a prison cell.
As a 20 year-old Sydneysider, he had only his two year experience of teachers college.
His descriptions of his endeavours to capture the trust and enthusiasm of 18 students, aged between five and 15 years, are often moving.
They were very lucky young pupils.
His life expands as he makes local contacts and becomes involved in local Sunday afternoon tennis and rugby in Tamworth.
He shows what can be achieved by hard endeavour and persistence and charm.
This is also an old fashioned love story conducted at great distance (Sydney, Melbourne and Weabonga).
His grim loneliness and poor diet of his earliest days in this distant community slowly evaporate.
O'Brien has little time for the New Englanders pressing for a new state. Nabobs he dismisses them.
He encourages local identities to speak to his charges about the country they live in and its history.
O'Brien becomes devoted to his charges and his descriptions of their endeavours are inspiring.
For those outside the profession, he paints a picture of the most admirable teacher.
It is also a picture of a coming of age as O'Brien discovers so much about who he is in the remote community to which he's been assigned.
Also it has the charm of a successful romance and the evocation of a bygone era; there is historical and sociological comment; there is a strong sense of humanity; and above all, there is charm.
Allen and Unwin
RRP $29.99