Search all the lending, reference, heritage, Tasmanian and digital collections within Libraries Tasmania. We can only imagine what it must have been like to be the first teacher in Tasmania. Jane Noel was a Sydney schoolmistress who began a private school in a hut in a lane off the lower end of Collins Street in Hobart Town in It is also a research journey, investigating the sometimes dark nooks and crannies of the collections of the Tasmanian State Library and Archives.
What you think you will find on these journeys is sometimes very different than what you begin looking for, but it is always illuminating. When I started this research, my plan was to do several case studies of teachers using our records, and link their stories to the qualifications they had, how they got them and what they meant at the time. What I ended up with instead was a look into their lives, a window onto the lived experience of teaching in Tasmania over years. Inside the records of the Education Department I found astonishing personal stories.
The respectful but strident statements of a young woman refusing to transfer to a school because she knew what it was like there for her predecessor. The struggles of a young man whose teaching career was interrupted by his service in World War I and the difficulties and challenges on his return.
The sense of loss and indignation of a high achieving woman in the s, calmly and professionally writing to the Minister of Education asking for pay parity. Read on to discover these stories and more, as well as resources for research on the dates, details and evolutions of teachers and their training in Tasmania.
Max Nicholls first appears in our records on the 30 th of January on the Register for Admissions to the Hutchins School in Hobart. Born on 30 June, in Ballarat, Max was the brother of Sir Herbert Nicholls , judge, politician and lieutenant-governor of Tasmania from 23 December to 4 August Max applied to be a member of staff at the East Launceston Practising School on the 3 rd of May He was generally happy with his progress and believed that with practice he would be a good teacher:.
