PHOTO: (L to R) Marion Spurway, - ,Darryl Tully, Terry Prindable, John Spurway

Marion writes: “School days were wonderfully uncomplicated days at Bilambil. It was just a stroll up the road, usually with my pet dog Scamp following. Mick Lacey was the teacher and in hindsight he was a remarkably patient man with me. I think he had a continuous battle to keep Scamp from under my desk.”

“Summertime meant swimming in the creek for sports afternoons. That was fun but the walk to the creek through the paddocks was not a happy one for me - I had already developed a fear of snakes. I recall one day, we had combined with the Carool school for swimming, and one of the Newstead boys was bitten on the foot on the way back to school. It always seemed safer (from snakes anyway) to walk around the road after school and weekends and jump off the top rails of the bridge (near the sports ground) into the deep unknown.”