Walking to school over a causeway
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (325651)
Rockingham, Australia
August 11, 2019 4:52am CST
We visited the no-longer-existing settlement of Tenindewa yesterday. There is a tiny hall there which the community makes use of from time to time. Across a small salt lake behind the hall is a memorial to the one-room school that was there.
The school had a chequered history and was often closed for want of sufficient pupils or lack of a teacher. To get to the school, a farmer had laid a causeway of stones. You can see it in the photo. At the site there are testimonials from children who were piggy-backed from time to time by older children.
In case you don’t know the term, to piggy-back someone is to have them ride on your back.
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16 responses
@crazyhorseladycx (39515)
• United States
12 Aug 19
so many small settlements shut down o'er the years. i find 't quite sad, but no doubt a necessity. thanks fer the story 'f young'uns helpin' each other o'ver such. prolly a bit treacherous fer the wee'uns when flood waters came through.
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@crazyhorseladycx (39515)
• United States
13 Aug 19
@JudyEv oh how wonderful they've that there! i hope that such's maintained fer the future generations to see.
the lil red schoolhouse i tended, turned 'nto many thingies o'er the years. e'en a blue flea market/roadside farmers market. last time i 'twas'p that way - all 'twas gone. they'd put a strip mall 'n tons 'f concrete :(
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@JudyEv (325651)
• Rockingham, Australia
14 Aug 19
@crazyhorseladycx They do tend to try to keep the older buildings here now. There is more awareness of how important it is to keep at least some of the past alive.
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. I don’t see much of that here.
@DeborahDiane (40053)
• Laguna Woods, California
13 Aug 19
@JudyEv - What a wonderful glimpse into the Australian past! Today, they showed video on our news of kangaroos in Australia hopping through a snow covered field. Very cool!
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@DeborahDiane (40053)
• Laguna Woods, California
13 Aug 19
@JudyEv - It was a very cool video. There must have been 40 or 50 kangaroos in it. I am not sure who took the video ... an Australian or a tourist. But, it was fun to watch.
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@JudyEv (325651)
• Rockingham, Australia
14 Aug 19
@DeborahDiane We saw it today on FB. Vince called me to watch it.
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@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
11 Aug 19
Amazingly, for such a small and, as you put it, "no-longer-existing" settlement, it has it's own website with a history, people, places and events! Presumably, there is still something there, since you visited it and remark that the community make use of the hall from time to time. I found the history quite interesting and I wished that I had more time to explore the website!
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@JudyEv (325651)
• Rockingham, Australia
13 Aug 19
Oh wow! How about that? There is the tiny hall and the notice there says it's made good use of then, at a short distance is the shelter commemorating the school. It used to be a well-used railway siding with graziers bringing sheep and cattle to the holding yards then trucking them (by train) to markets further south. This is the steel cut-out which stands at the old siding. There are actually two cut-outs at this site.
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@snowy22315 (169893)
• United States
11 Aug 19
What a mess,,we use the term piggy back here too.
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@crossbones27 (48417)
• Mojave, California
11 Aug 19
That is crazy, looks like some tough terrain to navigate. Amazing what we complain about now.
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@JudyEv (325651)
• Rockingham, Australia
13 Aug 19
It was just a bit rough although for much of the year there would have been water lying over most of it.
@changjiangzhibin89 (16531)
• China
11 Aug 19
It seems to be a place that is off the beaten track.Are there any schools over there now ?
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@changjiangzhibin89 (16531)
• China
14 Aug 19
@JudyEv It seems that great changes have taken place now over there.
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@JudyEv (325651)
• Rockingham, Australia
14 Aug 19
@changjiangzhibin89 Better transportation has made a huge difference in these areas.
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@wolfgirl569 (95082)
• Marion, Ohio
11 Aug 19
That walk would make me skip school
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@moffittjc (118427)
• Gainesville, Florida
12 Aug 19
Piggyback rides are awesome! Well, for the person who is riding on the back! lol Being a big strong guy, I am usually the one carrying the person on my back!
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@JohnRoberts (109857)
• Los Angeles, California
11 Aug 19
What a long desolate walk.
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@DocAndersen (54413)
• United States
11 Aug 19
that is an interesting story. I am always curious about why schools stop being schools (i was a teacher many years ago).
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@JudyEv (325651)
• Rockingham, Australia
13 Aug 19
In this case, they ran out of pupils. Some districts would ask parents to start children before they were really old enough, just to keep the school open. Sometimes a teacher wasn't available and I guess as transport improved and school-buses became more common, less schools were needed.
@yanzalong (18984)
• Indonesia
11 Aug 19
In villages, usually parents piggy back their children when they go to markets.
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@JudyEv (325651)
• Rockingham, Australia
13 Aug 19
The causeway would be about 300 metres from the little shop and most would have walked from there. So I guess it wasn't that far but they were expected to go whatever the weather. If numbers dropped too often, the government would have shut the school down.
