Page 37 - Potted History 2017

1950s 1958

On the 28th June, precisely the 100th anniversary of the School,
Chairman of the Board Leslie Craig and Premier Hawke laid the
foundation stone for the new School at what is now the lower
(Brine) oval of the Wembley Downs site

1954
By the 1950s, unprecedented post-war The Wembley Downs land was available
growth was underway and Western but an already heavily burdened bank
Australia’s population increased from overdraft precluded any development by
570,000 in 1950 to 730,000 by 1960. the School there. Representations were
Consistent with that, the Havelock Street made to the State Labour Government
School’s population swelled with the result in an attempt to break the impasse.
that it rapidly become overcrowded. In The Board of Governors’ new Chairman
1933 it had only 205 pupils, including 33 Lesley Craig, made representations to the
boarders. By 1953 there were nearly 400 Anglican Church regarding the matter.
pupils all told with nearly 100 boarders, Finally Premier A.R.G. Hawke, a friend
some sleeping over the Headmaster’s of Lesley Craig despite sitting on the
living room. The Honourable Leslie Craig CMG opposite side of the Parliamentary House,
proffered an offer that if the School
could obtain £150,000 from the Diocesan
Trustees to invest in the new school, the
Government would pay Hale School
£225,000 for the leasehold of the Havelock
Street site. Premier ‘Bert’ Hawke, assisted by Chairman of
Hale School Board of Governors, Leslie Craig Enthusiastic students record the occasion
1957
Michael G McCall (1951) became Hale
School’s ninth Rhodes Scholar.

Michael G McCall