This morning I had to get up very early to get on my way to my appointment with Deaf Children Australia. Once I was ready and out of the house, I made my way under my umbrella through the rain to the tram stop, hopped on the 57 and arrived in the city, to change to another tram which took me back to the same stop as yesterday. Today not only was it raining, but it was also super cold, so I was glad to have wrapped up warm.
I walked back up the shared driveway, past the Victorian College for the Deaf and up to the stunning bluestone building, home to Deaf Children Australia. I was greeted in the reception by the same Deaf lady as yesterday and she went and fetched Kyle Miers for our meeting.
To my surprise, the whole meeting with Kyle was conducted in sign – he was profoundly Deaf; a pure Auslan user, with no speech. This meant that I had to get my brain switched on so as to be able to try and take in everything he was saying. Kyle gave me a tour of the building and explained the history behind it – until now I had not realised how significant a place it was to Australia’s Deaf community.
I was fascinated to hear the story of Frederick John Rose, an English Deaf man born in 1831, immigrant to Australia who arrived with his brother in 1852 to make their fortune during the gold rush but due to the huge numbers of others also with the same idea, they gave up and started a carpentry business instead. One day in February 1859, Rose read a letter in the newspaper from a widow, Sarah Lewis, who explained her frustrations in trying to find an education for her Deaf daughter, Lucy – the only option was to send her on a two month voyage to England to go to a school for the Deaf there; something she was reluctant to do. Rose had attended Old Kent Road School where he had received a good education and felt he could establish a similar school in Australia, so in April 1859 published his intentions in the newspaper. This led to some meetings between he and Sarah Lewis as they discussed how to make the ideas a reality. Rose then went back to England where he saw his family and married the woman he had been courting, before returning with her to the colony.
In 1860 Rose eventually realised his goal of founding his school, The Deaf and Dumb Institute (later known as the Victorian School for Deaf Children) and started teaching in a small house in Melbourne, with four Deaf pupils, including Lucy Lewis. The school moved to a different location, then again in 1863 and yet again in 1864, as student numbers increased and more space was required. During this time, Rose had much support from his friend Rev William Moss, who worked as secretary of the school. They both appreciated a need for increased funding from the government to sustain the increasing numbers of students, but it was not forthcoming, so they took some of the Deaf children on a horse and cart and travelled across Victoria, collecting donations from the public. Their efforts were enough to secure enough money to begin the construction of the beautiful bluestone building in 1866; both wings being completed by 1867. It offered an education for Deaf children and had boarding facilities for both girls and boys – in the two separate wings of the building. Rose was the Headmaster, teacher and Superintendant of the school, with his wife Elizabeth working as the school Matron, and another teacher, with 74 students.
In 1880 at a conference in Milan, the realm of Deaf education changed and there was a move away from signing, instead focusing on oral education, so Rose’s days as Headmaster came to an end in 1881, when Deaf teachers were phased out in favour of hearing ones, however he remained Superintendant at the school for a further ten years. His work was much appreciated, having founded the first school for Deaf children in Australia and formed support groups for Deaf people (mostly former pupils) all around Victoria, which was the start of the Deaf Community, who acknowledge him as a pioneer and significant contributor to the lives of Deaf children and adults in Australia. He died in 1920 and was buried in a cemetery in St Kilda.
The original grand bluestone building now is home to Deaf Children Australia, whilst the school has moved to the other building in the grounds that I visited yesterday. It has recently been restored, inside and out to its former glory and during my tour with Kyle, I was enamoured by the beauty of all its original fixtures and fittings. This included a grand staircase in the entrance, with an awesome stained glass window on the mezzanine, bearing the words ‘And In That Day Shall The Deaf Hear The Words Of The Book’ and ‘He Maketh Both The Deaf To Hear And The Dumb To Speak’, which reflected the Christian beliefs of Rose and Moss.
Kyle explained about the work of Deaf Children Australia, as an advisory body who provide support and advice for families with Deaf children. They offer courses in Auslan, opportunities for networking, programmes to encourage independent living skills, mentoring, play schemes, information services, recreation programmes, workshops for parents and training and guidance for organisations who might have Deaf children accessing their services.
After my thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening visit, I hopped on the tram for a short distance, to go for a coffee at Gloria Jeans, before taking another tram to go to South Melbourne. I followed the little map I’d scrawled on the back of a receipt and found the Joyce Price Centre for Girl Guides Victoria, where I went in and found a very helpful lady at reception. We spent a while chatting about Guiding and the Centenary, she then took me into their shop to have a look at some of the resources they have and the programmes they work on. We discussed the different sections of Guides Australia and I saw their uniforms. It was rather interesting, particularly meeting some other Leaders and finding out about the ways in which they are celebrating the Centenary.
Having enjoyed spending a while at the Victoria Girl Guiding HQ, I went for a wander down to the South Melbourne Market, where I managed to avoid spending lots of money on some lovely coats I saw! I then went back to the tram stop and caught the necessary trams to get back to the city and then on to Ascotvale.
I stopped on the way home to get some dinner supplies from Coles, trying very hard to think on the spot of something I could concoct – the girls’ cooking has been so good that anything I can make is put to shame, so I just grabbed some random things to make a chicken/pesto/pasta combination with a few veggies, sundried tomatoes, pine nuts and feta cheese for good measure!
Back at the house, I found Sarah and Becs, we chatted about our days and I offered to cook. Sarah had also bought dinner supplies to do a stir fry, but after discussing it, we decided that I would cook because she had forgotten to pick up meat and if we had veggie stir fry then it would mean three consecutive days of veggie dinners and Tom might pass out for lack of meat (he is typically Aussie and really likes meat!). So I got on with the cooking and by the time it was ready, it was just in time for Masterchef, so the three of us got cosy watching that whilst enjoying what actually turned out to be quite a good meal (no bad for a ‘chuck a load of stuff in and see what happens’ attempt!). We carried on watching tv and then when it was coming up to the time we were expecting Tom home from work, I started sorting his out and it was ready just moments after he walked through the door. As we expected, he was very relieved to be having a meal with meat in it! We spent the rest of the evening chatting and watching Futurama.
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