Carlo makes valuable suggestions for the garden at Kyneton High School

In 1915 Carlo Catani, the Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department, received a request for a garden design for the Kyneton High School. He was clearly so well loved and respected by the public that they had no qualms approaching him for what seems to be a fairly trivial matter. However, no doubt as his son Enrico had been farming at Kyneton since he left Dookie College in 1912, the community felt they had a personal connection to Carlo. Sadly, Enrico's connection to the Kyneton area was cut tragically short by his death at Pozieres in France on July 29, 1916. (1).

The High School at Kyneton had opened in the Technical school building, on the corner of Ebden and Piper Streets in 1912, with 62 students. (2).  This building was built in 1878 as the Market building, but was only been used for this purpose for ten years, before it became the Technical School in 1888. (3). After the opening of the High School, the Technical classes were held in the building at night. (4). A new High School was officially opened in Epping Street on November 30, 1928. (5).

It was thus for a garden at the school in the old Market building that Carlo's ideas were required. The Kyneton Guardian reported in June 1915 that -
At the last meeting of the Kyneton High School Council the hon. secretary was requested to write to Mr. Catani, of the Public Works Department, thanking him for valuable suggestions re the laying out of the school garden. (6).

Were Carlo's valuable suggestions acted upon? In December 1915, it was reported that -

Mr. T. H. Stuart, head master of Kyneton High School, in his report to the school council on the year's work stated that alterations had been effected at the technical school to permit of the rooms being used for high school purposes; that a bicycle shed and other outbuildings had been erected; that the cookery room had been brought up to date, and that the office had been finished and fitted commensurately with the expansion of the school. In addition, the grounds had been graded, the garden laid out, a piano purchased and two rooms furnished with pictures. There are 130 pupils on the roll, the highest number since the establishment of the school. (7).

Was the garden actually laid out to Carlo's design? Interestingly, on the edge of the 1949 photograph below, we can see the fronds of a palm tree, a tree which Carlo frequently used in his gardens. That's enough proof for me that the School Council not only appreciated Carlo's  design suggestions, but made them a reality.

1949 photo - The Kyneton Technical School, used as the High School from 1912 until 1928. Note the palm tree on the right - part of Carlo's 1915 garden design.

Factory, Main Road, Kyneton, 1949. Photographer: Colin Caldwell.

State Library of Victoria Image H84.276/5/32A

1963 photo - The old Technical/High School building, with Carlo's palm tree on the right.

Kyneton Market Building & Old Technical School Piper St, March 10, 1963. 

Photographer: John T. Collins. State Library of Victoria Image H97.250/2054 

Footnotes

(1) Enrico Catani  - read about his school days here; read about his time at Kyneton and war service , here; and more about his war service here and here.

(2) Vision and Realisation : a centenary history of State Education in Victoria, v. 2., edited by L.J. Blake.(Education Department of Victoria, 1973)

(3) Kyneton Observer, June 30, 1888, see here; Victorian Heritage Database citation  https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/68906

(4) The Argus, July 18, 1911, see here.

(5) The Argus, December 1, 1928, see here.

(6) Kyneton Guardian, June 22, 1915, see here.

(7) The Age, December 18, 1915, see here.