Longevity on show at the Back-to-Bunnaloo reunion.

woolly hales from the Riverina district of NSW in Australia.

Now home isn’t exactly a closely settled area, though we wouldn’t consider ourselves as isolated. Typically you find a siding with a grain silo spaced every 10-20 miles along the railway line which was built in the 1920s. As a condition of building the railway, the large grazing holdings along the line were subdivided and bringing an influx of small farmers with holdings of 2-3,000 acres. Consequently, some of these sidings develop into hamlets. One of these has the quaint name of Bunnaloo.

When I was in primary school at neighbouring Caldwell, about 14 miles away, Bunnaloo Public had almost 60 children. We were a bit overawed about a school that was big enough to have more than one classroom and two teachers. :slight_smile:

Populations in these districts have declined significantly since then. Caldwell has long since closed and Bunnaloo now has a population of 33, a fuel depot, wheat silos, a church, cricket ground, tennis courts, community centre and eleven houses and the primary school.

Anyhow, Bunnaloo Public School had a back-to celebration to mark 75 years of education in the district last week. When it came a roll call, it turned out that 10 ex pupils, now obviously aged in their 80s, out of the initial enrolment of just 18 , were able to attend the re-union. Now I reckon that’s a pretty remarkable achievement.

Anybody out there able to match or beat that?