On the morning of June 3 2015, activity in the Student Amenities room at Deniliquin TAFE was at a fast pace as the Cert 1 Access to Work and Training class were putting the final touches to their Art Expo.

It had taken the class weeks of effort to get to this part as there was so much to consider and work on from entry prices, who was eligible to enter, poster designs to put up in stores, types of art, who will monitor the expo throughout the day and of course having time to make some art themselves.

The decision to let in entries from across the campus and Finley ensured that visitors would get to see a fine array of artwork from clay pieces including ones of John Howard, Julia Gillard and even a Sega Mega Drive II to drawings, collages, paintings and more.

 

The Art Expo opened and the class’s efforts were slowly rewarded with a steady stream of visitors which was a relief for the class as a lack of visitors would of been a bitter disappointment after all the effort putting his signs in most of the shops throughout town.

At the end of the day, over seventy dollars was raised and the ladies of the class even got into the Pastoral Times which was alright by the men of the class for they disliked the idea of being in the paper for shyness reasons even if they were roped into photos.

The money raised from the Art Expo was spent on buying two pool cues to replace the ones that were battered from years of use and abuse, the old pool cues were so battered one was heavily taped up and the front was at a angle and so the purchase of two new ones was a good idea.

The remainder of the money was spent building up the garden beds with mulch and various plants outside K Block which were a love of the Cert 1’s through 2015 and was quite successful as well.

A plaque and Bluetooth speakers were also looked with several designs of the plaque being drawn up and costs investigated but the idea went no further.

Not all the pieces from the expo were disposed of after the event, several of the clay pieces and some pictures were saved as a reminder of the time, effort and fun that went into the Expo.

DNS hopes you the reader enjoyed this flashback and we look forward to presenting more flashbacks in the future.

1999 was a big year for Deniliquin, it was the last year of the 20th Century and the town was entering a new era with the Ute Muster getting underway that year but there was more going on that year than most would remember.

That year the Carr Government was battling Teachers over an award system that the Government thought was good and the Teachers represented by the Teachers Federation thought was bad.

Negotiations were going on for fifteen months over pay increases, working hours, minimum salary for first year Teachers and other conditions and tension was in the air.

Schools originally had a couple of half days as teachers were in meetings discussing the latest in the negotiations.

Schools were still open for those days with a minimum of staff in place to watch students but classes were reduced to playing board games and watching a movie time as many of the out of town junior students had no option but to take the bus and go in early.

Students were not really bothered by these days as students preferred those sorts of days anyway compared to working on English and Maths all the time.

The dragging on of negotiations were heavily debated in NSW Parliament with the discussion on November 16 currently being available online with the majority of political parties supporting the Teachers Federation.

On November 17 1999, a full day strike was in force, Deniliquin’s school buses still ran and some staff were at schools with Deni High having a student attendance of two (true story) whilst many others took the bus to the High School and went to enjoy a day in town before boarding the buses back in the afternoon.

The two students were there because one was made to go and the other one was a good pal and kept him company on the understanding that their other friends would be there too (they didn’t turn up).

As history shows, a deal was eventually hammered out between Government and Teachers and school returned to normal as the 1999 school year winded up just over a month later.