No More Than Five Miles: School Days in Prom Country told the story of the many one-teacher schools scattered throughout our district in the days when it was declared that no child should have to travel ‘more than five miles’ to receive an education.

L-R: Cr Warren Raabe, Mayor of South Gippsland Shire, Jennifer Jones, President of Foster & District Historical Society,

Cr Jeanette Harding, South Gippsland Shire, and in front, the captains of Foster Primary School 2012.

The exhibition had three parts:

1   A display of photographs and objects which conveys the major themes of schooling in the district in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Folders of photographs from local schools were also included in this display – see the changes in school dress over the years or  see if you can find yourself in one of these photographs;

2   The 100 year-old former Agnes School building, located in the museum grounds, which re-creates a one-teacher school at the time the building was opened in 1912 – see what children were learning – and how they were taught – in the early years of the twentieth century;

3   A self-guided drive following the ‘Location Guide of District State Primary School Sites’, which provided a brief summary of all the one-teacher schools in the district, of which only six are still open, and a map which also provides GPS locations – take a drive around our beautiful district and locate all 39 former school sites.

This exhibition was generously funded by the Lions Club of Toora and the South Gippsland Shire.