Goodness knows from where this village got its name - having been here for a week now, we still haven’t gotten to the bottom of this mystery. We do however find it a fitting place to be staying, broke as we are! Europeans first came to this area in the 1820s and Broke flourished because it was on the convict-trail north of Sydney. With only 400 and some people today, the village has need for only one general store - there’s also a café-cum-pub, two rustic country churches and a play area, but that’s pretty much it. There’s a big town, Singleton, only 20 minutes away with a supermarket.
This village is set amongst some stunning hills and is surrounded by national parkland - the Yengo National Park on one side and the Wollemi on the other, both World Heritage sites. OF course, it’s now filled with vineyards too and boasts some of the region’s finest wine. The wine tradition here has the soldiers of WW1 to thank - grapes were planted in the soldier settlement blocks after the war in Fordwich (just East of Catherine Vale vineyard). As with anywhere in Australia, the Aboriginal tribe who inhabited the area beforehand are now recognised and in Broke’s case this was the Wanaruah tribe, ‘the people of the hills and plains’ - ancient cave paintings still remain but Chris and I haven’t managed to visit these yet.
The most interesting thing about Singleton (the nearest town) and its surrounding villages such as Broke, are the people. For me, I found so many comparisons with people back in my beautiful homeland of Stalybridge and, more so, with Oldham - the town I’ve been teaching in for the last two years…
Singleton, the nearest town with a McDonalds!
Singleton is a huge mining town - as was Oldham - and has become rather wealthy because of this. We could hear distant rumbles and bangs sometimes in the evenings as the explosions went off in the mines. When we were camping at Lake St Clair, we’d been really impressed by how many of the locals came for the day with their speedboats. There’s obviously a lot of people in this town that can afford that. Bill explained how miners are paid a huge amount of money, many of them earning far more than he ever did as Deputy Head of a prestigious Sydney boarding school. He explained how, consequently, few of the children in Singleton (and thus Broke and other surrounding villages) want to continue with their education because they can earn a very good wage working at the mines, just like their parents. I could easily compare this to teaching at Counthill and many of the working-class children I taught for the past two years - no interest in education whatsoever as it just hadn‘t been a feature in the success of their parents’ lives. The jobs available to them locally do not require university educated people. Why should they want to carry on and do A-levels when they can get a job at 16 and earn a good wage without the need for passing exams? Hmmm. This is often the case in industrial or suburban towns in Britain I guess, but still the government insists on pushing pupils to do A levels and go off to university.
A few of the pickers we worked with were of school age and I really enjoyed talking to them about their plans after school. They were brilliant - so friendly. Mostly, their parents had some kind of farm whether it be an orange grove or olives, or else their Dads might be tractor drivers/fixers/mechanics for other farms.
Emma, 15, had applied to leave school after year 10 and start her apprenticeship in hairdressing - I was shocked at this initially, finding this way too young to leave school (in the UK, the minimum is year 11, age 16). Her apprenticeship had fallen through at the last minute and she’s absolutely gutted to have to go back to school in a few days to complete year 11. She’s going to have to wait another year now to start her apprenticeship and feels like she’s wasting time. However, she will spend two days a week out at a college doing more vocational-style training, which I found interesting. I feel hypocritical now thinking this is a good thing for her - I was so against this kind of thing when I heard it was available for some of the year 11s I taught, preferring them to continue with their history and science and get a ‘proper education’! However, speaking to Emma informally and not as a teacher, I realised just how practical these two days a week were for someone who really didn’t have an interest in school.
Her sister Jade, 18, was the first in her family to ever stay at school until she was 18 (just like me!) but now, she doesn’t have a clue what to do (just like I didn‘t!). She had an interview with Woolworths today and thinks she’ll just work there for a while before she goes to college to do Leisure and Tourism. This is probably so boring for of you but I’m so interested in finding out what choices young people have and what opportunities are provided by the government. Jade has not even thought about University and hasn’t got a clue what she’d even do as a degree - I completely understand her predicament. These girls have grown up on a farm owned by their grandparents and managed now by their parents. But they’re from a generation that is encouraged to stay on at school. What are they to do with their qualifications now? I’m so very interested in this social dilemma.
Moving on from my attempt at a Question Time debate… Chris and I did giggle every time we drove into Singleton (“A Clean Town”) and read the sign “World’s Largest Sundial, Turn Left”. We turned left and did indeed see a sundial, but… it wasn’t that big. We’d never break it to them but we honestly can’t agree that this is the world’s biggest! I just love the pride though. I love driving into towns and seeing ‘clean’ or ‘tidy’ town underneath - they’ve all won awards for this kind of thing and I think that’s great. It’s about time we did this in Britain though we’ve got a lot of cleaning up to do up North if we want to win any awards! Hehe.
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