#deaftvaussie

Transcription of Video

Stan Batson: Remember I told you about the Sydney deaf school? There will be another story about schools in Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania, which were opened 30 years after the ones in Melbourne and Sydney.

Queensland

A blind and deaf school was established in Queensland in 1893. 9 blind and 7 deaf students were taught in sign language for their first 4 years. A committee decided to use a combined system which used sign language, English spelling and oralism together. A special teacher from Melbourne joined the teaching staff at the school in Queensland. His name was Tom Semmens. In 1903, the school increased to 23 pupils. 

Western Australia

A deaf school in Western Australia was different. It’s interesting to see why it was different. The school was opened in 1896 by William Thomson. He was a deaf man, and he began the school out of his home - just like Rose and Pattison. Thomson taught with the combined system but it was different from other states because he used American Sign Language (ASL), including its one-handed alphabet. You may know the sign for Perth - it comes from the letter ‘P’ in this one-handed alphabet. This one-handed ‘P’ is still used for Perth today, and that ‘P’ is also sometimes used in the British and Irish sign languages. Later, the school switched to the two-handed alphabet so it was the same as all the other schools in Australia.

Tasmania

In 1903, the Tasmanian blind school agreed to enroll deaf children. There were 75 deaf children enrolled. They followed Queensland’s combined system of sign language and English. It’s interesting to note that sign language was used exclusively only 30 years before - at the deaf schools in Melbourne and Sydney - before the committee insisted on the complicated combined method. 

Transcription of Video

Stan Batson: I’ve told about Deaf schools in Australia. But I’ve got something, a very interesting book. I’m now telling you about Catholic schools. It’s very interesting. 

The Deaf schools were not religious in the early times. A Deaf girl named Catherine Sullivan. She’s from Bathurst. She came to a Deaf school in Sydney. She came from a strong Catholic family. Her parents became concerned about her daughter’s lack of religion. Her furious father paid his visit to the Archbishop to complain about her lack of religious instruction. 

After the arguments, the Archbishop realised that the complaint was justified. He moved the Deaf girl to the Australian nun convent for the time being. The Archbishop wrote a letter to the Church in Ireland to ask for the teachers to be trained to teach the Deaf, so they would be able to open a Deaf school in Australia. 

A Deaf nun named Sister Mary Gabriel Hogan from Cabra. They selected her. She arrived in Newcastle in August 1875 with four other Dominican nuns. 

In December 1875, the Deaf girl I told you about - Catherine Sullivan and the other girl, Elizabeth Rewalds, came to a first Deaf Catholic school. Later, the number of pupils increased and boys were admitted. It was time to open another school. In June 1923, the new school named St Gabriel’s Deaf Boy’s school opened under the Christian Brothers. 

In 1940, both schools converted to the Oral Method and dropped the sign language system. In December 1947, the Deaf Catholic school was first opened in Portsea with six nuns who were transferred from NSW. The nuns had tried to open a school in Adelaide in 1868 but it failed due to a lack of funds. The pupils had to go to the NSW school. It was a long way. 

I’m now telling you about the Deaf nun. The Deaf nun. It’s interesting. Her name is Ellen Hogan. She was born in Dublin in 1844. As a child, she learnt and read but became deaf after illness. She was excellent in writing English. Ellen went to a deaf school in Cabra. She was very good with writing English and French. She was clever. After her school days, she became a nun. She was named Mary Gabriel. She had a lot of talents being a nun. The Church was not sure about her and they asked the Pope. The Pope gave the go-ahead. She was now the nun with her talents. Gabriel arrived with four nuns in Australia in August 1875. This shows us that three Deaf teachers - Rose, Pattison and Gabriel - opened the Deaf schools in Australia. Three of them. It was before hearing people controlled schools. It’s interesting. 

Transcription of Video - Thomas Pattison

Stan Batson: Remember last week’s episode when I told you a story about Rose, who opened the first Deaf school in Victoria? In today’s episode, we will talk about another important Deaf person - Thomas Pattison.

He was born in Scotland. When he was young, he went to a deaf school in Edinburgh. There he was taught with sign language, reading and writing in English. His life was good at school. 

In 1858, he sailed to Sydney to visit his brother. While in Sydney, Pattison decided to open a private school for deaf children. In 1860, he opened the school in Castlereagh Street, close to Sydney Harbour. When he began teaching the deaf children, Pattison was 52.

In 1861, the school was moved to merge with another school. In the 12 months prior, the school fund had been running out, and was now empty. Subsequently, the private school became a public charity institution. Donations were given to keep the school running. Pattison remained as the headmaster, and taught there for five years. In 1862, the school moved once again - to Pitt Street which was nearby. 

Pattison was fired from his role as headmaster in 1866, when he began clashing with the school board. It was a complete shock. In July 1868, the school was moved to Oxford Street close by. In 1869, the school received the first deafblind children and was renamed the NSW Deaf & Blind School. It was difficult to run a united school for the deaf, blind and deafblind. In July 1872, the school was moved again to an expensive area with views overlooking the beautiful scenery of Sydney University. 

Pattison, who had lost his job, moved to Melbourne and found work painting the wheels of horse-drawn wagons. It was a waste of such a good Deaf teacher. See,  Rose and Pattison had worked so hard to open deaf schools, but both had later been tossed aside. It is very sad. 

Transcription of Video

Stan Batson: Hi. I will now talk to you about the founding father of the Australian Deaf community - Frederick John Rose. Shortened, his name was F.J. Rose. He wrote some books, which I will show you now. 

[Batson holds up a hardcover red book].

These are writings from the school’s minutes, from a long time ago. They say that F.J. Rose grew up deaf, and went to a deaf school in England. He later trained to become a carpenter. 

He dreamed of taking a trip to Australia, during the Gold Rush years. With his brother, he set sail and arrived in Melbourne. In South Melbourne, there was a field of tents. Rose travelled to the gold fields in Bendigo, but despite his search, the gold eluded him. He took up carpentry and built chairs, bookcases, cupboards and houses. His duties as a carpenter and builder might have made him rich, but in his heart, he was devoted to the deaf cause. 

He saw there were deaf people, but no schools for them. One day, he read a newspaper called the Argus. There was a column where a mother had appealed for help for a deaf school for children in Melbourne. He wrote a letter to the mother. He then travelled back to Melbourne to meet and discuss the school with her. He offered to establish the deaf school.

Rose sailed back to England to get married, but quickly returned to Australia.

He opened the first deaf school in Peel Street, Windsor. Lucy Ann Lewis - the deaf daughter of the woman who Rose had talked with - was one of the first pupils at the new deaf school. After a while, the school became crowded and they had to move to a larger house. They moved a few more times until they finally moved to a lovely bluestone building on St. Kilda Road. The school was renamed VSDC. Rose built the school building. 

In the era of the 1870s, a committee and the hearing teachers had learnt the sign language method from Rose. But then they changed the power structure, and began excluding Rose. They added an oral experiment in the deaf school, and the sign language classes were segregated. Rose continued his involvement with the school by collecting funds to maintain the building costs - he was very particular about the building’s conditions, and had scolded some hearing people for not cleaning so they were scared of him. He was a perfectionist. 

Rose’s wife looked after the children who were boarding. The committee decided to end her teaching duties and asked her to only care for the students who were boarding, so she was sadly pushed around as well.

Later, Rose received his pension when he was 82 - very late. At that time, he earned an annual pension of 50 pounds. With so little money coming in, he remained patient and managed to still take care of the school building’s costs. He died at the age of 89. 

Frederick Rose and his wife were awarded with official documents which commemorated their first participation in the school at the official building. Two documents were hung on a wall at the school, but unfortunately they were removed and disappeared forever. People have searched, but no one can find them. It’s very sad.  

At the moment, education in Australian sign language (Auslan) is retained at the school. It’s wonderful, they introduced the subjects to honour Frederick Rose as the first Deaf teacher in Australia. 

[A series of pictures are shown - of Rose and of other important people and places in his life].

[Batson holds up the red book from the beginning].

I found that when I was looking for information on Deaf history in Australia, the DeafTVAussie YouTube page hosted a wealth of information. However, since there were no transcripts, it could take a while to find the relevant information to your research. This is the first of my transcriptions of their Australian Deaf History series.

Transcription of Video - Elizabeth Steel (1764-1795)

Stan Batson: Welcome to our Deaf history stories. The book I just read was interesting. [Batson holds up a copy of The Story of Betty Steel by Jan Branson]. 

Betty [Elizabeth] Steel. She was one of the first deaf convicts who was brought from England. Interesting. 

Betty was born in 1764. The poor areas in London were the slums. Her mother died when she was only 9 years old. Her father died when she was 22. It’s interesting. In the bad times, food was scarce and thieves were common. 

In an incident, Betty snatched a watch chain from a deaf person - his name was George Childs. Betty was arrested and sent to court. But there was a communication problem in court with the victim and the thief - they were both deaf. She was taken through dark tunnels in gaol and was later moved to a dark cell underground. Again, she was taken to the courts. After the evidence was presented, she was sentenced to seven years imprisonment. She was sent to Newgate Prison, infamous for its poor living conditions. She remained there for 17 months. 

The convict ship, the Lady Juliana, came and moored in the Thames River. Betty was one of 200 prisoners who were put aboard the ship. They eventually sailed for Australia. It’s a long way from London to Australia, and it took 11 months. 

On arrival, Betty stayed in the ship for another month then the ship took sail again, another 1500km to Norfolk Island. Betty was sent to work in farming labour. There she met a former prisoner named James Mackay. Both continued working at the farm. 

Betty was freed after 7 years’ imprisonment, and she and James made their way by ship to Sydney. Within a year and at the age of 31, she died. It was 1795. She was buried in the area where the Town Hall was later built. 

196 years later - in 1991 - as the men were digging, they found her headstone. They wiped it off and brought it out in excitement. It was then photographed in the basement of Sydney Town Hall. It’s fantastic. It’s great to know that she was the first deaf person to come here.

[A series of images - sketches, paintings and photos - of different places from Betty Steel’s life are shown in montage].