Basketball team, 1949
Ready for action. The team near the Stables.
Left to right: Marie Brady, Anastasia Hall, Michelle Cau, Patricia Campbell, Maureen Cotter, Maureen Payne and Judy Clifford
The majority of the Nuns were accommodated in the stables known as St Michael’s on Clendon Road. These were, of course, designed in the 1870s to accommodate horses and tack, not people. The Sisters converted the horse stalls into their cells but their living conditions were spartan, the plumbing particularly primitive. There was only one external toilet and no hot water. For years the Loreto Toorak students were intrigued by the sight of the Sisters carrying their suitcases each day from the stables to Mandeville Hall. What they did not realise was that the Sisters’ suitcases contained their toiletries and habits. The Sisters were on their way to bathe in the facilities in the main house.
A gradual improvement in fitness, ball games and athletics was due to the encouragement of the teachers and the enthusiasm of the girls themselves. The house system with its inter-house matches gave a minimum of unavoidable practice to many lukewarm girls who might otherwise have escaped it. Tennis was the main sport, followed by basketball, golf and horse riding. Loreto Toorak students dominated the inter-school and club tennis tournaments during the 1930s. School fixtures included matches with Protestant schools St Catherine’s, Toorak, St Margaret’s, Malvern, and Toorak College, Frankston, as well as Sacré Coeur, Glen Iris and Loreto Abbey Mary’s Mount.
During her years as Principal of the junior school from 1973 to 1977, Sister Margaret was a strong supporter of sport. She decided that the junior school should have its own physical education program three days a week, with extra time allowed for practice and for special school functions. The house system operated in the junior school and at lunchtime twice a week Years Five and Six were divided into sport teams, while Years Two, Three and Four had sports in the afternoon. Activities included athletics, softball, basketball, swimming, ballet, folk dancing and gymnastics.
|
Tennis courts, 1939
|
Sr Lawrence Waide ibvm with her laundry
trolley and tea tray near the stables where
the Sisters lived, c.1940s
|
Senior students, 1955
|
|
Art and Craft in the stables, 1960
|
Under construction, 1960s
|
Basketball (netball) shield
|