The Green Classroom

The Green Classroom is based on real events when my four Aunts – Mickie Hardie OAM, June Hayes OAM, Dot Woods and Wilga Dutton – were growing up in the 1920s on a property called Bassendean in the New England tablelands of New South Wales. The four sisters played regularly with the aboriginal children who also lived on the property. In 1928 the Aboriginal Protection Board, following W J’s suggestion, decided to build a school for the aboriginal children who lived on the property. But Mickie and her sisters weren’t happy when they found out their aboriginal playmate Minnie Bowden, would be going to school in the new classroom and not with them in the main house. The Green Classroom is the story of the four girls plan to have Minnie join them in their classes with their governess Miss Bridekirk. To realise their plan they have to overcome stern opposition from W J, the newly appointed teacher for The Green Classroom, Mr. Wood, and the Regional Director of the Aboriginal Protection Board himself. In the end it all comes down to a one off test where Minnie’s future will be decided once and for all. But the girls have a plan for that too ! Fortunately for me all my Aunts – are all still alive and in remarkably good health (Touch wood !) even though they are well into their eighties and nineties.