December 1958 School Magazine

Brisbane Girls' Grammar School Magazine

DecE>mber, 1958:

Brisbane Girls' Grammar School Mag.azine

December, 1958

A CONVICT SETTLEMENT Many years ago, when my grandmother was cr girl of twenty, she visited the ruins of ern old convict settlement a few miles from Goulburn. This settlement may not be there now, but it was hidden by wild bush and surrounded by hills when my gwndmother visited it, crnd wcrs known to the people of Goulburn crs the Toowrang Convict Settlement. Almost hidden crmong bushes crnd shrubs, the remains of a few broken tombstones were found, obviously crncient memorials to the officers crnd their families. The inscriptions on all but three of these were undecipher- crble, crnd even these were just recrdcrble. One was cr memorial to ern officer, while crnother, in memory of Elizabeth ---, bore a particularly beautiful epitcrph. The third bore a child's name . She was three years of age when she died, but the cause of her early death could not be read. On exploring further , my grandmother picked up ern iron teaspoon with an arrow crnd a bcrdge bearing the Royal Cocrt of Arms. on the handle. What C! story it might tell if only it could talkl Fifty yards from the graveyard in one side of cr deep gully, they found C! short cement passage, opening into a squcrre cement room, just big enough to hold cr man standing. It was said that here, convicts were locked as punishment for crimes. History does not mention this particular settlement, but surely it is C! true reminder of the life crnd hardships which our crncestors faced. -Deirdre MuirhE>ad, IVC.

THE FOREMAN

-Pam Walker, IVC.

CALATHUMPIA FOR CALATHUMPIANS ! (From "Inside Calathumpia," by Johannes Goonther.) In the world of to-dcry, full of stories about wars and satellites, very little hers been heard crbout Calathumpia, cr small republic in Asicr Minimus. The origin of the name Calcr- thumpia, is from the Greek "Kcrlos" meaning beautiful. (It wcrs ncrmed by the Greek General Oncrnssisn't, who discovered it in time to stop Alexcrnder from bursting into tears) . The "thump" is from the sound, a descendent of Onassisn't mcrde as he hit the ground when he was overrun by the Ta-Ta hordes under Ghengis Can't. The story of how Calcrthumpicr became cr republic is not very interesting: The King, Selfindulgents, wcrs becoming so tymnniccrl that crt !erst he wcrs deposed. The census of 1907 showed thcrt the crvemge population of Ccrlcrthumpia was 23t . Owing to the crlarming increase in populcrtion, Britain moved into (quote) "Prevent Ccrlathumpicr from over-populcrtion" (un- quote)-the average populotion is now 28~. The proximity of Ccrlathumpicr to the Middle East oil fields was a fact never noticed by political geographers. Resenting the intruder, C! nationalist movement begcrn in .Calathumpicr, led by Pcrterthumpium .(father of the Thumps), who raised the cry-"Ccrlcrthumpicr for the Ccrlcrthumpicrnsl" As in Turkey, where the motto was "Attcr . .. Turk!" the cry wcrs "Atta ... Thump!" . · ·

-r. Miller, IIIB.

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