Childhood Memories – My Early Childhood and Schooling
 
Presentation to Lakeside Probus, Benalla
 
 
“In asking me to speak to you this morning, Cathy has indicated that she would want something a little different from the usual profile. She has asked me to give reference to my early childhood and schooling. Well Cathy here goes…”
 
I was born the youngest of 6 surviving children in a small farming community called Swanwater on 9th May 1932.
 
On my mother’s death, when I was 4 years old, the family split and I was sent to Villa Maria, a combined residential and education institute in Ballarat.  Villa was administered by the Catholic Sisters of Mercy and was in an old homestead. The nuns were very strict.
 
There were 6 nuns and 25 boys, with me the youngest.
 
There were 3 dormitories, 2 extended bathrooms, 2 school rooms and a large dining room.
 
I was a poor eater and was forced to stay behind in the dining room while other kids were out to play.  Somehow, I found a pack of envelopes and used them to store any uneaten food. I would surreptitiously place them in the incinerator and go to play... until I was caught out!!
 
Winter was very cold in Ballarat.  I recall a kid placing a bottle of water in the classroom fire one day.  Can you imagine the damage the explosion caused when the water boiled and the bottle burst.  Can you imagine the angst of the teacher? In hindsight, it was a ridiculous thing to do, but boys will be boys.
 
With just 25 boys, aged 5 to 13 years, football games and sports teams were lopsided. Sister Brendan umpired the football, and when the whistle went, you never knew if it was for a free kick, or if you were out of position, the cuts.
 
The main Melbourne railway line ran adjacent to the Villa property, and there were numerous trains. Word went around the dining room “Save as much butter as you can” The senior boys had a brainwave.  Put butter on the railways lines and disrupt the train service.  And so, one dark wet night as we lay in bed in the dormitory, we heard a heavily laden goods train come along.
 
CH….CH….CH….CH….CHZZZZZZZX
 
The train came to a grinding halt! The Villa boys had struck!
 
 
MAYHEM!
 
For many hours there was a lot of activity by railway officials. Eventually two high powered locomotives had been dispatched from the Ballarat terminal and shunted the offending train over the rise. There was a hula-balloo at Villa with railway officialdom taking over. Sorry, but the penalty I don’t recall. What a let down!
 
Speaking of railways, there was a considerable increase in goods traffic when the American forces entered Australia and the Ballarat camp in World War 2.  Many loads of military equipment were railed to other destinations. Yankee G.I.s with plenty of money in their pockets threw chocolates and fruit from the trains to the Villa kids. Great fun!
 
 
At weekends the G.I.s had leave and were regularly seen, with girls on their arms, wandering the woods near Villa. Some of us kids received sex education while secretly spying on the Yanks and the girls’ activities.
 
One day we had a visit from a former Villa student, decked out in military uniform. He was 14 years old and had put his age up for enlistment. He was serving in Darwin, but on leave. He told me the first crude joke I had ever heard. I still recall it!
 
December 1944 saw me completing primary education in grade 8. Four of us were to sit for our Merit Certificates at the Brown Hill State school, situated some short distance away. We walked to the school and as we neared the school grounds we were greeted by the State school kids chanting “Catholic dogs sitting on logs eating maggots out of frogs”. Somewhat intimidating.
 
Fortunately, we all passed the exam and that put ’finish’ to our primary education, or so I thought.
 
On the home front Dad had gone bust in the 1930s depression and the successive droughts. He was forced to sell the farm to pay off the mortgage. He became an alcoholic.
 
 
There was no money, so secondary education was out of the question. I was living with my Aunt Mary (Dad’s sister) and my uncle Ned Caine at that time.  I was deemed by my aunts to be too small to enter the work force, and it was decided to send me to a local state school for 12 months to enable me to obtain a scholarship.
 
And so, I went to the Swanwater North State School in 1945. The school was about 7 miles away, and I rode my horse, Denny. There were seven kids at the school, with me being the oldest. 1945 was one of the most severe droughts on record. During the dust storms it was near impossible to see in front of you. There were frequent heat waves, and I remember that on Thursday 1st November it was 100 degrees.
 
I won the scholarship which provided me with 4 years tutorial and accommodation at St. Patrick’s College in Ballarat. At St. Pat’s I was a relatively good student, each year being in the top 4 of a class of 50 in the October tests. Inexplicably, I failed my Leaving Certificate in an external examination, and so I did not get the opportunity to matriculate.
 
I commenced my working life with the Victorian Producers Co-Op in Benalla in February 1950 and continued with that firm in several locations.  In Wodonga I worked extremely long hours, consistently till 11.30 of an evening, 4 days per week. This had a detrimental effect on me and a Wagga Wagga neurologist counselled me to “study accounting and work for yourself”
 
I changed jobs in 1966 and went to the public accounting firm of James H.Smith and Co.. After familiarising myself with the income Tax Assessment Act and accounting procedures I commenced studying accountancy as the specialist had counselled. I registered with Hemingway Robertson Institute Correspondence School in 1968, setting myself a target of 20 hours per week study. (A bit over ambitious!)  It took me until 1973 to qualify as a CPA, and then till 1974 to become chartered.
 
I then purchased, on borrowed money, a half share in the business which became Smith O’Shannessy. And so, as the specialist had counselled…I had ‘studied accounting and worked for myself’.
 
I retired from the practice in December 2000.
 
Thank you
 
Ray O’Shannessy
May 2025.

The first tree that I ever encountered was a Peppercorn tree in the backyard of my home, “Erin Vale”, in Swanwater.
 
Hanging from the tree was an old car tyre which formed a swing.  Today there are trampolines, in my day there were swings.  Many happy hours were spent swinging from this tree and probably many falls resulting in numerous bruises and gravel rashes.
 
Next, after Mum’s death In January 1937, there was a large Cyprus tree at the Villa Maria Boys Boarding School in the countryside of Ballarat East.  Villa was a converted mansion in a property of approximately 40 acres.  It was run by the Catholic Sisters of Mercy, whose main girls’ convent was situated in a Ballarat East complex.
 
The mansion was fronted by a very large garden, with a circular lawn surrounded by gravel and plants.  Alongside the garden the nuns had installed a large asphalt playground.
 
In the far corner of the playground stood a majestic Cyprus tree.  To me, as a 5-year old, it was huge!

(There were 6 nuns catering for 25 boys ranging in age from 5 years to 13 or 14 years.  I was the second youngest).
 
This tree was a haven for the boys, and one can imagine all of us, at some stage or another, climbing it.  As you got older, you climbed higher.
 
The older boys had an apparatus comprising two opened jam tins connected by a length of cord.  One boy would climb the tree with one jam tin to his mouth and communicate with another on the ground, holding the other jam tin to his ear.  Was this an early telephone??  One can only imagine.
 
From the foot of the tree to the front road was a much lower Cyprus hedge.  The space between the feet of the trees comprising the hedge made for little cubby holes for the boys.  I shared one with Johnno Crotty.  This was our private space—no intruders!!
 
At the end of the hedge was the front fence and the main road.  On the other side of the road was the main railway line between Melbourne and Geelong.
 
Among the kids there were some very unhappy ones, missing a home environment.  It was not uncommon for somebody to suddenly go missing.  The rest of us would form a search part to try and locate the runaway.
 
A group of us would regularly play in the lane and watch the trains go by, particularly the Geelong train.  Why?? One of us, Peter Langdon, had his mother living in Geelong.  There was never any mention of a father. 
 
For some reason we wondered how easy it would be to catch the Geelong train.  Words led to action.  We put all our threepenny pieces together to enable Peter to buy a ticket and planned for him to “run away”, walk the several miles to the Victoria Street tram, then the Lydiard Street tram to the railway station.  On boarding the train Peter would, on approaching Villa, hang a handkerchief out the window to signify to the rest of us that he was on board.  All this was successful.  What we weren’t privy to was the scolding Peter’s mother gave him while immediately arranging to bring him back to Villa.
 
Some 30 or 40 years later I met Peter at a school reunion where he chided me for being the instigator of his unfortunate experience.
 
In the countryside surrounding Villa there was a pine plantation.  The falling pine needles provided a lovely soft bed to encourage toboganing.  We would gather any piece of timber or discarded corrugated iron to use as a sled.  One day I came to grief and an edge of rusted iron became embedded in my shin.  I managed to hide my wound until it became infected, and puss oozed from it.  My visit to the infirmary met with a chastisement and a several day spell in bed.  I still carry a scar.
 
There were some good days and some bad days at Villa.  Unfortunately, I tend to remember the bad days and have been known to write that I could never readily recall the good ones.
 
I must admit that the nuns gave me a good education, resulting in my merit certificate.  They also provided me with a home, such as it was, for 7½ years, which I would not otherwise have had.
 
It is not fair, then, for me to ridicule the “mercy” part of “Sisters of Mercy”.  I cannot expect that they would fill the void, or the emptiness, of a childhood without a mother.
 
Ray O’Shannessy
March 2022

My childhood was short-lived, and so I will compound my memories into one.

I recall that I was a four-year old child and that my mother was in the St. Arnaud hospital dying of cancer.  Her sister, Molly Walsh, with whom I was temporarily staying, took me to the hospital to pay a visit.  January 1937.  On Mum’s bedside was a jar of black and white humbug lollies.  As an exploring four-year old, I could not keep my eyes off them and made it obvious.  Mum noticed, and whether it was in exasperation or not, said “alright!  You can have one”.  A poignant memory, but the only memory I have of my mother!  She died on the 31st day of that same month. 

On Mum’s death there was a shuffling of my siblings to the care of relatives.  My six-year old brother, Basil, and I, remained at home with my older brother Pat (16 years old) and my father.
Dad was out in the paddocks and had the responsibility of giving Basil and me a bath. There was no water connected to the bathroom and Pat had boiled water in the copper in the wash house, way out the back.  He poured the hot water into the bath, then, telling Baz and me to ‘stand clear’, went to the outside tank to get some cold water.  Baz ignored his advice and, saying “watch this”, leant over the bath to show off.  To my horror he fell into the steaming water and scalded himself severely.  He carried the scars for the rest of his life.  Pat has been haunted by the memory.

Dad’s sisters then came to the fore and both Basil and I were housed with Aunty Mary until other arrangements could be made.  With the aid of another sister, Elizabeth (Mother Augustine of the Sisters of Mercy in Ballarat), it was decided that we both should attend Villa Maria, the nuns’ primary boarding school for young boys, in Ballarat East.  This was a realistic decision.  But Basil and I didn’t appreciate the move.  We, and in particular Basil, found the nuns not to be loving people; caring perhaps, but not loving.  Sisters of Mercy, what crap!

I believe that the aunts, in taking us away from Dad’s care, had placed us among, in today’s terms, the realms of the “Stolen Generation”.

There were, undeniably, some good days at Villa, but I am sure that both of us really hated most of the time we spent there.

After seven and a half years at Villa I was able to win a scholarship which provided me with four years accommodation and secondary education at St. Patrick’s College, also in Ballarat.

In my long lifetime, I have never been able to find the right words to describe the emptiness of a life without a mother.  Having finished my education at St. Pat’s, it remained for me to fill the subsequent void, and I quote… “…whatever will be, will be, the future’s not ours to see, que sera, sera!”

However, I feel that I accomplished much and have coped ably.

My childhood, now, is nothing but a memory.
​
 
Ray O’Shannessy
27 May 2021

I was four years old when I lost my mother to cancer. My father was an alcoholic who lost his farm to the bank. From then on, he was rarely in my life. Despite this poor start my life has been blessed.

How can it be so?  Let me tell you.

​My father’s sister held a position of authority within the Mercy Order of Catholic nuns in Ballarat. She was Mother Augustine in the Ballarat head- quarters of the Order. In addition to having several Convents within regional Victoria the nuns also conducted a boy’s primary boarding school/home called Villa Maria   in the countryside just outside of Ballarat East. Although it has never been confirmed to me, I believe Mother Augustine exercised her significant influence to provide me with accommodation and tutorial for a period of eight years, (my primary schooling), at little or no cost.

Although I did not appreciate it at the time, this was a great blessing. I was unappreciative because, due to my experiences, I believed then, and now, that nuns are of a differing breed. I found them to be not loving people and to be very strict and severe. I hated every day at Villa and used to refer to it as jail. Nevertheless, the nuns carried out their duties and provided the kids with a home and a good education. This, to me, had to be a blessing.

In 1945 another of dad’s sisters provided me with the opportunity to win a scholarship which again provided me with accommodation and secondary education for four years at the more friendly environment of St. Patrick’s College, also in Ballarat. Another blessing!

On completion of my education, Dad’s brother obtained for me a job which I held for seventeen years with Victorian Producers Co-Op (VPC).  In my later years with VPC I had occasion to visit a neurologist in Wagga Wagga who counselled me to “study accountancy and work for yourself”.  Accordingly, I commenced study by correspondence, and, after a grinding six years, I graduated as a member of the Australian Society of Accountants. Then, after another stint of correspondence schooling I graduated and obtained a fellowship in the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

I then became a partner in the accounting practice of Smith O’Shannessy, and so commenced a satisfying and rewarding career. Surely, a blessing.

I met and befriended Norm Matthews who invited me to invest in and become the Secretary of a property development group. Over a period of thirty years we developed and marketed one hundred and fifty home building blocks. This proved to be a very rewarding venture.

Over a period of some sixty years I played and enjoyed lawn bowls. I was a member of the Benalla Bowls Club and participated in more than seven hundred games of pennant bowls. I was in a number of winning premiership teams.

I also became an active Rotarian for thirty-five satisfying years and am a Paul Harris Fellow.
In 1967 I married the love of my life, Bernadette Cooke. We have four wonderful children who all graduated at University and have distinguished careers. There are also ten adoring grandchildren. How blessed we are.

In the Queen’s Birthday Honours of 2013, I was presented with an Order of Australia Medal. OAM.

All in all, I can boast that I have lived a blessed life.


Ray O’Shannessy    
8 October 2020

​Having lost my mother to cancer when I was 4 1/2 ­­ years old I was sent, with my brother, to Villa Maria in Ballarat East.  Villa was a primary boarding school for boys run by the Catholic order of the Sisters of Mercy.  The nuns would be appalled if they knew that I referred to it as institutional, but frankly that is the way I always imagined Villa to be.  The nuns, while taking on the daunting task of mothering and educating 25 boys aged from 5 to 14 years, were to my mind, sometimes lacking in consideration of the expectations of their charges, making my thoughts understandable.  As a consequence, I experienced a somewhat unhappy childhood.

How did I fit into this environment?  I was the son of a farmer who, because of his aging mother’s Alzheimer’s disease and his own alcoholism, lost the farm to the bank.  Consequently, he became a pauper and was unable to afford my schooling.  However, his sister was a “reverend mother: in the convent, also in Ballarat East.  This fact was obviously to my advantage in gaining admission to Villa.

My term of 7 1/2 years at Villa was a mixed one, with numerous ups and downs,  yet at its conclusion I passed my Merit Certificate,  I also obtained a scholarship which provided me with secondary education and accommodation at St Patrick’s College, a boy’s boarding school, also in Ballarat.

Happy memories of Villa do not come readily, although of a weekend we would often go on walks in the beautiful surrounds of the Ballarat countryside.  I recall having fires into which we would throw potatoes and roast them, splurging them with the ever-available butter.  Ever available because the nuns ran a farm ion conjunction with the school.  The farm provided milk, butter, potatoes, fruit and vegetables and was a distraction from more mundane doings.

On the darker side, as a tiny slip of a kid I rarely ate my meals.  As a result, I would regularly be forced to stay behind in the dining room while other kids had gone out to play.  I did, however, have a stroke of luck in that some how a packet of envelopes came into my possession.  Yes, I would wait until all the other kids had gone out to play and surreptitiously fill an envelope with my uneaten meal.  The envelope would eventually find its way into the incinerator.  All very good until I was caught out!

The nuns placed large import on their straps as a means of punishment.  Sister Brendan claimed to have a strap 6 feet in length.  Or it was until she broke it on me!

Sister Brendan also possessed a nasty streak in her character.  She took a disliking to my brother, Basil.  She took it out on the “horse”.  Remember the “springboard” and the “horse” gymnastics!  Well, Basil did not shine in gymnastics, and she chose to show him up in front of the whole school.  I was quite adept at this sport and she decided to pit him against me.  As was to be expected, he performed very poorly and I was in good form.  I won’t say I did it deliberately, but I managed, as I hurdled the horse, to kick her fair and square in the mouth.  I can still see the imprint of my wet sand shoe on her face.  Poetic justice!

The above are a couple of poorer examples over my term at Villa.  There were many other incidents, both good and otherwise, but I must admit that the nuns, obviously, despite all their faults, gave me a sound grounding for what has turned out to be a fulfilling life.
​
Ray O’Shannessy
25 May, 2020

​Ever since my mother’s death, from cancer, when I was 4 years old, I have been the “odd one out”.  My father’s sisters’ decision that he could not adequately look after his young family meant that I was to live the life of an orphan, and I lived with the inevitable feeling that “I don’t belong”.
 
Because one of my aunts, on my father’s side, was one of the hierarchy of nuns at the Mercy Convent in Ballarat, I was to be accommodated at its subsidiary boys’ boarding school ”Villa Maria” also at Ballarat East.
 
Other students were the sons of solicitors , doctors, accountants, publicans, and farmers whose properties were too far from schools. (There were no school buses in those days). I was “the odd one out”.
 
At Easter, all the kids went home for holidays – all except me and my brother, who was 2 years older than me.  We were “the odd ones out”.
 
On finishing primary school I was awarded a scholarship which entitled me to tutorial and accommodation at St.Patrick’s College also in Ballarat.
 
At St.Pat’s I found that, because I was such a small child, ( at age 14, I was 5 stone in weight) I played football with kids much younger than me.  Again “the odd one out”! To make matters worse, unlike the others, I wore a football guernsey knitted by my aunt. You may well imagine that this differed significantly from the “bought” guernseys the other kids wore. I was a stand out in the field, not because of my ability but because of that damned Guernsey.
 
On leaving school, I obtained a job in Benalla and, as a youth, I was very shy in the company of girls. While  many of my mates had girl friends, I was a loner. Again. The “odd one out”.
 
Much later in my life, after being married at age 34, (an “odd one out”) I commenced studying and found myself as a “mature aged student” studying with , at one stage, teenagers, and later with 20 year olds. There was a notable difference  in our attitudes to study.
 
As a young man I commenced playing lawn bowls at Wodonga. I was aged 26 years, while the other bowlers were men in their sixties, seventees and over. This was an education for which I am very grateful. As a result of this venture I have now been playing bowls for nearly sixty years, and  am in receipt of  a certificate to indicate my fifty years bowling. “Odd one out”.
 
After many years as a member of the Benalla bowls club I received a “life membership”.  ”Odd one out”.
 
Over a lifetime I have been deeply involved in community affairs and in the Queen’s birthday  awards of 2013 I received an Order of Australia Medal.  ”Odd one Out”.
 
In summary, being the Odd One Out in my childhood certainly had its drawbacks, but as life went on there were compensations.
 
Ray O’Shannessy.
29 July 2017

As a motherless four year old, I was stolen from my father and older brother by a loveless aunt and a (thankfully), wonderful uncle, and taken to their extensive farm.

My first act of rebellion was to attempt, not once but twice, to run away on my three wheeled trike.  Not once, but twice, my attempt was thwarted before I had even pedalled some hundred yards.

It had probably been pre-arranged, but the next I knew was that I was transported to the care of nuns at Villa, a home/boarding school at Ballarat. Sisters of Mercy!  What crap!

I endured the sisters for just on eight years, until I got my “Merit Cartificate”.

Occasionally we went swimming at Lake Wendouree, and my swimming attire was Aunty Mary’s one piece swimming suit.  How embarrassing!  One day I snuck away and disposed of the dreaded attire in some bushes, claiming to the nuns that I had lost it.  My act of rebellion!  I was so pleased with myself that I don’t recall the consequences.

I then completed my secondary education at St. Pat’s College, also in Ballarat and joined the workforce in Benalla.

I obtained board at the home of a lovely couple who put on  a surprise 21st birthday for me.

Not long after this I learnt to drink beer and, one night, while  the couple were away for a few days, I had some friends around and we had a small party. The neighbours were quick to tell the couple on their return, and I was evicted!

In time I transferred to St.Arnaud, and then Wodonga, where I worked my guts out, working till 11.30 p.m. of a week night.  Although I say it myself, I had developed a wonderful work ethic. At the same time I was boarding at a hotel, and as was common in those days, there was no such thing as 6 o’clock closing. Drink was available until 11 p.m. every day, including Sunday, so I succumbed.

Nevertheless, I retained my work ethic, and one fateful day, when my manager, the “Boss,” arranged with a salesman to do a stock deal which was outside the parameter of the Company’s province, I refused to counter- sign the offending cheque. My act of rebellion! To his credit, the boss didn’t ask another officer for his signature, but referred the issue to the Managing Director in Melbourne. Some tense days! Was I in trouble?

I don’t recall the immediate consequence, but I do recall that the boss and I still got on reasonably well together.  Eventually a letter arrived from the Managing Director authorising me, or instructing me, to append my signature to the cheque.  No comment as to whether or not I was in the bad books.

However, time heals all, and within several months I was appointed to the position of Assistant Internal Auditor for the Company and its 14 country branches.  I believe the decision I had taken had been vindicated!
​
Ray O’Shannessy
June 2017
 
499 words.