At the end of 1902 the Inspector General of Education, Cyril Jackson visited
Midland Junction to make arrangements for the installation of eight new
woodworking benches at the local school. They were to be ready for night
classes in woodworking the following year. These first ‘Manual Training’
classes in the District were modelled on the course already running at Perth
Technical School. Midland Junction Technical School was established the
following year, but it wasn’t until 1907 that
Woodworking and Carpentry were considered Technical School subjects. Mr Mayo Wishart, who later became the Principal of the Technical School was the woodworking teacher.
The local paper proudly reported the first exhibition of students’ work, which was displayed at the Central Technical School in January 1904. During the exhibition students demonstrated various techniques.
(Swan Express, 25 January 1904) Mr J. Hart, the overall head of Manual Training was quoted in the paper as saying, ‘the central idea of the tuition was to educate the eye, ear and hand to work conjointly in construction’.The exhibits themselves all showed a general excellence. One of the most noticeable features of the work done was the inlaid woodwork, a number of dish stands, racks, draft boards etc. An exhibit by Mr F Ridgeway, a student of the mature classes excited much admiration. This was a table with a top formed of squares of light and dark wood, the colours formed a pleasant contrast.
Students were required to set out various joints –
"mortice and tenon, halving, scarping, lapping, notching, housing,
cogging, dovetail, strutting and bracing. " They were also required to
know ‘the names, nature and defects of timber; particulars of the timbers
used in building bridges, and to have a general knowledge of hand tools for
sash moulding, reeding and fluting.’ (Perth Technical School
Report 1903).
At the beginning of 1908 it was anticipated that
an extension of the class in woodworking would be called for early in the new
year, as it was very popular. Woodcarving was also offered from 1910 under
George Stirzaker. Although it was considered an Applied Art Subject, students
were often drawn from the general woodworking trades.
By 1911 classes included Woodcarving (Day), Woodworking (Senior) and Woodworking at Guildford Grammar School.)
In the same year free Continuation classes in Woodworking and Elementary Carpentry were offered to students between the ages of 14 and 18 years. The Director’s Report for that year notes:
The initiation of Free Continuation classes has very materially increased the usefulness of the school, and excellent work has been done by the instructors and students.
Through the Midland Railway Workshops apprentice car and wagon builders were trained to construct and maintain railway carriages. Timber constituted the main material used for railway carriages in the early 1900s, so woodworking and carpentry skills were essential. While practical training was conducted by the Railways, apprentices attended Midland Junction Technical School for Mathematics.
Carpentry and joinery apprentice from the private sector suffered a severe blow during the Depression when very little construction took place. Such a dramatic drop in building trade employees meant the Superintendent of Technical Education, J F Lynch had to close classes for these trades. In turn this created problems for the Building Trades Apprenticeship Board because it could not carry out the provisions of the Industrial Arbitration Act. Ed Dept File 2355/27
Lynch’s solution was to provide a more general and limited scheme of vocational training. In June 1931 he wrote to the Director of Education with a proposal:
'to offer 100 unemployed youths vocational training that they might otherwise receive via an apprenticeship.' Ed Dept file 2355/27
He wanted to retain the expert trade staff who, he said,
‘had generously and unanimously offered to conduct the classes outside of their official teaching hours without payment until such time as it is possible to include the work as part of their normal duties’. Ed Dept file 2355/27
During World War
II apprentice car and wagon builders at the Workshops were
not permitted to enlist in the armed forces as their trade was classified as
reserved. Many young men were very keen to serve overseas including car and
wagon builder apprentice Ted Properjohn. He found a clause in his
apprenticeship papers that enabled him to enlist, becoming one of the many
Railways apprentices who completed their apprenticeships after the War.
During the War Midland Junction Technical School trained carpenters for the Army under the Commonwealth Technical Training Scheme. In 1945 a new trade’s block was opened to extend this training. In the postwar years until 1953, 120 ex-servicemen received their initial training in Carpentry and Joinery under the Commonwealth Reconstruction Scheme. Construction industry trades were in high demand after the War as returning servicemen created a housing boom in Western Australia.
The Railways also expanded dramatically in the post war boom which extended into the 1960s.
By the time Vivian (John) Macleod began his apprenticeship as a car and wagon builder with the Midland Railway Workshops in 1965, welding and fibreglass work were part of the trade. This diversity of skills enabled him to extend his experience beyond the Railways to the shipping industry, then to the aircraft industry.
