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Rolfe, William Joseph

William Joseph Rolfe

(WORK IN PROGRESS – readers are invited to add, correct or comment)

At the age of eighteen William began teaching at Upper Quinburra near the Monaro border with Victoria. After a year he was moved to New Line East, a school that serviced a railway camp in County Murray along the Cooma line. While there he qualified by examination to be classified IIIC and was promoted to Mangamore, another line school south of Goulburn. Further success at examination in 1896 saw him classified IIIB and given charge of two half-time schools, at Black Creek near Bungendore and Googong south of Queanbeyan. In 1897 Googong was paired with Malcolm Vale in the Majura Valley which reduced the distance Rolfe had to travel between schools.

In 1899 he was again examined for promotion and reclassified IIIA, which gave him an additional £7 per annum. Subsequently Malcolm Vale was paired with Duntroon, a half-time school locally known as 'Crossroads' for its location at the junction of the Queanbeyan-Uriarra and Canberra-Cooma roads. The increase in salary seems to have given Rolfe sufficient confidence in his prospects to contemplate matrimony and just prior to taking up his new post in 1901 he married Catherine Bernice Mathieson, the daughter of a long-established Queanbeyan family. He had been given two days leave for the wedding in Sydney but overstayed by a day, explaining the unauthorized absence on an attack of neuralgia triggered by the intense cold of the rail journey in mid-winter. Asked to provide a reputable witness, he nominated a Queanbeyan watchmaker who had shared the discomfort.

In 1903 Crossroads was designated a stand-alone provisional school and Rolfe's salary was increased to £132. It might fairly be called the high point of his career, because six months later he was censured by the inspector for neglect of duty and warned that repetition might lead to his removal to 'a less desirable position'. Another adverse report in 1905 noted that Rolfe was having difficulty interpreting the new syllabus. Action was deferred until after the next inspection but the promised improvement did not take place and in 1907 he was banished to Barwang near Harden with salary reduced by one-third. By then he and Catherine had five children, who were followed by another two born in the new location. He died, in harness (?), at Murrumburrah in 1929.

[NOTE - Check details of Rolfe family history at Monaro Pioneers Family Index]

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