By Carolyn Webb
When a Melbourne kindergarten celebrated its centenary on Wednesday, the children came decked out as 100-year-olds, although one rocked up dressed as a tiger.
And while the world is now vastly different from 1924, some things never change: kids still love to dress up, sing, eat – and party.
And so the Brunswick Kindergarten centenary celebration was popular with the current cohort of three- to five-year-olds.
They sang Happy Birthday in the yard of the Glenlyon Road centre and devoured pieces of a large sponge cake decorated like an old-fashioned thick cotton bedspread.
The ceremony was held under a sprawling crabapple tree that yesterday’s parents planted in 1931 and which today’s children still love to climb.
Kindergarten committee member Taryn Stenvei said her five-year-old son, Louis O’Neill, had enjoyed playing an old man, wearing suspenders, a bow tie and glasses.
Taryn Stenvei with son Louis O’Neill.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
“Louis has been extremely excited about this,” she said.
“He doesn’t quite understand the concept of what being 100 years old is, but he loves being here with his friends.”
Stenvei said the event celebrated the kinder remaining community-run and not for profit, and was also a reminder of its resilience.
In the 1920s, Brunswick was poverty-stricken, and many of the suburb’s residents were factory workers and World War I veterans.
Louis blows out the candles on Brunswick Kindergarten’s 100th birthday cake.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Then came the Depression. In 1933-34, more than half of 74 children examined at the kinder were underweight. There were outbreaks of deadly diseases – diphtheria and scarlet fever – in the area.
In 1937, the kinder closed for eight months after four children and a secretary were diagnosed with polio.
In the 1940s, with many fathers fighting in World War II and mothers having to work, community members offered the kinder free services such as meals, clothing and garden maintenance.
And more recently, the kinder closed for months at a time during the COVID-19 pandemic, admitting only the children of essential workers.
Rufus doing his best impression of a 100-year-old.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Among the guests at Wednesday’s 100th birthday party were locals John and Dawn Waight, who have close links to Brunswick Kindergarten.
John’s mother, Merle, was a pupil there in 1929. Merle’s father was injured in World War I and could only work odd jobs, and her mother worked in a chocolate factory. “They were tough times,” John said.
Dawn and John, who attended the kinder in 1957 and 1959 respectively, remain friends with several of their former classmates.
Their daughter, Sarah, also attended Brunswick Kindergarten, in 1988, and Dawn was an assistant teacher from 1988 to 2005.
Dawn and John Waight at Brunswick Kindergarten, which they both attended in the 1950s.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Dawn said it was worth celebrating the kinder’s “100 years of continuous service” and its future prosperity.
Brunswick Kindergarten is now planning another centenary event, a fete on October 26.
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