'In the spirit of the Navy': Violet Gibbins and Osborne Ladies' College, Blackheath

For almost the whole of the first century of European settlement in Australia the education of children had no overall jurisdiction and was often a haphazard affair. In the early colony the very poor were taught basic skills in orphan and charity schools, the wealthy either brought tutors and/or governesses from England or, more often, sent their children back there to be educated. Children between those two extremes were usually taught at home by mothers or relatives, but many must have missed out through lack of skill on the part of available teachers or because there were required to help with work on small family properties.