Anecdotes from the Archives

The fernery

References to the fernery and photos exist among early documents about the development of the College. The only former scholar who spoke to me about her memories of the fernery was Mrs Marjorie (Darcey) Fitzpatrick, who was a student in the 1920s. At the time of our contact, Marjorie, at 103, was our oldest old scholar. Sadly, she went to her reward a few years after her interview for our 150 Faces of St Mary's College publication in 2018.

Fortunately, Mother Antony Burke, in her unpublished memoir, leaves us enough details with which to visualise the fernery.

Mother Antony described our current Reflection Garden as "…an asphalt rectangle called the ‘flat’, which included the long strip running the full length of the 1888 structure [now housing the Adrian Doyle Chapel and staff dining area] …"

She says that this area, the 'flat', was the main playground for the school and was used as a basketball court as well. The area opposite the 1888 building was a terrace, a rough grass plot with a brick margin on which the students used to sit and enjoy the sun.

Sometime after 1907, above this terrace area, the school’s first tennis court was levelled. It was set off with a long pavilion, which ran the length of the court and looked over the Flat and the 1888 building, or at least its trellised wall did.

As the photo above shows, the fernery/pavilion ran the length of the tennis court, with seating along the trellised side. According to Mother Antony, it was reached by a few steps and at one end had a small room to store tennis racquets. This little room was fitted with a gas ring and used to supply refreshments for functions at the tennis court. Mother Antony recalls that at one stage, the little room was a kennel for Flipper, a little black and white terrier belonging to a boarder.

She also records the amusing story that when the daughters of the Governor of Tasmania, Mabel and Henrietta Strickland, boarded for a short time at St Mary’s, the entire fernery was enclosed in narrow mesh wire netting to make an aviary for their pet birds.

And what of Marjorie and her oral history of the fernery?

…then there was the beautiful fernery with latticework, statues and seating; a basketball court, tennis court and the big playing field at the back [now the College Green/ formerly the Top Grounds]. –150 Faces of St Mary's College 

Photos of the fernery are evocative of another age and a bygone era: one can imagine the shade of the trellised wall and the seats to lounge on while watching as tennis balls are thwacked to and fro between the players in white. On competition days, a hot cup of tea and fluffy scones…

In the march of progress, this time in the form of the construction of the parapet rooms in the 1930s, the lovely trellised pavilion was sacrificed, leaving only memories of lazy sun-dappled days spent in its shade.