Vale: Neville Smith

In liaising with Stuart Ralph on a write up on his appointment to St Brendan-Shaw College, Stuart mentioned the passing of Old Virgilian, Neville Smith.  He was able to forward me the following article on Neville and his family included in which is the story of the family's outstanding association with St Brendan-Shaw College.

Another great contributor to SBSC was another Old Virgilian, Gavin O’Dea.  Gavin’s story was recounted in the August 2021 edition of OVAtion  ( search engine ref. Old Virgilians Association Newsletters)

Gavin was posthumously inducted onto the St Virgil’s Heritage Roll in 2021.  

DEVONPORT COMMUNITY & HISTORY

This is a story about Neville Smith and the history of St Brendan-Shaw College, a remarkable story of generosity and commitment and also a story about Devonport; its community in the early days, the changes and resemblances over the years. Neville Smith and his family are well known identities in Devonport.

Around the 1950's a lot of the land where the school currently stands and nearby where many homes are now built, used to be farm land. The land SBSC was built on was prime agricultural land from the elite part of Devonport. Neville can still remember: "Back in the day when there were no houses around at all, I used to stand on the land looking down over the hill thinking, would there ever be houses here? There were 13 houses back in the day". This wasn't the only thing Neville said: "There was no power here in the 1950's and I saw the power coming up. When I was a little boy I thought, that is great because now I don't have to pick up sticks anymore in the morning." Neville explains that he needed to get wood for the stove, bath and heater and now there was time for something new and an electric stove and hot water cylinder came to his home. The road also wasn't made of asphalt or cement in those days and the gravel even stopped at the corner of James and Percy Street. Neville remembers the days where he got around in the horse and buggy and even the time his dad bought their first car; a ford utility. To visit his grandfather used to be almost a day's trip, you had to go around via Latrobe and it wasn't a comfortable ride, sitting in the utility, bumping up and down. Then the land was next to the train tracks and sparks used to cause fire coming up to the farm, but luckily they always caught it on time!

We are getting off track even though it is amazing to listen to Neville's stories and this interview makes me realise how important it is to write down our history and hear from those who can tell us stories that otherwise could die out and become fairy tale whispers, if we don't catch them.

Let's start at the beginning, Neville's great grandparents lived in the Moriarty Thirlstane area, his dad and grandparents are from Cuprona and his mother from Thirlstane. Neville also told me that his mum's mother had 19 kids, which is something we don't see very often anymore. Neville's grandparents (from his mother's side) had three sons and three daughters, the oldest died in the 15t World War. The two others both got half the property in Thirlstane and he bought more land for his three daughters: land in Devonport, in Forth and Moriarty.

When Neville's mother (Florence) was ready to leave the nest and get married to Neville's dad (Dalton), Neville's mother's father gave them the property in Devonport. This was more common back in the day but still something special and important to help get the family started. A tip for the youth of Devonport today, when your parents tell you to be better behaved and that in the past children listened better, I reckon you should ask your parents for a piece of land and a house with that. But back to Neville, his parents went to Victoria for ten to twelve years but they came back (1926) because grandfather had built a house on the property for Florence. This house on this land is what makes this story so special.

The land Neville's parents lived on was originally farmed as a mixed farm with pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks and vegetables but over the years it focussed more on vegetables like carrots, parsnips, potatoes, peas, celery, onions, cauliflowers and cabbages. In 1939 Neville was born. He had two older sisters and two older brothers, who grew up back in Victoria (the first sibling up is ten years older than Neville) and in the house in Devonport Neville lived with his parents and his younger brother. Due to a very unfortunate accident, Neville lost his youngest brother, who drowned in 1955. In 1955 there was no Catholic Secondary school in Devonport, which meant Neville went to St Virgil's College in Hobart on Barrack Street from 1953- 1955. Neville said: "My brother would have joined me in 1956; it was a very sad time." The year Neville's brother died, he came back home to live with his mother. Neville says: "back in the day I had to take the• train from Devonport to Hobart and travel all day, which was from 8am-6pm and get off and walk to College in all weather conditions." I guess this means we shouldn't complain if we have to drive in our comfortable cars.

Back in the day, the church in Devonport had little money and Neville explained how his mom and dad •grew crops like peas and potatoes on their land which they donated to the church. This way the church would harvest the crops and sell them to raise money. Men from all over Devonport and the surrounding area would volunteer to farm the crops so the church had enough men power to harvest them.

Between 1955 and 1960 when Neville was living at home with his mom, Florence saw the need for a Catholic secondary school in the Devonport area and she decided she could help. She had land and abig house and even though they had already done so much for the church over the years, she felt she  could do more. A reaching hand to those in need is what makes Tasmania great, the history and community today provide a feeling that Tasmania has something unique to offer and something nobody can take away but everyone can be a part off, as long as you open your heart.

Florence donated the land and the house they lived in to the church for the small figure of 12,000 pounds. In 1958-59 the College was built and it opened within a year in 1960. The Brothers were temporarily going to live in the main house but as the former house of Neville and Florence was so comfortable and homely, they decided to stay there and build a dormitory for the extra Brothers coming (originally there were three but it soon grew to six).

In the beginning the school wasn't called St Brendan-Shaw College but the school known as St Brendan's was built, and this was a boys school only. Later they built the Shaw College (1969) on an unused part of the land, which became a school for girls. This name came from the first parish priest of Devonport who was Father Donald Shaw. Before this point girls stayed at Our Lady of Lourdes during their college years but in time so many girls wanted to stay in school that they didn't have the capacity anymore. The Sisters of St Joseph (teachers at OLOL) and the home missionary sisters came to run the girls school. Dalton, Neville's dad, donated a caravan to them to use as a base to go around. At this stage there was a divide between the two schools as boys and girls couldn't mix at that time. In 1981 the two schools merged and it became St Brendan-Shaw College. Father Griffin and Florence named the boys school: St Brendan's on the hill. Neville was happy to hear that when the schools merged, they kept both names.

Neville and his mom moved to a house right next to the school. In the early days Neville and David (his late brother) were always playing around on the land where the oval is now and in memory of Neville's late brother, the school's oval is named after him and got blessed by the Arch-bishop to the David James Smith Memorial Oval.

Neville was an apprentice butcher in 1956 for five years and around that time he got married and moved to a house next to the College. His mom gave him and his wife this block of land next to hers and the ollege. Neville and his wife had four children: three boys and one girl and they all went to SBSC and later his two grandsons also both attended SBSC, with one still here now.

Neville worked 32 years in the meat trade, where his boss had two shops, one on William Street and one on West Devonport George. Here Neville fills us with great stories from back in the day, where he explains that the meat used to come in in carcasses which they had to break down. He had to just pick them up and roll them in cloth and throw them in the back of the car. "There were no refrigerated cars back then, it was just like that". After this Neville worked for 21 years at Simplot (vegetable factory) and then he decided to retire in 2004.

'At this point in 2004, Bob Farr (past Business Manager) and Frank Rice (past Principal) came to have a chat with me, when the gymnasium was built and they asked me to look after it." It was great for Neville to be back! The tasks he had were varied for example, when a past student of SBSC, wanted to get married at the school's chapel, Neville arranged it. Neville was also heavily involved with the local netball association. After hours and on weekends he opened up and worked in the gym with Jo Aherne (current PE teacher).

The reason to bring Neville's story to the community this year is because Neville has just retired at the age of 76 years in 2014 from his job as caretaker and cleaner of the Nazareth gymnasium. We want to contribute this article as recognition of his services to the College.

Neville never really moved away and still feels a strong connection to the land, his history and the school! He says: "It is still home here. Where you were born will always be home". Neville •received and still has the old original school bell, which the Brothers used to use to ring, which today is done automatically. Neville and his whole family made a big difference to the community and Neville himself will be remembered for his continued support of the College and the local netball association.

Neville’s outstanding life was celebrated with a Requiem Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Church at Devonport on 22 July, 2025   RIP Neville