Amanda Jones
13 May 2015: In a lecture hosted by the Australian National Museum of Education (ANME) at the University of Canberra – educator, writer and historian Stuart Braga spoke about the impact of the pandemic when it reached Australian shores in early 1919.
Dr Braga said the pandemic is considered one of the greatest natural disasters of all time, causing more than 12,000 deaths and infecting up to two million people in Australia alone.
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L-R: ANME director Malcolm Beazley, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) Michele Fleming and speaker Stuart Braga
Dr Braga, who has authored a number of books on educational, church and military history, discussed the effect of the outbreak on three newly founded Anglican boys' schools in Sydney, explaining how through capable leadership they each "weathered the storm in different ways with imagination and resourcefulness."
He spoke about how the disaster closed an entire education system for an extended period of time, and added that there are still lessons to be learned from how the schools handled the pandemic. Dr Braga also used the opportunity to remind today's school principals of the importance of being prepared to deal with critical incidents today and into the future.
The ANME was founded by Malcolm Beazley AM in 1996 to promote an understanding of the history of Australian education through the development and preservation of its collection, support for related research and through collaboration with school museums and communities across Australia and more recently overseas.
Pre-service and practising teachers and students also use the collection - which includes over 5,000 texts, 7,000 paper items and 500 objects - for research and training, with students also helping maintain the collection by volunteering at the centre.
The lecture, now in its ninth year, is supported by the Faculty of Education, Science, Technology and Mathematics.
