Colonial sports afteroon - Wednesday 25th October 1998
A fun afternoon when students dressed in colonial style costumes to create the scene of schooling in the early 1900's. Members of staff organised for children to participate in the types of playground games typical of those played in the earlier years. Jacks, marbles, sack races, hopscotch and croquet were features of this day.
Reunion dinner - Friday 27th October 1989
So popular was this event that the venue had to be changed at least three times. The committee originally planned for an attendance of approximately 200 attendees. The interest grew and grew, the final number attending being 750 people. This was the maximum number of persons able to be comfortably seated and catered for at Revesby Workers' Club, the chosen venue. There remained at least 100 people on the waiting list, desperately hoping for cancellations. Local Members of Parliament (both State and Federal), local council members, representatives from the Department of School Education, staff, students and parents joined together to relive the history of the school amidst laughter and tears.
Features of the night's program included the cutting of the centenary cakes (by older ex-students) memories of Mortdale Public School (by selected speakers) a roll call (by years of attendance at Mortdale Public School) and the infamous bird calling.
Whilst reminiscencing and sharing many humorous stories, Kevin Hinton, an ex-student, told of the times his class teacher sent him to Polly's shop to purchase an icecream for her. He finally confessed, in front of 750 people, that he often took a lick of the icecream on the way back to school. If only she had known!
Many of the ex-students also gave some birdcalling demonstrations on the night. Amongst the participants was, Reg gasnier, proving that he was not only an excellent footballer but a proficient birdcaller as well.
During the evening, the centenary committee presented the school with an oil painting by John Hingerty, a famous local artist whose children attended Mortdale Public School.
Street parade and gala day - Saturday, 28th October 1989
Mortdale had never before witnessed so many people congregated in the shopping centre, along the parade route and within the school grounds.
Over one thousand people participated in the street parade. Each class from the school, dressed in theme costume, marched through the streets to the school grounds where the parade ended.
Joining in the parade were the scouts and their float, a vintage fire engine, Australia Post and its float displaying a replica of a cobb and coach, veteran cars, east hills pipe and drum band, Jack Brabham's racing car, the air league band, Hurstville Grove Infants School, clowns, a vintage steamroller, St George police youth club band, St George police citizens' youth group and the fire brigade marching girls, members of Mortdale RSL and many more.
The gala day at the school featured an extensive pictorial display which included historical records. These depicted many events, interesting documents and numerous class photos which uncovered many secrets of the past years at Mortdale School.
Folk Dance displays, Maypole dancing, Yugoslavian dancing, train rides, army trackers dogs, the Army Reserve, Marching girls and judo were among some of the entertainment held in the school grounds during the Gala Day. Static displays such as the racing cars, old steam roller, vintage cars etc provided much interest to the attendees.
His Excellency, The Hon. William Hayden, Governor-General of Australia and Her Excellency, Mrs Dallas Hayden, attended the gala day and took an active role in the formal part of the day. After planting a tree and burying the time capsule, the governor-general viewed the historical display.
The time capsule, which has been buried near the flagpole (in front of the assembly hall) is to be exhumed and opened in the year 2039.
