Australian Parent's Council

In 1962 in Goulburn NSW, a momentous event gave impetus to the formation the Australian Parents Council. This event, known as the Goulburn 'Closure' received nation-wide media coverage on the unjust treatment of Catholic and other parents who chose other than State schools for their children. It was a watershed for the 'state aid' issue amongst politicians of all political persuasions. The details are contained in the section titled The Goulburn 'Closure'.

Prior to the happenings in Goulburn, in other areas of NSW, Catholic parents were coming together to discuss how best to obtain a return of a fair share of their taxes which they paid for all schooling.

In Wagga in 1959, a group of Catholic laymen with the encouragement and help of Bishop Francis Henschke, set up a committee to look at all aspects of Catholic schooling in that city. They researched all aspects of government aid for schooling both in Australia and in overseas countries. Material from the United States Council for Educational Freedom had a great influence on their thinking. This was supplied by Mr Lawrie and Mrs Kathleen Woolf of Sydney, recently returned from the U.S. The committee soon proposed that it should undertake political action to secure equity in the distribution of government funds for schooling.

With Bishop Henschke's encouragement, Parents and Friends Associations were set up in schools in the Wagga Diocese during the early 1960s. Some of the men prominent in this Association were Messrs John Hewitt, Brian Allen, Ray Storrier, Brian Gallagher and Alan Taylor, who was to become the first President of the yet to be formed Australian Parents Council.

In the Newcastle/Maitland area a group of Catholic laymen under the leadership of Mr Peter Murray formed the Hunter Valley Federation.

On the South Coast of NSW various small groups came together for the same purpose: Dr Bill Feneley, Mr John O'Driscoll and Mr Gino Fogliati from the Bulli/Thirroul area, Mr Brian O'Neill of Nowra and Messrs David Nelson, Alan Hogan and Vince Tobin of Wollongong.

They produced the Illawarra Education Journal, a forerunner of the AEF Journal, which was so influential when the NSWAEF was formed in August 1962, almost simultaneously with the APC.

Dr Bill Feneley, with seven children in local Catholic schools, was incensed to learn that the only government assistance available for his children was 'one-third of a pint of milk per day'. His enthusiasm and drive and his gift for enthusing others to the cause were instrumental in organising a sound financial gift system from hundreds of supporters which helped fund the commencement of the yet to be formed state and national parents' bodies.

These three groups - Wagga, Hunter Valley and Illawarra were ready additional springboards for action in NSW when the Goulburn 'closure' of Catholic schools took place and the whole matter of the struggle for educational justice took on state and national dimensions.

These NSW groups formed the nucleus of the NSWAEF which in November 1974 became the NSW Parents Council (NSWPC). Its setting up on 25th August 1962 was authorised by a provisional Committee of eighteen persons appointed at the Goulburn meeting of 25th August 1962 which in turn had been authorised by the momentous Lilac Time Hall meeting of July 1962. These Goulburn meetings are described in more detail in the next sections.