MAKING NOW

 

A MUSE FOR THE STURT WEEKEND 2026 With the revival of the STURTweekend it seems that it is time for a timely muse on STURT's beginnings and its purposefulness.  

For whatever intuitive and deeply personal reason in 1941 Winifred West embarked upon a social experiment devised and designed to meet the educational needs of local Mittagong children by providing further education in crafts, music, and drama.  She is said to have harboured a concern in regard to local children's Primary School education alongside a need to provide creative outlets for adults.

In 1938 Winifred West retired at 60 as the headmistress of Frensham School and in January 1939 Frensham School sustained roughly £12,000 in damage – roughly $1.3 Million AUD$ in modern purchasing power – as a consequence of that year's wide ranging bushfires. Notably Frensham lost its new junior school building. 

War broke out in Europe September 1939 and Australia sent its first major overseas army force to the Middle East in early 1940.  

Backgrounded by all this STURT nonetheless rose Phoenix like from the ashes and the scorched earth  in 1941 albeit that Japan was yet to bomb Pearl Harbour in December. Here we might pause to consider what it might be that drives change agents like Winifred West. She championed humanity's capacity to nurture miracles and at the same warned against humanity's sometimes need stifle miracle making.

Winifred West was an exemplary placemaker. Her and Frensham's motto, 'IN LOVE SERVE ONE ANOTHER' Is reflected her vision for STURT. Purposefulness focused as it was on community, empathy, and integrity fits that mindset.Yet, that was 'paused' and it is yet to be revived. 

Can the STURT vision be resurrected and it is an open question as to whether THISplace's vision and purposefulness can be revived from the rubble of a corporatised fiscal rationale that did something more than pause the STURTvision. The wisdom in the ether tells us that the world will never give us a chance if we never take it.

In twisting the lion's tail STURT's Community of Ownership and Interest , the cognitive owners, provoked, challenged, and angered a large group of people. The formation of a standalone company limited by guarantee was realised but somehow to date that hasn't yet quelled the disquiet. What might, is the prospect that circumstances for miracle making, 21st C miracle making, being there.

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