The grade six graduation of Sienna Cahir and Kade McKay from St Brendan's Primary School in Dunnstown marks the end of a mighty era of attendees from one family that span six generations.
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Nell Leonard, the great grandmother of Sienna and Kade, and her late husband Leo, were both pupils at the school in the 1940s, following in the footsteps of both their mothers (and their siblings) who attended in the early 1900s and Ms Leonard's grandfather Con Britt was one of the early students at the then-new school in the 1860s.
Mrs Leonard's own association with the school is also an achievement in itself. After going to school there herself she has been involved for 16 years as a mother, 20 years as a grandmother, and 13 years as a great grandmother.
The Leonard's seven children all attended as well as 14 of their 25 grandchildren and seven of their 33 great-grandchildren with Sienna and Kade the last of their generation to graduate from the school.
Even in years when Mrs Leonard had no children or grandchildren attending St Brendan's, because she ran the local shop which provided the school lunch orders she was still an active member of the school community.
Not many schools can claim they have had six generations come through and that's the joy of small school - local people in the community support their local school and it's important to them to have those links that go through.
- Inez French
"It would only have been a few years between generations as they almost match up," said Mrs Leonard's daughter and Sienna's grandmother Dianne Cahir.
"Mum's youngest would have finished school in grade six in 1980, then the first grandchild started in 1982 so it was probably only two years between generations."
St Brendan's Primary School principal Inez French said the family had made an immense impact on the school over the years.
"They have been fully involved. Small schools rely on families for lots of support. This is a milestone. The family have made such a contribution over the years and really made the school what it is," Ms French said.
"Not many schools can claim they have had six generations come through and that's the joy of small school - local people in the community support their local school and it's important to them to have those links that go through.
"They provide a strong link between family and school which is vital in small schools."
Ms Cahir said it was emotional to see the final two family members graduate but would not completely end the family's ties to the school.
For many big events such as the school mass and Mothers Day lunch, local mums are also invited and the women in the family often act as "surrogates" for students without grandparents or extended family.
"Sienna and Kade have always been lucky to have both grandparents and great grandparents to attend their things. A lot of children don't even have their grandparents these days," Ms Cahir said.
"A couple of kids, friends of Sienna and Kade, have asked if we think we can still come."
While much has changed at the school over the generations, the Dunnstown area is still home to many of the original settler families like the Leonard-Cahir-McKay clan and their extended families.
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"It was very much a small farming community. Mum's family, she was a Britt, was one of the first to settle in the area in the early 1860s when they bought one of the first blocks of land ... when the government split big pastoral runs in to 10 acre blocks," Ms Cahir said.
"It was close to Ballarat and the goldfields and there was a lot of timber mills in the area. They land pretty much got cleared and they farmed it."
Ms Cahir said it was around the same time in the early 1860s that the area became known as Dunnstown, which got its name from a local distillery managed by a Don Dunn. Mail for the area were delivered to the distillery, so addressed to the recipient c/o Mr Dunn's town which evolved in to Dunnstown
The school had its origins in 1858 in a wooden building known as the Catholic School Shed not far from its present site. It was named St Brendan's around 1900 but when the church was built in the school site and the school moved to an area behind the church, it was renamed St Mary's. In 1952 a new modern brick school building was built to replace the old wooden building and it underwent another change when the school was placed under the patronage of St Brendan's.
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