The year was 1989, the month September, and it was a busy one for Tamworth's schools.
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Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains the name of an Indigenous person who has died.
Russian Consul-General Igor Shtcherbakov and his wife Tatiana visited Hillvue Primary School. Students performed a display of national dances from regions across the world to symbolise Australia's multi-cultural make up.
Tamworth town hall came alive to the sounds of trumpets and young voices as the Education Department hosted the annual Choral Concert. Public and Catholic schools from Tamworth, Manilla, Nundle, Nemingha and Dungowan took part.
During the month, Calrossy students were quite wary of a visitor to a science class, when student Beckie Stewart brought her pet for a visit: not a cute and furry one but instead a two metre carpet snake. It seems most of the students had much the same reaction as local shoppers when a lost coastal carpet python was discovered in Peel Street on Monday, April 15, 2024.
The city's oldest high school, Tamworth High, took a walk down memory lane, celebrating 70 years of education. A special feature of the event was a parade of old wedding gowns, with the oldest dating back to 1906.
As Year 12 students entered the pointy end of their final year, Tamworth High language students Penelope Swann and Tanya Moore sat for their first Higher School Certificate French comprehension test in September ahead of the main body of exams in October.
In other news, the family of Mark Anthony Haines, who was found dead on railway tracks near Tamworth on January 16, 1988, continued their own investigations into his death as a result of an open finding at the first inquest into Mark's death. The teen was struck by a west bound good train and fatally injured. A crashed car was found nearby the boy's body, and Mark's uncle Don Craigie said if police could find out who was driving the car "we will find out what happened to Mark". Mark's family continues to search for answers to the teen's death. A second inquest during April 2024 was adjourned for six months.
The Moonbi Ranges continued to prove treacherous, when on Friday, September 1, a runaway truck thundered through Moonbi village striking four vehicles and leaving dozens of locals shaking their heads.
This was the fourth in a series of significant truck accidents in the village that year. In an earlier accident the village's post office was wiped out by a tearaway truck.
Finally, Tamworth residents got into the National Red Nose Day on September 8, with hundreds of locals spotted sporting the charity accessory and a service station on Goonoo Goonoo Road reporting it had sold out of car noses the week before.
