Great Scot April 2019 Great Scot_156_April_2019_Online | Page 92

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ABOVE: SCOTCH SCOUTS AT ELLIOTT LODGE IN 1935. LEFT: TWO PHOTOGRAPHS OF MACKIE
HALL, TAKEN IN 1958. PREVIOUS PAGE: MACKIE HALL IN 1939.
That year, Scouts laid the foundations of Elliott Lodge, and, in
February 1929 three men built the basic structure of the 20 feet x 15 feet
(6.1m x 4.8m) hut. Scouts continued the building works.
Accommodated in Pompey’s bush shack to the north of the property,
they noticed smoke in that direction as they headed back to it for lunch
one day. On arrival, they found Pompey’s shack in ashes, with its water
tank boiling and letting off steam. Oblique references were made to the
incident in The Scotch Collegian. It was a portent of Elliott Lodge’s fate,
10 years later. Further parental and Scout work finished the lodge, which
was opened on 8 March 1930 by Pompey in the presence of guests,
including a Melbourne Grammar School Scout troop. On 18 April 1938
an extended and improved version of the lodge was opened.
On Friday 13 January 1939, the Black Friday bushfires devastated a
large part of Victoria. At the Elliott Lodge campsite that day, a Crusader’s
(interdenominational) camp was being held. Forty-three boys from
schools including Scotch, Wesley College and Carey Baptist Grammar
School were in attendance. Smoke was seen to the north. Ash began
to fall. The boys split up into two groups, each one choosing a different
escape route.
The group that chose to go down Old Chum Creek Road was
trapped near the post office by fire fronts bearing down from the north
and the east. Considering kneeling and praying their only chance of
survival, as they did so they realised that the heat and noise of the fire
had abated: a westerly wind had blown both fire fronts away from them.
On meeting up with the group that had safely gone down Chum Creek
Road, their mates were amazed to see them alive.
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Great Scot Number 156 – April 2019
The fire destroyed Elliott Lodge. Fortunately, the canny Scotsman
Robert ‘Mopoke’ Wilson (born 2 October 1887, staff 1911-56, died 1
February 1969), known to non-Scouts as ‘Nutty’ Wilson, had visited the
Lodge days before the fire. He doubled its insurance from £100 to £200.
A site on higher ground was chosen for the new Elliott Lodge, which
was opened on 11 May 1940, and in different configurations has served
Scouts ever since.
Back at Scotch, a new building, Mackie Hall, was nearly completed.
Miss Helen Mackie (born 1841, died 5 August 1937) was one of the
Mackie siblings who, in 1922, donated £10,000 pounds to build
McMeckan House in honour of their late uncle, James McMeckan.
In her will Miss Mackie left further money, and her trustees, including
School Council member George Lewis Aitken (born 4 February 1864, SC
1875-82, died 27 February 1940), decided to apportion £10,000 towards
the building of Mackie Hall.
On 15 October 1938 Aitken laid the foundation stone of the building
designed by architect John Francis Deighton Scarborough (born 5
February 1901, died 21 October 1973), whose first building at Scotch
was the Chapel.
Opened on 6 March 1939 by the Governor of Victoria, Lord
Huntingfield, Mackie Hall had a 300 seat theatre downstairs, and a
library upstairs that was twice the size of its predecessor. Adjoining the
Hall was the Music School, with four soundproof rooms, a classroom,
and other rooms. It was an Art Deco building with soft curves that were
harmonious with Scotch’s landscape, and which made it well regarded.
However, all was not as pleasing inside. Those who attempted to
hold theatrical performances in it realised that it lacked the required
space, and within about 30 years it ceased being used for that purpose.
The library upstairs was taken over in 1965 by the flourishing Music
School when the library moved into the first floor of the new and larger
Longmore Building (common room and library). In 1979 the Music School
completed its takeover of Mackie Hall.
To the disappointment of those who admired its style, Mackie Hall
was demolished in 2000 to make way for the James Forbes Academy,
which was better designed to meet Scotch’s requirements for Music and
Drama. Its bowed upper window was reused on the northern face of the
James Forbes Academy at the bottom of Fordholm Road, and the rusty
Art Deco metal letters spelling out Mackie Hall were salvaged for the
Archives, which had them restored for future display.