In the St Ildephonsus College yearbooks, among the reports on what was happening at this earliest of Newman College's antecedent schools, there are fleeting mentions of Brother Norbert Matheson (Marist Brother, St Ildephonsus College 1939-1942) and his pet emus.
Yes! Pet emus!
The first is in the 1939 yearbook when he was evidently trying to find some emu chicks at the Kelly’s property, without luck ...but we know he had them because they apparently thrived under his care. The 1941 yearbook even tells us their names - Amy and Emy - and the news that they'd just been transferred from the cemetery at New Norcia, where they’d been allowed to roam free, to the Brothers’ garden.
We wonder if they ate all the produce!
Brother Norbert left St Ildephonsus after the 1942 School year, when Amy and Emy were three years old. Having been hand-reared, they would have been quite tame.
We never thought we’d see a photo of these emus, but we recently spent an afternoon with a wonderful St Ildephonsus College Old Boy, Derek Hands (1945), who attended SIC from 1939-1945.
Derek (now 94) very kindly loaned us his photo album from his days at SIC, in which there was this amazing 1939 photo of Brother Norbert tending to his two tiny, very beautiful, healthy emu chicks!
1939 photo of Brother Norbert tending to his two tiny, very beautiful, healthy emu chicks!