This nursing home was originally a school for the deaf.It began when a Dominican nun took up the challenge when a school for the hearing impaired opened at Star of The Sea on The Hill. In time a move was made to this new school established at Waratah in 1888 for children far and wide. I know a family who moved to Newcastle so their daughter could enrole. ( I read that thirty five young nuns volunteered to come here as teachers from Ireland knowing they would never return home ....'a foreign land neath an alien sky among an unknown people...' The first arrived in 1867 and recorded a fascinating and free spirited description of a horrendous journey of 81 days on the high seas in a sailing ship. A good read? (ref Dominican archives web site)
Another move. The 'quake in 1989 took its toll on the building and because of great changes in teaching methods and advances in technology this school closed in 1993 to relocate to Mayfield.
Sign languages grow and develope like any other language and have dialects.
The local Auslan sign language has been called a dialect of British Sign Language and is influenced by Irish SL (Auslan Org). The Dominican schools could be said to have used the Irish based signs (one handed alphabet) and true to form, the rest used the British based two handed form which has become dominant.
Two major north and south sign language dialects mark a person's state of origin. Nowdays efforts are made to standardise usage, add new signs for new needs and there are those for and against borrowings from other sign languages such as, from American S L.
The posts earlier this week show the front door and the fence around this property.
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