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Gottaas, William

William Gottaas was the son of Elias ('Louie') Gottaas (1829-1894), a Norwegian immigrant, and his Australian Wife Sarah Barker (1854-1930). Sarah was the daughter of a Biggam neighbour, William Barker, from Cambridgeshire, England. A file note reports that Elias deserted from the ship 'Thames' at Geelong in Victoria in December 1859. He is credited with having made the first pair of Norwegian snow shoes to be used in the Kiandra area, at the time of the gold rush in the 1860's. He and Sarah raised a family of eight children, son William being the third. He grew up at Biggam, north of Berridale, and a number of his sibs were to live and work in that area. William was born with a serious disability, both arms being mere stumps with a thumb and a finger. He was however very talented, and taught himself to write with his toes.

In spite of his handicap, William became teacher at the remote little subsidised school known colloquially as Tin Dish school, but formally as Bobeyan. The school was located over the road from the well-known Brayshaw's Hut in the far south of the ACT.

"William Gottaas was the teacher throughout the school's existence.......... While career details of all government teachers employed by the Department of Public Instruction from 1869 to 1908 have been kept, William's name does not appear. As a teacher in a subsidised school, he was not regarded as being directly in the Department's employ. However, a card covers the subsidy paid to him, which lists the terms he taught at Bobeyan, from fourth term 1907 to the end of the first term in 1910. This raises the question: for how long had he been teaching the Bobeyan children in their rented room before the subsidy began?".

[From Babette Scougall, 'Remembering Namadgi's old bush school', Canberra Historical Journal, September 2007. p.20

After the Bobeyan school closed, he taught for a short time at 'Hollymount' subsidised school near Adaminaby, then left the Monaro district and went to Bemboka. He died there in 1956. He did not marry.

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