I think Melbourne's class system came the days of the gold rush when people made money and tried to set themselves up to escape their heritage and claim what they could not have in Britain. Covetous of status and wealth.
I have been to a few different family reunions where one can see how families diverge. They start the same but fortune finds one part of the family of not. So one might find a thief, a judge and a politician arise from that one root. Poets and musicians, learned scholars and clerks or cleaners. So why should going to a certain school give one status and a different school exclude another. It’s crazy illogical.
I sat beside the head of colonial bank in nz (I think it was that) on the way to nz once and he mentioned how surprised he was when it came to choosing a school for his son to discover that the best school was not private and that the class system really didn’t exist. Well it does a bit though but not like here.
who knows maybe I just felt secure in some sort of social status thingy though. My parents no longer had the money that had been in possession of their own families but they were “well bred” and educated and we lived in a big house in one of the well known better streets. We weren’t allowed to wear sand shoes out of the property in case it marked us as poor. My choice of husband was slightly frowned on because he came from the wrong side of the tracks and to be sure he didn’t have an easy assumption of fitting in wherever. But I’m far too relaxed about rules and I don’t fit wherever and I don’t seek it either.
One of my friends is married to the illegitimate son of a peasant who came here post war from Europe. With roots in Europe, a grammar education provided by a hard working mother who wanted the best for her son he now passes as a totally sophisticated man of class with a debonair style, a lot of pizazz and utter charm. I like him and he is fascinating. School did for him what his mother hoped for.
however I always thought the biggest joke was the marriage of primrose to that so called count. It showed how easily a poseur with the right adopted manners and lots of gall could take advantage.
