About
In the early seventies, a number of people migrated from Tamilnadu to Australia. After a few years, they observed that the children, having been greatly influenced by the local predominant English language, were losing touch with the Tamil language.
In 1977, in a small family gathering, some of these people mooted the idea of a formal session teaching Tamil to the Australian-living Tamil children on a fortnightly basis. Mrs. Saro Srinivasan and Mr. Srinivasan offered their home and the classes started to run every fortnight. Later, as this movement gathered momentum, an informal association was formed under the name ‘Balar Malar’. Mr.Durairaj, a teacher of Ashfield Boys’ High School took steps to get the support of the state Government and subsequently obtained permission to run the classes in the same school premises.Prof. Dr. Srinivas Ambirajan, Mrs and Mr.Muniappan, Dr. R.S.Muthukrishnan and others were instrumental in making the school popular, by teaching stories, Thirukural etc. along with the language. The School started receiving partial funding from the Ethnic School Board of the State Government.Until 1991, the school management had been taken care of by a few families in an informal way and in 1992, a formal association under the name and style of ‘Balar Malar Educational Association Inc.’ was formed. Dr. Manhoran was elected as the first president of the association.
From then onwards, the growth of the association was tremendous.
In 1993 one more branch of the school started functioning in Seven Hills with 25 students and 3 teachers. In 1995, Holsworthy branch started functioning and in 2000, Denistone branch was started. In 2009 a branch in Quakers Hill was started to cater to the children in that area. In 2013, another branch in Hornsby was started. Newcastle branch was started in 2015 and then Minto in 2017. Cherrybrook School is the proud addition in 2021. As of now, there are 7 Balar Malar branches in 9 locations, with a student strength of over 1000.