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port rack


A low shelf where school children stow their 'ports': Leave your port on the portrack before coming in.

Contributor's comments: I started school in Townsville in 1956 and we had a port rack for our school ports and my Qld relatives still have ports that they use to go on holidays.

Contributor's comments: In Queensland, rather than being a general term for suitcase, port is used to refer to the school bags of primary school children. They are, of course, neatly arranged on a 'port rack'.

Contributor's comments: Queensland schools in the 50s and 60s had port racks, the veranda shelves on which kids put their school bags. My husband says in the 40s, schools had hat and bag hooks. Perhaps "port" arrived after the 40s.

Contributor's comments: [Brisbane informant] My children still used "port racks" at primary school in the 1980s and 90s, but they didn't have ports! They had bags, schoolbags, or backpacks.

Contributor's comments: Most of my schooling was in the 80's in Maroochydore and in both Primary and High School we had Ports and port racks.

Contributor's comments: I moved from Melbourne to Brisbane in 1988 as a grade 7 student. I was told to put my 'port' on the 'port rack' and had no idea what that meant. In Melbourne we had school bags and they hung on hooks.

Contributor's comments: I grew up in south-west Queensland in the 70s and early 80s. We always called our school bags our school ports, there were port racks to put them on outside the classroom.

Contributor's comments: While going through school in Townsville we used to have port racks. They were shelves on the verandahs of the classrooms where you put your schoolbag/port. I believe that the term is still being used today.

Contributor's comments: We called the racks where we placed our school bags (ports) port racks during the 80's and 90's. Children still put their backs in the port racks at schools today.