On this day in 1991, teachers at Mount Rogers would have been forgiven for rubbing their eyes for thinking that they were seeing double or if there was a crack in the multiverse.
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When Ben and Jason Krahe started school that year, the teachers warmly received the five-year-old identical twins just like any other students. The enrollment also introduced another pair of identical twins, Lindsey and Arianne Wright, who were in the same kindergarten class at Mount Rogers Community School in Belconnen.
This sparked curiosity among the staff: how many twins were enrolled at the school?
Upon closer examination, it became evident that Ben, Jason, Lindsey, and Arianne were not the only twins at the school. In fact, there were five sets of identical twins, which included Chelsea and Belinda, John and Steven, and Connah and Kate.
But that wasn't the end of the surprises. Further investigation revealed an additional four sets of non-identical twins: Emily and Megan, Toni and Michael, Colin and Kelly, and Michelle and Christina.
The uniqueness extended beyond the students to the school as Mount Rogers was one of two twin-campus government schools established that year by the ACT Government.
The aim was to find efficiencies and budget savings in the education sector. Interestingly, eight out of the nine sets of twins were enrolled at Melba.
The government endorsed a community-driven initiative to pair existing primary schools in the neighboring areas of Spence and Melba, and later extended the concept to schools in Griffith and Narrabundah.
Although both twin-campus initiatives were introduced as a two-year trial, resource teacher Alison Smith expressed hope that Ben, Jason, and the other twins could complete their entire primary education journey at a twin-campus school.
