The "cutting" below Greig Street (so-called because the road had to be cut from the side of the hill) was made by about 50 Chinese labourers, working with pick and shovel. They were camped for some weeks by the beach on the first school site.
The picture shows 687 Portobello Road, after 1925, when the new school was built on Roebuck Rise. A fairly empty Churchill Rise (Greig Street) climbs the hill above the cutting.