Maryborough Central State School is a heritage-listed state school at 471 Kent Street, Maryborough, Fraser Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1875 to 1953. It is also known as Central State School for Boys, Central State School for Girls, and Central State School for Infants. It was the first state school in Maryborough and was established with separate girls and boys departments. It is the oldest public school in Queensland. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 31 October 1994.
History
The first state school at Maryborough was established in 1862 in a small building at the northeast corner of Kent and Lennox Streets (on the site that is now known as the Maryborough School of Arts building). In the first week, 35 scholars attended the primary school on Tuesday morning when the school first opened. The number was growing quickly, and by then a good school was rapidly being established.
In 1865 the school shifted to a purpose-built schoolhouse at the corner of Alice and Lennox Streets. Despite an additional wing being erected in 1872, the Alice Street premises proved too small to cater for Maryborough's burgeoning population, and the school was moved yet again to the present Kent Street premises in 1877.One School – Four Sites, ed. David Clark and Dianne Humphreys (Maryborough, QLD., Maryborough Central School Parents and Citizens Association, 2012)
Maryborough Central State School has a number of historically significant buildings. Block C, a two-storeyed masonry building, was erected in 1875–1876, initially as an immigration depot, and was converted for school use in mid-1877. The adjacent single-storeyed timber infants' school (Block A) was erected in 1881–1882, as was the teacher's residence on the far side of the school reserve, fronting Sussex Street. Two of the three timber-framed playsheds were erected in 1879, the other in 1909, and the two-storeyed masonry building (Block B) behind the infants' school, was erected in 1923–24 as a technical college workshop.
Block C The Maryborough Central State School site initially was acquired by the colonial government as a reserve for immigration purposes, and the first building on the site (now Block C) was erected as an immigration depot. In 1874 the Queensland Colonial Architect's office, headed by FDG Stanley, prepared plans for a new immigration building at Maryborough, in response to increased direct immigration to the Port of Maryborough. The building was to accommodate on the ground floor, wards for single men, two storerooms, a visitors' room and warders' quarters, and on the first floor, wards for married couples and single women. To each ward was attached a kitchen, lavatory, bath room and earth closets. Tenders were called in December 1874, and the contract was let in early March 1875 to Maryborough builder John T Annear, who tendered with a price of , and a time of 10 months.
The immigration building had been completed by early April 1876, and the colonial architect recommended that a wardsman occupy the building at once. This action was approved, but it is not clear whether immigrants were ever housed at the new barracks. The principal obstacle to occupation was the lack of water storage. The Maryborough Chronicle of 4 April 1876, in describing the new immigration building, commented:
Now that the buildings are completed they are perfectly useless until supplied with tanks for water. For this purpose there is no money available, and the building must remain untenanted until the necessary money is granted by the Government.
Whilst funding was made available for fencing and gates in 1876, a contract for two large brick underground tanks, each deep by in diameter, was not let until March 1877. In the meantime, the colonial secretary had been approached with an alternative proposal for the use of the site.
By December 1876, the Department of Public Instruction was investigating the possibility of exchanging the Maryborough primary school premises in Alice Street for the new immigration building, proposing to convert the immigration barracks into state schools (boys and combined girls and infants), and to convert the former school buildings, which comprised a two-storeyed brick building, a single-storeyed timber building and two playsheds, into an immigration depot. Although a new school reserve had been gazetted in October 1876 – bounded by Kent, Sussex, Ferry and Fort Streets and adjacent to the new immigration reserve – acute overcrowding, particularly in the infant classes, at the Alice Street school prompted more direct action. In February 1877, Executive Council passed the proposal to exchange the existing school buildings for the new immigration premises, with the cost of fitting up the school buildings as an immigration depot to be met by the Department of Public Instruction.
Whilst the majority of parents were in favour of the exchange, the wider Maryborough community was not. At a well-attended meeting held at the Town Hall on 8 June 1876, residents protested at the conversion of the present immigration barracks to any other use than that for which it was originally built. They sought instead to sponsor the construction of a new school building, and elected a committee, headed by Mayor J. T. Annear (contractor for the immigration depot), to pass on their resolutions to the Queensland Government and to institute a building fund. The protest was too late; the exchange went ahead despite a recommendation from the assistant immigration agent in Maryborough, that the school buildings would be unsuitable as an immigration depot, being in a most wretched state of decay, and dirt having quite the appearance of being hurried to dilapidation.
Specifications for remodelling the interior of the immigration barracks for school purposes were prepared in March 1877, and the work was completed by mid-July, at a cost of . On the ground floor, the partitions forming the sitting room and two bedrooms of the warder's quarters were removed, and the two kitchens (warder's and single men's) were converted to classrooms, with galleries suitable for boys over the age of 8 years. On the upper floor, the two kitchens (married couples' and single women's) were converted to classrooms with galleries suitable for children under 8 years of age. The bathrooms and earth closets on both floors were fitted out as hat rooms and lavatories. The two brick underground tanks were removed and re-erected at the former school buildings in Alice Street.
The Alice Street school was closed from 17 to 20 July 1877 for furniture to be moved to the new building, and re-opened at the former immigration barracks on 23 July, with boys accommodated on the ground floor, and girls and infants on the first floor. Although the latter was a combined school, the girls occupied one half of the upper floor, and the infants the other, and there was little exchange between the two staff. From January 1878, three separate departments operated at Maryborough Central School: boys, girls, infants, the total enrolment for the combined girls and infants school having reached over 600.
The school population increased rapidly in the first few years, and alterations costing just under were made to the main building by Messrs J & J Rooney in 1880–1881. The lack of classroom space was not eased, however, until the construction of a separate infants' building (Block A) in the school grounds in 1881–1882.
Asphalting, fencing and repairs were undertaken in 1910.
In the period 1914–16, a second staircase was installed in the main building, leading from the girls' school on the upper floor over the playgrounds at the back of the boys' school. In 1917 the school building committee decided to memorialise past students of Maryborough Central School who had served with the armed forces overseas since 1914, with the erection of an Honour Board in the foyer of the main building. This was unveiled on 19 April 1917.
From 15 August 1932, the Central State School for Girls and the Central State School for Boys were combined as the Maryborough Central State School, under a single principal. Since 1877, the two schools had shared common premises and a single building committee, and in 1932 it was finally recognised that the schools could be more efficiently administrated if combined. The Maryborough Central Infants' School remained separate.
By the 1930s, the main school building was badly in need of repair. In 1932–1933, Works Department prepared a remodelling scheme to cost approximately . This comprised partitioning each floor into seven classrooms and teachers' rooms; walls were remodelled to permit maximum light and ventilation; and two sets of concrete stairs were constructed from the first floor, at the rear of the building. The building was rendered at this time. Work commenced in late 1933, and continued into 1934. When school re-commenced after the summer holidays, pupils were accommodated at the Maryborough show grounds until the renovations to the school building were completed in late May 1934. The official opening of the remodelled school was held on 13 July 1934.
From 1941, the office of the Chief Medical Officer of School Health Services, Maryborough District, was located in the main building of the Central School.
From August 1942, the Royal Australian Air Force used the main building of the Central School to conduct instructional classes (outside of school hours) for its 65th Squadron, apparently based at Maryborough. In 1943, the Air Force enclosed one of the southeast verandahs of the building, as an Orderly Room.
Block A (Infant's School) The former Immigration Barracks barely accommodated the Alice Street students who moved there in mid-1877; by early 1879, overcrowding had reached chronic proportions, with some parents refusing to send their children to the school. In 1880, the Department of Public Instruction agreed that a new building was required. Plans were prepared by Public Works, and tenders were called for a new infants school building in March 1881. The contract was let in June that year to Maryborough contractors George William & Edwin Negus, with a price of , and the building was completed in August 1882. It comprised one large central classroom, and smaller a classroom at either end.
In 1910, dormer windows were installed in the southern side of the roof above the central classroom, tenders being called in April and the work completed in August. In 1920, two additional dormer windows were inserted on the northern side of the roof.
In late 1934 the infants' school was remodelled, with the southern verandah and hatroom removed and the southern end wall sheeted in weatherboards; the galleries removed in the main room, its floors levelled and the space partitioned into three classrooms; all classrooms lined in pine; and windows throughout enlarged.
In the immediate years after the end of the Second World War, the infant school population boomed. A new classroom was added to the northwest end of the building , necessitating the removal of a hat room. About 1953, this was extended with a two-classroom wing, and another wing was added to the southeast end of the building.
Teacher's Residence In October 1881, the Department of Public Instruction also let a contract for the construction of a teacher's residence in the grounds of Maryborough Central Staee School. This was erected and completed in 1882 by builder Robert Menzies, for just under .
The residence has undergone a number of small renovations since first constructed. The northwest end of the building was extended in 1909, with the addition of a new bedroom, bathroom and front verandah. In 1935 a flush toilet was added to the back of the building; this room and the bathroom and back verandah were remodelled in 1939 to the present configuration.
Playsheds