School in Queensland, Australia
Toowoomba East State School is a heritage-listed state school on the corner of Arthur and Mary Streets, East Toowoomba, Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1935 to 1936 by the Queensland Department of Public Works. It was originally known as Queen's Park State School. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 28 July 2017.
History.
Toowoomba East State School (SS) opened in 1887, on its current site east of Queens Park, to service the population growth in East Toowoomba at the time. The school is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. The school retains a Depression-era brick school building (Block A, 1936); set in landscaped grounds, with sporting facilities and mature trees. The school has been in continuous operation since its establishment.
Traditional country of the Giabal and Jarowair people, European settlement of the Toowoomba area commenced in 1840 when squatters occupied pastoral runs on the Darling Downs. At the junction of two routes to Gorman's and Hodgson's gaps through the Main Range, the small settlement of Drayton evolved from 1842 as a stopping place for pastoralists and travellers. Six kilometres to its north-east was an area known as "The Swamp" – renamed Toowoomba by 1859 – which was first surveyed in 1849 as 12 suburban allotments of Drayton.
Toowoomba grew rapidly due to its superior land and water supply, support from squatters and land speculators, and, from 1855, providing an easier route to Brisbane via the Toll Bar Road. Toowoomba was declared a municipality (the Borough of Toowoomba) in July 1860, and by the 1861 census it was clear that Toowoomba had eclipsed Drayton. The Main Line railway arrived in 1867 (connecting to Brisbane in 1876), and Toowoomba's economy diversified to include numerous small-scale manufacturing outlets, while the majority of administrative, service and other government and education functions for the surrounding region were centred on the town. Toowoomba was also popular as a summer retreat for the colony's elite. It was declared a city (the City of Toowoomba) in 1904 and by 1911 had a population of 10,636.
Toowoomba was an early centre for education, with the area's first National School (later Toowoomba South State School) opening in 1865. The establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early/new communities and integral to their success. Locals often donated land and labour for a school's construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers.
To help ensure consistency and economy, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, an easy and cost-effective approach that also enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy and Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting, and ventilation. Standardisation produced distinctly similar schools across Queensland with complexes of typical components.
Toowoomba East SS, opened on 17 January 1887, was established on a 2.5 acre (1ha) reserve for a National School at the corner of Mary Street and Margaret Street, which had been gazetted in 1872. Although there was local pressure for a school in East Toowoomba from 1876, when fund raising by the community began, the population was not large enough to justify a state school. As a result of later population growth, the Queensland Government approved a school in East Toowoomba in October 1885. By this time the community had collected £200 of the £290 required as its one-fifth share of the £1433 construction cost, and the school was also initially referred to as Queen's Park State School. The school consisted of a timber building set on brick piers, with two classrooms, close to the corner of Mary Street and Arthur Street. It was designed to accommodate 250 students, and had admitted 235 students by February 1887.
Growing student numbers – with 778 enrolled by 1927 – soon led to additions to Toowoomba East SS. By 1913 there were three timber buildings; a fourth (Infants) wing was added in 1928; and a fifth wing in 1932. A school residence, built in 1889, stood in the southeast corner of the reserve, fronting Mary Street; and a school bell on a stand was erected the same year.
As well as more buildings, the school required larger grounds to cater for growing student numbers. In 1926, 1.25 acres (0.5ha) of land was added.
The school was also beautified by tree plantings from 1888, including on the west side of the original school reserve and along its Arthur and Mary Street frontages. An important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as ovals and tennis courts. Also, trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools. Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890. Aesthetically designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors, and educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline, developed aesthetic tastes, and inspired people to stay on the land. Twelve camphor laurels were planted along the west fence in 1898, to provide shelter from westerly winds and by 1922 Toowoomba East SS had "large camphor and other ornamental and shade trees".
The school's timber buildings were still not sufficient for student numbers, and in the mid-1930s a new brick school building was approved for Toowoomba East SS. The Great Depression, commencing in 1929 and extending well into the 1930s, caused a dramatic reduction of public building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. In response, the Queensland Government provided relief work for unemployed Queenslanders, and also embarked on an ambitious and important building program to provide impetus to the economy.
Even before the October 1929 stock market crash, the Queensland Government initiated an Unemployment Relief Scheme, through a work program administered by the Department of Public Works (DPW). This included painting and repairs to school buildings. By mid-1930 men were undertaking grounds improvement works to schools under the scheme.
In June 1932 the Forgan Smith Labor Government came to power from a campaign that advocated increased government spending to counter the effects of the Depression. The government embarked on a large public building program designed to promote the employment of local skilled workers, the purchase of local building materials and the production of commodious, low maintenance buildings which would be a long-term asset to the state. The construction of substantial brick school buildings in prosperous or growing suburban areas and regional centres during the 1930s provided tangible proof of the government's commitment to remedy the unemployment situation.
Depression-era brick school buildings form a recognisable and important type, exhibiting many common characteristics. Most were designed in a classical idiom to project the sense of stability and optimism which the government sought to convey through the architecture of its public buildings. Frequently, they were two storeys above an open undercroft and built to accommodate up to 1000 students. They adopted a symmetrical plan form and often exhibited a prominent central entry. The plan arrangement was similar to that of timber buildings, being only one classroom deep, accessed by a long straight verandah or corridor. Due to their long plan forms of multiple wings, they could be built in stages if necessary; resulting in some complete designs never being realised. Classrooms were commonly divided by folding timber partitions and the undercroft was used as covered play space, storage, ablutions and other functions.
Despite their similarities, each Depression-era brick school building was individually designed by a DPW architect, which resulted in a wide range of styles and ornamental features being utilised within the overall set. These styles were derived from contemporary tastes and fashions. Over time, variations occurred in building size, decorative treatment, and climatic-responsive features.
Construction of the Depression-era brick school building (Block A in 2017) at Toowoomba East SS occurred during 1935–36, for a cost of £16,326. The new building was sited parallel to, and facing, Arthur Street, after relocation of the old timber buildings. As the new building was only designed for 640 students, and enrolment was 1000 by the time it was officially opened on 8 May 1937 by James Kane, the Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for East Toowoomba, it was necessary to retain at least four of the old timber buildings. These were relocated at a distance behind the new brick building to form a parade ground between them. The school residence was removed c. 1936.
Block A was constructed with three levels, consisting of an undercroft with two floors of eight classrooms above, for a total of 16 classrooms. The undercroft comprised play areas with concrete floors and drinking troughs and had openings leading out to the grounds via broad concrete stairs. The first and second floors had similar layouts. They comprised a long wing of six classrooms divided by a central stairwell. The eastern three classrooms had connecting doors; while the western three classrooms were separated by folding partitions, which could be opened to form a large assembly room. Each classroom was oriented so that students faced west to a wall-mounted hyloplate (blackboard) and had two large banks of windows on their south side, giving gentle southern natural left-hand light to students, forced to write with their right hand. A verandah-like, open corridor ran along the north side of the classrooms providing access. Projecting north from the corridor was a central entrance block. On the first floor this comprised an entry hall, reached from the front garden by a branching stair, with a head teachers and male teachers room, one either side of the hall. On the second floor, this block comprised a female teachers room and a cloak room. At each end of the long wing was a short perpendicular wing, comprising a stairwell, perpendicular corridor, cloak room and another classroom, which had north-facing windows and hyloplates on the east wall to ensure light from the "correct" side. At the landing of the central stairwell between first and second floors was a balconette that opened out to the south side overlooking the parade ground behind.
The walls of the three storeys were differentiated, with painted cement render on the undercroft, exposed brickwork for the first floor up to the window sill height of the second floor, and painted cement render above that to the eaves line. Sunhoods, supported on substantial timber brackets, shaded all banks of windows on the first and second floors. The hipped and gabled roof was clad with asbestos cement shingles, and the three gables on the north side of the building were battened and clad with fibro-cement. A large ventilation fleche topped the centre of the roof above the entrance.
During the 1950s further additions were made to the school's accommodation and grounds. In 1955, additional land was added to the west side of the school grounds, resumed from neighbouring residential allotments. Later grounds extensions, to the west and south of the original school reserve, from the 1960s onwards, meant that by 2012 the grounds covered 3.4ha. By 1956 a highset brick extension (Block B in 2017), with two classrooms had been constructed attached to the west end of the rear (south) of Block A. This building was renovated in c. 2016, enclosing its verandahs and demolishing the wall between verandahs and classrooms to create larger teaching areas.
Changes were also made to Block A. In 1966, the cloak room at the west end of the first floor was converted into a Health Services room. In c. 1974, two classrooms at the east end of the first floor of the centre wing were used as staff rooms, while another classroom was used as the principal's office, and another was divided in half by a partition to accommodate a store room and Health Services Room. One cloak room was converted to a store room while another was converted to a work room. In c. 1979, the undercroft was partially enclosed with glass louvres and doors. The northern corridors were enclosed with glazing by 1997. In c. 1997, the centre wing was altered in "upgrading"