Plans for a new, substantial brick primary and rural school were prepared in the office of the Queensland Government Architect, Public Works Department. The Chief Architect at this time was Andrew Baxter Leven (1885-1966). Leven was born, educated and worked as an Inspector of Works in Scotland before migrating to Australia. From 1910 to 1951 he was employed by the Queensland Government Works Department and was Chief Architect and Quantity Surveyor from 1933 to 1951. Other members of the office involved in the design of the Tully Rural School were William Jestyn Moulds and Harold James Parr. During the 1930s Depression a government-initiated works scheme was established to create employment. This involved the employment of architects, foremen, day labourers and the use of local materials in the design and construction of government buildings such as court houses, government offices and state schools. This scheme, under which the replacement Tully Rural School was constructed, was instigated by Labor Premier William Forgan Smith. The new school cost approximately £13,000, and contained 8 classrooms, head teacher's room, cloakrooms, and male and female staffrooms. The area underneath was concreted to form a large sheltered play area. The new building was occupied from the beginning of the 1938 school year, and was opened officially by Hon. Percy Pease, MLA for Herbert and Deputy Premier, on 1 February that year. A new head teacher, Charles Arthur Irish, was appointed, with instructions to turn Tully school into a real rural school. Some of the projects he initiated included: a forestry plot planted with Kauri and Hoop pines and Indian Teak; annual plantings in the school grounds, including a grove of maple (the gardens are now considered amongst the finest in Queensland state schools); poultry raising; a bushhouse of ferns; garden rock walling; and manual training programmes which supplied the school with blackboard frames, library cupboards, and other joinery. A theatre was built under the school, and a sports oval was developed adjacent to the forestry plot. During the Second World War, student project clubs raised funds for the local Red Cross and Comfort Funds, with boys growing and selling vegetables, and girls cutting and selling flowers from the school gardens they tended. At this period the garden included over 300 rose bushes. Domestic Science students made clothing for the children of Britain, and large fetes were conducted annually, the proceeds of which were shared between the school and the patriotic societies. After the war, Memorial Gates were erected; these list the past pupils and teachers who served with the armed forces during the Second World War.