page_title: Warwick Central State School
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Warwick Central State School / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Warwick Central State School, ca. 1875 The foundation stone was laid for the Warwick Central State School in Guy Street on 25 June 1874. The sandstone building was completed in July 1875. It was the second state school in Warwick. It functioned for many years as two separate institutions known as Warwuick West Boys' School and Warwick West Girls' and Infants' School. In the late eighies, the name was changed to Warwick Central Schools reflecting the transfer of the main business centre from Albion to Palmerin Street. The two schools were amalgamated in 1933. (Description supplied with photograph.).
context_page_description: Warwick Central State School is a heritage-listed state school at 55B Guy Street, Warwick, Southern Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1874 to 1875. It is also known as Warwick West Boys School, Girls School and Infants School and Warwick West School. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 6 February 2006.
context_section_description: The Central State School is a stone building constructed in 1875 as the second school in Warwick, but one of the earliest State-run schools in Queensland.
  
  Education in Australia was first provided by Churches and by small private concerns. In 1848 a New South Wales Board of National Education was formed to provide public, secular education through National Schools. When Queensland separated from New South Wales in December 1859, two National Schools had been built in Queensland, the earliest in Warwick in 1850.
  The Education Act of 1860 was amongst the earliest legislation enacted by the new colony of Queensland. It established a Board of General Education and provided for a system of government-subsidised primary schools, similar to that in New South Wales. Under the Queensland Act, communities were required to contribute one-third of the cost of construction of new school buildings. Pupils at schools were also subject to payment of fees. At its commencement in 1860, the Board acquired four schools; 73 schools had been opened by 1868, and by 1874, 203 schools were open.
  Many of the schools were conducted in buildings that were of primitive construction, the first Warwick school being constructed of timber slabs.
  Warwick was settled early and soon became an important regional centre. The Warwick National School quickly became overcrowded and, as development in Warwick spread westward, was no longer centrally located. In 1873 subscriptions were opened for a new school. In August, three lots of land on the corner of Guy and Percy Streets were purchased from George Clark of East Talgai for £150. The firm of Suter and Voysey submitted plans to the Board of Education on 20 September 1873 at a proposed cost of £1800.
  Architect Benjamin Backhouse employed Richard George Suter in 1865. In 1864 Backhouse had prepared a model plan for the Queensland Board of Education, to be used for country schools. Whilst employed in Backhouse's office Suter prepared designs for school buildings, which later lead to the Board commissioning Suter for the design of timber schools and teacher's residences. From the end of 1868 until 1875, Suter undertook almost all of the Board's work, which involved approximately 30 National Schools. He described the plans for the school as being drawn up with "the strictest view to economy and consistency with the accommodation required." This accommodation provided for large classrooms with galleried seating where several classes would be taught at the same time under several teachers and pupil teachers.
  The Mayor of Warwick, at a ceremony attended by 2000, people laid the foundation stone on 25 June 1874. The stonework was contracted to John McCulloch at a cost of £1055. John Keleher carried out the timber structures and joinery. The roof was originally shingled. It was completed by the end of March 1875 and was known as the Warwick Central School, the Warwick National School being renamed the Warwick East School. A dividing fence was constructed in the following year to separate the girls' and boys' sections.
  Architect Richard Gailey, reporting to the Board of Education on 12 November 1875 criticised the design for its poor lighting and ventilation and commented on the ill fit of the windows. He recommended the construction of playground shelter sheds.
  It was usual for parents to provide one fifth of the cost of such sheds and money was collected for them. They cost £140 each and were built by Keleher and completed by 5 February 1878.
  In 1884 Johann Guntz bequeathed land adjoining the school and further land was added to the grounds in 1892 from the estate of Carl Brell.
  The Warwick West School was divided by gender, the Girls and Infants School and the Boys School being conducted in identical wings of the school separated by walls and by a dividing fence down the centre of the school grounds. This division of the sexes remained in place until 1 January 1933 when the two schools where finally amalgamated to become the Warwick Central State School.
  In 1909 both the main school building and toilet block require
caption: Warwick Central State School, circa 1875
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