page_title: Rockhampton Girls Grammar School
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Rockhampton Girls Grammar School / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Rockhampton Girls' Grammar School. The Girls' Grammar Shool is situated on top of the Athelstane Range outside Rockhampton. It was started in 1892 and designed by E. Hockings.
context_page_description: Rockhampton Girls Grammar School is a heritage-listed private school at 155 Agnes Street, The Range, Rockhampton, Rockhampton Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Edwin Morton Hockings and built in 1890 by Moir Cousins and Co. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 20 October 2000.
context_section_description: The Rockhampton Girls Grammar School opened on 19 April 1892. There was no ceremony to mark the occasion due to the serious illness of George Barnsley Shaw, who had been very active in the establishment of the school; Shaw died on 20 April 1892. The first headmistress was Helen Downs. It was the ninth of the grammar schools to be established in Queensland and the third grammar school for girls. As with the other grammar schools, it was constituted under the Grammar Schools Act of 1860, one of the first pieces of legislation passed by the Queensland Parliament, which encouraged by way of grants of land and subsidies, the establishment of non government secular schools for secondary education within the colony. As Queensland was not establishing state high schools until the 1910s, nor the principal of universal secondary education until the 1960s, the state-assisted (albeit independent) grammar schools represented the de facto state secondary school system.
  From its establishment in 1881, the Rockhampton Grammar School (located nearby on the Athelstane Range overlooking Rockhampton) had included both a boys and a (smaller) girls department. The Government, however, refused to recognise the separate departments as entitled to separate subsidies under the Act, and as a consequence the Trustees soon insisted on a separate grammar school for girls. In 1886 the Girls Department was closed. The issue of education for women continued to be raised in the press, although, it was not until 1890 that sufficient funds were raised (via private and government subsidies) to proceed with the founding of the new school. In that year, competitive designs were called for a building suitable for a Girls Grammar School, providing residence accommodation for Headmistress and Staff, 20 Boarders, also School accommodation for 50 Scholars, with necessary classrooms etc. The building was to be of brick with the total cost not to exceed £4,000. Thirty-two entries were received with first prize awarded to Edwin Morton Hockings of Brisbane and second to James Flint of Rockhampton. Brisbane architect, Richard Gailey, objected however to the awarding of the prize to Hockings on the grounds that the plans were prepared whilst Hockings was articled to Gailey as his pupil. At Gailey's request, the first prize was recorded as his, with Hockings appointed clerk of works.
  Edwin Morton Hockings (1870-1942) was to have a long association with the school. In addition to his responsibility for the main school building, he was architect for the two major additions to it undertaken in 1897 and 1899, as well as a long serving member of the Board of Trustees (1908-1926), serving as Board Chairman in 1911 and from 1917-19. In 1895, Hockings became an Associate to the Queensland Institute of Architects, and from that year is recorded as practicing as an architect in Rockhampton. He was to practice in partnership with AM Hutton (1899-1907), LT Palmer (1916-1938), and for a short time, with his son, Thomas.
  In 1890, the tender for the erection of the new school of £3,890 by Moir Cousins and Co was accepted. Prior to construction, the plan of the building was reversed, apparently as the extent of levelling to Denham Street was not sufficient to allow for the positioning according to the original plans. Delays in completion were apparently caused by repeated alterations to the building specification, including increased ventilation and the fitting of forty-four cedar venetian shutters.
  The new two-storeyed brick building (known since 1971 as Paterson House, after Chairman of Trustees 1920-52, AH Paterson) was described by the local press as late nineteenth century, in keeping with the usual Australian Architect's interpretation of Gothic. On the ground floor were an assembly hall, two classrooms, drawing room, dining room, mistress's dining room and kitchen. The upper floor (accessed by three staircases, one each for pupils, mistresses and servants) housed two music rooms, two dormitories, three bedrooms for mistresses, servant's bedrooms, and bathrooms. The total cost was
caption: Rockhampton Girls' Grammar School, circa 1895
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