page_title: Bundaberg School of Arts
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Bundaberg School of Arts / History
caption_attribution_description: English: School of Arts, Bundaberg, ca. 1894. Bundaberg is situated at the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef. Four hours drive north from Brisbane, Bundaberg is located in the heart of a rich sugar and horticultural belt. Bundaberg is identified with the locally manufactured Austoft Cane harvesters and famous Bundaberg Rum.
context_page_description: Bundaberg School of Arts is a heritage-listed former school of arts and now community centre at 184 Bourbong Street, Bundaberg Central, Bundaberg, Bundaberg Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Anton Hettrich and built from 1888 to 1889. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
context_section_description: The former School of Arts is a substantial masonry building in classical revival style and was constructed in 1888-1889 as the third school of arts building on this site.
  The Burnett area, in which Bundaberg lies, was first settled by Europeans in the 1840s and 1850s as a series of pastoral runs. In the late 1860s, as good agricultural land around Maryborough began to be scarce, agriculturalists and timbergetters became interested in land on the navigable Burnett River to the north. The foundation settlers of Bundaberg selected land in 1867-68 under the "Sugar and Coffee Regulations" stemming from the Crown Lands Alienation Act of the 1860s which aimed to promote agriculture and closer settlement. The site of Bundaberg was officially surveyed in 1869. Coastal traffic grew, and copper was first mined at Mount Perry in 1871, which enabled Bundaberg to develop as a port and supply centre, in spite of competition from Maryborough for this trade. Although the higher southern bank of the river was officially surveyed as the town site, both sides soon developed wharves and buildings and were initially linked by ferry, then by bridges in the 1870s. Sugar plantations were established in the surrounding area and were to become the basis for the city's wealth as the industry boomed from the 1880s to the 1920s.
  In 1871, 3 allotments in Section 20 at the corner of Bourbong and Barolin Streets were reserved for a School of Arts. At this time the population of Bundaberg was about 100. Shortly afterwards, the institution opened in a simple weatherboard structure with little pretension to style, but which had a reading room and a library composed largely of fiction books. It was also used as a venue for meetings and for church services.
  The first Mechanics' Institutes or Schools of Arts were established in Britain in the early 1800s and were intended to assist self-improvement and to promote moral, social and intellectual growth, by providing lectures, discussions and lending libraries to a rising middle class. At the time there were no free public libraries and books were expensive, so that access to books by borrowing as subscribers provided an important service. The first School of Arts committee in Queensland was established in Brisbane in 1849 with the aim of "the advancement of the community in literary, philosophic and scientific subjects". As towns and districts became established, local committees were formed to set up schools of arts, which became one of the principal sources of adult education. The government recognised this by making land available, subsidising books and assisting with building costs.
  A new timber School of Arts building in Bundaberg was constructed on the same site in 1880. The library received a considerable boost from the donation of 3 cases of English classics, ordered from London at a cost of £100, by Thomas McIlwraith, later to become Premier of Queensland and a life member of the School of Arts. The Book Committee also purchased a further 1400 volumes for the new building, the foundation of a library of notable quality.
  Although the building was larger than the first, this was a decade when the modest timber buildings of the early settlement were being replaced with handsome masonry structures reflecting Bundaberg's prosperity. A larger and more prestigious building was needed for the School of Arts. Fortunately, the reserve had by now become very valuable real estate, being located at the corner of the intersection which held reserves for the post office, municipal chambers and bank. It was also much larger than required and in 1887 the Committee petitioned the Queensland Legislative Assembly to permit them to divide the land and sell part of it to finance a building in keeping with the town's current position and future needs. An Enabling Act was passed to allow this and the surplus land was sold for £3400.
  The new building was designed by Anton Hettrich, a local architect who was born and trained in Germany. In 1884 he commenced practice in Bundaberg and immediately won a competition for the design 
caption: Bundaberg School of Arts, circa 1894
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