page_title: Wooloowin State School
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Wooloowin State School / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of the rooftop of Wooloowin State School at Lutwyche, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
context_page_description: Wooloowin State School is a heritage-listed public co–educational primary school at 663 Lutwyche Road, Lutwyche, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1914 to 1934. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 13 January 1995.
context_section_description: Wooloowin State School was built in four stages. The first section was constructed in 1914, with additions in 1918, 1925 and 1934. In 1914, it was considered a model school at the forefront of progressive education in Queensland, and this was reflected in the building, grounds, furniture, equipment, facilities, curriculum, and staff. It was a model school for a modern, rapidly expanding suburb.
  Originally part of Lutwyche, Wooloowin was named after the Wooloowin railway station (on the line to Northgate Junction) which was opened in November 1889. The area had developed a suburban identity in the 1880s, when the larger estates were subdivided, but in the first half of the 20th century, particularly following the extension of the tramline along Lutwyche Road to Kedron in 1913-1914, Wooloowin really boomed as a residential working class suburb.
  In 1911, the Wooloowin Progress Association was formed. Its first secretary was William Alfred Jolly, later Mayor of Windsor, and in 1925, first Lord Mayor of Greater Brisbane. It was largely due to the work of the Wooloowin Progress Association, who formed a school building committee in October 1911, that the Wooloowin State School was established. Prior to 1914, Wooloowin children attended the overcrowded state schools at Eagle Junction and Bowen Bridge Road.
  The Department of Public Instruction purchased Nolan's Paddock, a three-acre site on Lutwyche Road, for £1,200, and the design for a new school for this site was prepared in the Government Architect's Office of the Department of Public Works in 1913.
  Alfred Barton Brady was employed with the Queensland Government as Government Architect from 1892-1922. Brady claimed that he always advised on arrangement, style and materials, but it appears that his senior assistant, Thomas Pye supervised much of the detailed design. During the 30 years they worked together in the Department, Brady and Pye assembled a talented group of architects and draftsmen who were considered the equal of any in Australia, including from 1893 to 1903 John Smith Murdoch, who was to become Commonwealth Director-General of Works in 1927. From the office of the Government Architect there developed a tradition of fine government buildings, including many post offices, customs houses and court houses throughout the State. The Department of Public Instruction had handled school design and construction between 1879 and 1893, following which responsibility was returned to the Government Architect's office. Some of the more significant early 20th century schools designed by the Government Architect's office include East Brisbane State School (1899-1900) and Windsor State School (1915-16), the latter, like Wooloowin State School, erected as a model schools.
  At a cost of £3,901, Wooloowin State School was the sixth most expensive Queensland Public Works contract let during the 1913-1914 financial year, and was intended as a model or "show" school. The foundation stone was laid early in 1914 by the Secretary for Public Instruction, the Hon. James Blair (later Chief Justice), and the school was opened on 15 September 1914 with 266 pupils. It comprised four large classrooms in two single-storeyed brick wings, with 10-foot (3.0 m) wide verandahs front and back and head teachers' room and staff room attached to the front wing. The new classrooms were furnished with the most modern two-student desks with tip-up seats, providing considerably more elbow room than the old forms and desks, and with large green "blackboards" rather than the old board and easel. The staff for this model school was specially chosen from amongst Queensland's finest state school teachers.
  Wooloowin State School was constructed at a time of educational experimentation in Queensland. 1914 saw the establishment of the first teacher training college in Brisbane, and a reworking of the curriculum which had been experimented with since 1905. In 1915, a new syllabus was introduced to Brisbane state schools. Continuing the emphasis of the previous decade on correlation of subjects, practical application, se
caption: Closeup of the rooftop ventilator, 2015
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