Buranda State School
Buranda State School is a heritage-listed state school at 24 Cowley Street, Woolloongabba, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Department of Public Works and built from 1920 to 1928. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 28 April 2017.
History
Buranda State School, established in 1918, is located in the suburb of Woolloongabba, approximately three kilometres southwest of the Brisbane CBD. It is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. It retains its suburban timber school building with WWII honour boards ; set in landscaped grounds with a swimming pool, dressing shed and terraces ; sports oval; retaining walls ; and mature trees. The school has a strong and ongoing association with the Buranda-Stone's Corner-Woolloongabba community.Traditionally the lands of the Turrbal and Jagera people, suburban development around the Buranda State School site began in the 1880s. The nearby Stone's Corner Hotel opened in the late 1880s and by the 1890s industries were established in the area. The Cleveland railway line ran to the north of the future school site from 1889 and from 1897 electric trams operated along Logan Road to Stones Corner. By 1908 the population had grown sufficiently for the Department of Public Instruction to commence planning a school to serve the district.
The establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of new communities and integral to their success. Schools became a community focus, with the school community contributing to maintenance and development; a symbol of progress; and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers.
To help ensure consistency and economy, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, an easy and cost-effective approach that also enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy and Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting, and ventilation. Standardisation produced distinctly similar schools across Queensland with complexes of typical components.
Buranda State School was established as a separate Girls and Infants School and a Boys School to provide primary school education for the growing population in the locality of Logan Road. Its site, formed from Crown land, purchased land, and a South Brisbane City Council quarry, was proclaimed as a school reserve in 1916. The timber Girls and Infants School building occupied high ground at the northwest of the site, and was accessed via Martin Street. The school's name was taken from the nearby Buranda railway station. Establishment of the school was intended to relieve the enrolment pressure on East Brisbane, Dunellan, Junction Park and Dutton Park state schools.
The Buranda Boys School opened on 27 September 1920 with an enrolment of 173 pupils. Its suburban timber school building, positioned in the lower southwestern portion of the site and accessed via Cowley Street, was a high-set, timber building with a continuous north verandah, and central, projecting teachers rooms. The building comprised a central wing with two side wings, each with a Dutch gable roof of shingle tiles and central fleche. It seated 320 boys in eight classrooms. The central wing was divided into four classrooms and each side wing into two similar-sized rooms separated by fixed glazed partitions. The undercroft was utilised for play space and lavatories.
This building type, introduced in 1914, was the culmination of years of experimentation that solved many of the problems of light, ventilation, and classroom size, which had plagued previous school designs, as well as providing the ideal, modern education environment. From 1893 the Department of Public Works greatly improved the natural ventilation and lighting of classroom interiors, experimenting with different combinations of roof ventilators, ceiling and wall vents, larger windows, dormer windows and ducting. In high-set timber buildings had been introduced, providing better ventilation as well as further teaching space and a covered play area underneath. This was a noticeable new direction and this form became a characteristic of Queensland schools.
Prior to the widespread adoption of electricity and artificial lighting, achieving an ideal or even adequate level of natural light in classrooms, without glare, was of critical importance to educators and consequently it became central to the design and layout of all school buildings. From around 1909 windows were rearranged and enlarged to provide a greater amount of gentle, southern light into the room and desks were rearranged so that the light would fall onto students' left hand sides to avoid throwing shadows onto the pages; this presupposed that all students were right-handed. Windows were larger and sills were lowered to let in more light generally. Smaller classrooms were preferred as they were easier to light correctly. Interiors became lighter and airier and met with immediate approval from educationalists. These features - large banks of south-facing windows and smaller classrooms - are retained at Buranda State School.
An important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as ovals and tennis courts. Also, trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools. In the 1870s, schools inspector William Alexander Boyd was critical of tropical schools and his recommendations stressed the importance of the adding shade trees to playgrounds. Subsequently, Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890. Aesthetically designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors, and educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline, developed aesthetic tastes, and inspired people to stay on the land. Arbor Day celebrations at Buranda State School commenced in 1918 and were conducted up to at least the late 1950s. By 1958 there were 63 planted trees alive in the school grounds.
Buranda State School's Committee undertook an active programme of fund-raising events to improve the school's facilities. This included an annual combined schools' fete, fancy dress balls, socials, euchre parties and excursions. One major outcome of its efforts was the school swimming pool with dressing shed, goldfish pond and landscaping, completed for and opened debt-free. At its opening during a school fete on 30 October 1926, Alderman Lawry acknowledged that the baths were "a splendid record of voluntary work, teachers, parents and pupils all assisting in the hard work of clearing and excavating the ground.... the Public Works Department...suppl the materials". When opening the pool, the Lord Mayor of Brisbane, William Jolly, stated "Not only was it a perfect pool but the terraced lawns, flower beds, goldfish pond, and dressing shed created an environment which could not fail to inculcate a love of the beautiful in the children".
The establishment of swimming pools in Queensland state schools was a growing trend in the early decades of the 20th century. The perceived benefits of learning to swim for pupils were expounded from 1915 onwards: as a particularly appropriate physical exercise during summer; of value to children's physiques; and for water safety reasons to prevent drownings. Earlier pools had opened at Junction Park State School, Milton State School, Wooloowin State School, Ascot State School, Cannon Hill State School, Wilston State School, and Windsor State School.
A large section of the swimming pool's retaining wall collapsed early in 1927, taking with it fencing and concrete floor slabs. Repairs to the wall were completed by M R Hornibrook for. The rebuilt structure was described as a "battered stone retaining wall...approximately 10 feet from the baths on the southern side and eastern end...".
Growth in pupil numbers at both Buranda schools resulted in extensions in 1928. The Boys School gained a two-storey addition to accommodate 80 pupils, which was approved in April 1928, with a cost of. A school fete on 22 September 1928 celebrated its completion. This extension comprised two classrooms on each floor and the upper-level rooms had folding partitions for assembly room purposes. Circa 1940, the area under the west wing was enclosed as a music and art room. Enrolments reached a peak with an average attendance of 1217 in 1934, leading to the opening of a separate Infants' School, fronting Salisbury Street, on 30 January 1934, with 225 pupils.
Meanwhile, the school committee continued to work to improve the schools. Between 1926 and 1929 they erected a shelter shed at the lower tennis courts, improved drainage on the site, formed lawns and improved flower beds, and built a concrete retaining wall and steps near the oval. This is the retaining wall running north of the eastern wing of the Block A, which appears in aerial photography available from 1936. The sports oval and parade ground were completed by December 1934. A driveway, rockeries and flower beds for the Boys School Entrance, via Cowley Street, were completed by 1934. A remnant of this is the low retaining wall in the south-western corner of the site near the Cowley Street entrance, apparent on aerial photograph from 1936. Rows of fig trees near the Martin Street entrance appear on aerial photography from 1936.
World War II affected Buranda State School in similar ways to other Queensland state school. In January 1942 due to the fear of a Japanese invasion, the Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools, and although most schools reopened on 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war ended. Slit trenches, for protecting the students from Japanese air raids, were also dug at Queensland state schools. At Buranda State School about of these trenches were dug. Typically, schools were a focus for civilian duty during wartime. At many, students and staff members grew produce and flowers for donation to local hospitals and organised fundraising and the donation of useful items to Australian soldiers on active service. Students at Buranda State School attended War Funds concerts at the Brisbane City Hall; contributed to Red Cross Appeals and a Prisoner of War Fund; and purchased war savings certificates.
In recognition of former students of the school serving in the armed forces during World War II, the school community organised an honour board, which was funded by a swimming carnival held in March 1944. Unveiled on 25 July 1944 by James Larcombe, Minister for Public Instruction, the Honour Board displayed the names of 456 former pupils serving in the armed forces. The large timber board, measuring, has been mounted in the easternmost wall of the eastern understorey classroom since at least 1993. A second, smaller honour board, beside the large honour board, lists a further 14 former pupils who served during WWII.
After World War II, enrolments at the Buranda Schools fell from the 1930s' peak. Total enrolments in 1959 were 798. Pupil numbers continued to fall due to developmental and demographic changes in the school's catchment area. Families moved from inner city to outlying suburbs in this period; a large number of houses in the Thompson Estate to the west of the school were resumed for the construction of the Southeast Suburbs Freeway ; and residential areas underwent commercial development.
The school grounds were expanded a number of times over the years, increasing the site from in 1918 to in 2017, through the addition of land via road closures, land purchases and exchanges; and despite the sale of the former Girls School site. Flood mitigation work to Norman Creek in 1958, straightened and widened the creek. A bend that ran through the school oval was filled and levelled, and land was transferred between the Brisbane City Council and the Department of Public Instruction, resulting in the current configuration of the school oval.
Falling student numbers led to the combining of the Girls and Infants Schools, on the Girls School site in Martin Street, from January 1963 when the Buranda Infants School site was taken over by Narbethong School for the Visually Handicapped. Buranda Girls and Infants School and Buranda Boys School were combined as Buranda State School on the Boys School site from 1 January 1967. Average attendance in 1967 was 314 pupils, but fell to 50 in the 1990s. Buranda Opportunity School was established on the Girls School site.
Sometime between July 1974 and July 1979, the original Infants School building was demolished to make way for a new building for Narbethong School, which was opened in July 1979. The Girls School building has also been demolished.
Alterations to the suburban timber school building have taken place over time. Changes include enclosure of part of the east verandah of the eastern wing for a storeroom in 1980; and enclosure of the north verandah of the eastern wing, with demolition of its verandah wall and internal partitions to create larger classrooms. In 1999 changes to classroom sizes in the central wing were made through removal of dividing walls. In 2017 the suburban timber school building is largely used for staff and office purposes.
Community involvement in Buranda State School has been continuous since its establishment. Annual combined schools' fetes were held from the 1920s to 1939, and recommenced in the post-war period. Other fundraising and social events were popular in the pre-war period such as fancy dress balls, "socials", euchre parties and excursions. The school's 75th anniversary was commemorated with the publication of a school history and the holding of a school reunion.
In 2017, Buranda State School continues to operate from its original site. It retains its suburban timber school building, swimming pool and dressing shed, set in landscaped grounds with sporting facilities, playing areas, retaining walls and mature shade trees. Buranda State School is important to its district as a key social focus for the community. Generations of students have been taught there and many social events held in the school's grounds and buildings since its establishment.