Innisfail State College

Innisfail State College is a government combined primary and comprehensive secondary school, special needs school, and technical college facility in the suburb of Innisfail Estate, in the Cassowary Coast Region of that state. The college is in "Division 5" of the Cassowary Coast Regional Council local government area.

Etymology

The college's name is derived from the suburb of Innisfail Estate. That suburb and the adjacent suburbs of Innisfail and East Innisfail, in turn derived their names from their historical connection with the town of Innisfail. The name of the town came from the name of the sugarcane plantation owned by Thomas Henry Fitzgerald, a sugarcane farmer who settled on local river frontage land, who established the first European settlement in the region in 1880, which became a sugar-producing region. Innisfail is an old poetic name for Ireland, meaning “Isle of Destiny”, and is based on the old Irish word for "Island of Fál", a reference to the standing stone, known as the "Stone of Destiny", in the "Inauguration Mound". The town of Innisfail was initially named Geraldton after the first settler, but in 1910, the government renamed it Innisfail, due to confusion with Geraldton in Western Australia.

History

The college was officially opened on 28 February 2010 by the then Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and then Queensland Education and Training Minister Geoff Wilson.
For reasons of a more effective and efficient delivery of education services, in 2010, the Innisfail State College was formed from a 31 December 2009 amalgamation of the:

Innisfail State High School.
Innisfail's state special school, then called the Inclusive Education Centre, but now called the Diverse Learning Centre.
Tropical North Queensland Institute of Technical and Further Education .

Infrastructure

Establishment

suffered severe damage when the town was devastated by Cyclone Larry in 2006, requiring the school to function using several demountable classrooms while it underwent substantial repair and rebuilding. Community consultation commenced in August 2007, and there was overwhelming community support for the relocation of the school to the site of the local TAFE for the start of the 2010 year, a site which, as of 2025, the college still occupies. The college used existing TAFE buildings, complemented with some newly constructed buildings, including a new administration building, horticulture building and maintenance workshop. Since 2015, Innisfail State College has split P Block classrooms for TAFE students.
On 25 May 2008, the then Queensland Department of Education, Training and the Arts Minister, Rod Welford, announced that the state government had approved $36.7 million, used for the redevelopment of the expanded Innisfail TAFE site into a new integrated community education facility
under stage one of the Queensland Government's $850 million "State Schools of Tomorrow" program. At that time, it was the most significant one-off state government investment in Queensland's education in its history. With the addition of the $1.2 million Federal Government’s Building the Education Revolution grant and the college’s $200,000 contribution, the redevelopment cost $38 million. The redevelopment of the old TAFE site, into its amalgamated Innisfail State College form, saw the campus grow from to.

Cyclone Shelter

As part of the 2010 upgrade of the college's infrastructure, a cyclone centre was constructed by Allan Sultana Constructions, with Evans Harch Pty Ltd as project manager. The college's shelter, along with the one constructed at Tully State School in 2013, was designed to be used as the 'last option' for people seeking shelter from severe weather events.

Diverse Learning Centre

The Diverse Learning Centre was constructed in 2010. The centre houses the "Early Childhood Development" program, a special needs program that includes all the years from Prep Year - Year 12.

Outdoor Basketball Court

Funding was approved for a multi-stage development project for an outdoor basketball court. The impetus for the development was on getting youth to become more active by developing lunchtime competitions.

Administration

Staff

In 2009, the final year of the operation of Innisfail State High School, the school had a teaching staff of 56 and a non-teaching staff of 35. On the establishment of Innisfail State College, the college was described as having more than 100 staff. As of 2024, the college has 99 teaching staff and 66 non-teaching staff.

Principals

In 2010, the principal of the college was initially Julie Pozzoli. As of 2025, the principal is Tanya Martin. Principals have included:
Julie Pozzoli was Innisfail State High School's first and only female Principal. She was also that school's last principal, arriving eight weeks before it was damaged by Cyclone Larry in 2006 and continuing on through the school's 2009 closure to become the founding principal of Innisfail State College.

Canecutter Cluster of Schools

The college is part of a 10-school partnership known as the "Canecutter Cluster of Schools", including:

Goondi State School
Innisfail State School
East Innisfail State School
Flying Fish Point State School
Mourilyan State School
Mundoo State School
Silkwood State School
South Johnstone State School
Mena Creek State School
Daradgee Environmental Education Centre.

Students

Years

The college originally catered for only Year 8 to Year 12, but additionally began catering for Year 7 in 2015 as part of the official implementation in 2015 of Anna Bligh's state-wide "Flying Start" program, a program which aligned Queensland secondary schools with the other states, which catered for students from Year 7 to Year 12. As of 2025, the special needs school caters for Prep Year to Year 6 and, in coordination with the college, Year 7 to Year 12.

Enrolments

In 2009, in its final year of operation before the merger into Innisfail State College, Innisfail State High School had recorded over 740 secondary student enrolments. On establishment, the college had a secondary student enrolment of 762 students and was described as having over 1,000 secondary, vocational, special and adult education students. As of 2024, the college has 961 students enrolled. The trend in college enrolments has been:
Of those students, those in the primary years, and some secondary students, belong to the Early Childhood Development program:

Cultural Diversity

Indigenous

The Traditional Owners of the Innisfail region are the Mamu people, whose native title rights were recognised in 2013 through the Mamu Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC. Of the distinctly defined five clan areas of the Mamu cultural group, i.e. Bagirbarra, Dugulbarra, Dyirribarra, Mandubarra, Warribarra, the college is located within the Mandubarra clan region, which includes the South Johnstone River and adjoining coastal/sea country from Liverpool Creek to Maria Creek, such as the areas immediately south of Innisfail and toward Mourilyan Harbour.
In 2020, the college had 338 Indigenous students, giving it one of the highest percentages of Indigenous secondary students in the Cairns region. The college is a member of the "Indigenous Leaders of the Future" and "Indigenous Leaders of Tomorrow" programs, two Far North Queensland Indigenous programs.

Multiculturalism

The trends in multicultural composition have been:

Year	Indigenous	LBOTE	Ref
2014	30	13
2015	32	12
2016	32	12
2017	33	12
2018	32	13
2019	33	13
2020	33	14
2021	32	15
2022	34	17
2023	34	16
2024	34	16
2025	TBA	TBA

Sports

Houses

The college's four sports houses are named after local islands off the coast of North Queensland:

House Name	Island	Colour	Ref
Bederra	Bedarra Island	Blue
Fitzroy	Fitzroy Island	Orange
Hinchinbrook	Hinchinbrook Island	Green
Orpheus	Orpheus Island	Purple