Petrie State School is a heritage-listed state school at 42 Dayboro Road (Brisbane Woodford Road), Petrie, City of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Francis Drummond Greville Stanley and Robert and John Ferguson, and built in 1878 and 1888 by the Queensland Department of Public Works. It is also known as Pine River North State School, North Pine River Provisional School, and North Pine State School. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 10 October 2014.
History Petrie State School opened in 1879 as Pine River North State School, replacing two "half-time" provisional schools that had begun operating to the south and north of the North Pine River in 1874 and 1875 respectively. The state school was built on of land donated in 1877 by early settler Thomas (Tom) Petrie. The first school teaching building, designed by Queensland Colonial Architect FDG Stanley, was erected during 1878. As settlement increased, the school expanded to have other structures and landscape elements, including an extension designed by architects Robert and John Ferguson (1888). The school has been in continuous operation since establishment and has been a focus for the local community as a place for important social and cultural activity.
Prior to European settlement, the Pine Rivers area was home to a number of clans belonging to the Turrbal, Kabi and Waka language groups. Convict timber getters were recorded in the area in the 1820s, and in the early 1840s pastoral runs were established on either side of the North Pine River. In 1859 Tom Petrie established a run, known as Murrumba, which extended to Sideling Creek in the west, Redcliffe Point in the east, and to the Pine and North Pine rivers in the south. Petrie was also involved in timber getting, utilising the rafting ground at Sweeney's Reserve, south-east of the present state school site.
Closer settlement in the area commenced in 1862, with the sale by selection of portions in the "Redcliff Agricultural Reserve". Having had his pastoral leases cancelled by this reserve, Tom Petrie purchased a homestead block (portion 23, east of the school site), and leased nearby Portions 24, 25, 29 and 30. A coach route from Brisbane to Gympie, with a staging post at Petrie's Murrumba Homestead, was established in late 1868 by Cobb & Co. A road bridge was built next to the ford at Sweeney's Reserve in 1877, and the North Coast Railway was constructed north from Brisbane to Caboolture by 1888. Tom Petrie took advantage of the railway running through his property to subdivide part of it as the North Pine Terminus Township in 1885. This became the nucleus of the township of North Pine. In 1877, Tom Petrie had also donated land for the establishment of the town's first state school.
The provision of state-administered education was important to the colonial governments of Australia. In 1848 the New South Wales Government established National Schools. This was continued by the Queensland Government after the colony's separation in 1859. The Education Act 1860 established the Queensland Board of General Education and began to standardise curriculum, teacher training, and facilities. The State Education Act 1875 provided a number of key initiatives for primary education; it was to be free, compulsory and secular. The Department of Public Instruction was established to administer the Act. This move standardised the provision of education and, despite difficulties, colonial educators achieved a remarkable feat in bringing basic literacy to most Queensland children by 1900.
The establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early communities and integral to their success. Locals often donated land and labour for a school's construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. Schools became a major community focus for social interaction, a symbol of progress and a source of pride with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents and teachers. The inclusion of war memorials and halls used for community purposes reinforced these connections together with fetes, markets, public holiday celebrations, school break-up days, fundraisers, polling days, sporting events, reunions, and dances, all held within the schools' buildings and grounds.
During the 1870s, the farming community at North Pine sought educational facilities for the local children. From 1869, provisional schools were the alternative to national schools if minimum student numbers (30) could not be met (which was frequently the case given that Queensland's rural population was small, scattered and often transient). Provisional schools were seen as a convenient means of providing an elementary education throughout the colony and soon became an integral part of the educational landscape. A provisional school could be opened with as few as 15 (later 12) pupils. The Board of General Education gave financial assistance to local committees to set up and maintain these schools. The local community provided a building (often slab and shingle) and found a teacher, and the Board paid the teacher's salary relative to the number of pupils. The provisional teacher was often badly trained and poorly paid, but at least some elementary education was being provided. If the local population moved on (perhaps following new gold discoveries or a railway under construction), the provisional school was closed at little expense to the Board. If the district or town developed, provisional schools were raised to national (later state) school status, with purpose-designed school buildings and teacher residences attracting better qualified and more experienced teachers.
At North Pine, a meeting was held on 20 April 1874 to elect a school committee, and the North Pine River Crossing Provisional School No.183 opened on 22 April 1874 in a rented room south of the North Pine River. As there was no bridge, two provisional schools were planned, on a half-time basis, to avoid the hazards of children crossing the river to attend classes. The teacher would teach on the south side of the river for the morning and on the north side of the river in the afternoon, a unique arrangement in the Moreton region. The northern school (No.1831/2), a small slab hut with shingle roof, opened for the 1875 school year. The schools became known as North Pine I (Provisional) [south side], and North Pine II (Provisional) [north side]. An inspection in August 1875 recorded 16 students present (of 20 enrolled) at North Pine I, with 13 students present (of 14) at North Pine II.
The opening of the bridge at Sweeney's Reserve in 1877 allowed the two provisional schools to amalgamate into one state school. At a meeting in June 1877, Tom Petrie donated of land for the new school. The site, at the south-west corner of Portion 30, was surveyed the same year, and was gazetted a Reserve for a School in 1878. The new school was located north of the river, on the north side of the Dayboro Road. The community had to raise 20% of the construction cost. By November 1877, tenders had been called and had been subscribed for construction. The school classroom and a teacher's residence were built during 1878, and the school opened for the 1879 school year as Pine River North State School.
From the 1860s until the 1960s school buildings were predominantly timber framed, which took advantage of the material's abundance in the state and the high number of builders skilled in its use. This also allowed for easy and economical construction and enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Due to the standardisation of facilities, schools across the state were developed in distinctly similar ways and became complexes of typical components. These components included: teaching building/s, school yard, sports oval, head teacher's residence, and a variety of landscape elements such as sporting facilities or play equipment, playsheds, gardens and trees.
The new Pine River North State School building was constructed to a standard design by Colonial Architect Francis Drummond Greville (FDG) Stanley who was then responsible for all government school designs. During his prolific career he was also responsible for many important government and private buildings. For his schools Stanley became the first to develop standard designs and produce "classes" of buildings that would later evolve into "types". The vast majority of subsequent school buildings in Queensland were built from standard "type" designs.
Stanley's school designs were typically low-set, timber framed structures with separate residential accommodation provided. Distinguishing characteristics include the classroom width, the location, size and detailing of windows, and central stairs to the verandah in line with a central access door. Stanley's designs also remedied weatherproofing problems of preceding school designs by cladding the exterior with chamferboards and lining the interiors. Although many Stanley school buildings were constructed, few remain and extant examples are rare. Known examples survive at the former Carbrook State School, Tallegalla State School, former Hemmant State School, Kalkie State School and Aramac State School.
The 1878 school building constructed at North Pine was a low-set, timber, gable-roofed building with verandahs on the south-west and north-east sides, located close to Dayboro Road at the southern end of the school reserve. A 1936 plan of the building shows a main room of by , a southern verandah measuring wide, and a northern verandah measuring wide. By 1936 the northern verandah had a small enclosure at the eastern end.
By 1887 the school had become too crowded and needed to be enlarged. Another low-set building with a main room of , and a western verandah wide, with semi-enclosed hat rooms at each end and a central staircase, was built in 1888 to a standard design by Robert and John Ferguson. The tender of Thomas Curry, for , was accepted by the Education Department in December 1887. The new building was added to the north-western end of the Stanley school building, connected by at least one internal door.
In 1879 the Department of Public Instruction appointed its own Superintendent of Buildings to be responsible for the design of all government schools, the first appointee being the builder-architect Robert Ferguson. Ferguson immediately revised the design of schools to address deficiencies in ventilation and lighting and this period of education design was pivotal in this regard. In his designs he allowed for ventilation of the classrooms and ceiling space by providing prominent and decorative ventilation fleches to the roof. The standard Ferguson classroom was a low-set, timber-framed structure with a gable roof, verandahs front and back, and modest "Carpenter Gothic" timber detailing. It included a coved ceiling; while timber roof trusses were exposed within the space. Many more and larger windows were introduced with high sill heights that did not allow draughts and sunlight to enter the room.
In 1885 Robert Ferguson was replaced by his brother John Ferguson who continued to implement his brother's designs until John's death in 1893, when responsibility for school buildings passed back to the Department of Public Works. The Ferguson period (1879–1893) is distinct and marked by extensive redesign of school buildings including associated structures and furniture. The Ferguson brothers' designs were reflective of education requirements of the time, responsive to criticism of previous designs, revolutionary in terms of internal environmental quality, technically innovative, popular and successful and provided a long-lasting legacy of good educational design.