Maroon State School and Maroon War Memorial is a heritage-listed state school and war memorial at 2772 Boonah Rathdowney Road, Maroon, Scenic Rim Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built in 1910. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 9 October 2015.
History Maroon State School, located south of Boonah, near Queensland's border with New South Wales, opened in 1891 as Maroon Provisional School, soon after closer settlement commenced in the district. The school was transferred to Department of Public Instruction ownership in 1898 and became Maroon State School in 1909. A playshed was added in 1910, and a teacher's residence was constructed in 1937. The original teaching building was replaced with a small timber school building in 1938. The school buildings are set amongst mature trees, and the district's 1920 war memorial stands at the front (northeast corner) of the school grounds. The result is a picturesque view from the road, past the war memorial to the school, with Mount Maroon as the backdrop. 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.
European occupation of the Maroon district commenced in the 1840s. Maroon Station, initially called Melcombe, was taken up by William O'Grady Haly in 1843, and the lease was eventually obtained by Thomas Lodge Murray-Prior, well-known pastoralist and politician, in 1864.Lessees between 1845 and 1864 included John Rankin, Robert Campbell, Robert Collins, and James Collins. (Maroon State School, Maroon State School: Centenary Celebrations 1891-1991, September 21, 1991, p.54.) Some local farming began in 1870,Two former employees of Maroon Station, Ezra Harvey and George Langdon, selected land on the river flats south of Burnett Creek, opposite Maroon Station, to grow cotton. Ezra Harvey became Maroon's first farmer settler. (H. A. Krause, The story of Maroon in the Fassifern District of Queensland: A Souvenir Review of its History and Development 1827 - 1961, Maroon Centenary Celebrations Committee and the Committee of the Maroon State School, 1961, p.21; Maroon State School: Centenary Celebrations 1891-1991, p.55. Harvey selected portions 7 and 8 in September 1870: see Title deeds 10287029 and 10387150.) but closer settlement began in earnest from 1887, the year the Fassifern Railway was extended to Dugandan, just south of Boonah.'Dugandan railway', The Week, 24 September 1887, p.8. Blocks of were taken up to the south and east of Maroon Station.Maroon Station was subdivided and auctioned as 27 dairy farms in 1914. (Maroon State School: Centenary Celebrations 1891-1991, pp.54-5; Krause, The story of Maroon in the Fassifern District of Queensland, p.25; "Notes and comments", The Queenslander, 7 March 1914, p.33.) Local farming included dairying, pig rearing, and crops (including lucerne, maize and cotton), and timber-getting was also a local industry. In the locality of Maroon, two shops existed by 1887, a creamery (later a cheese factory until the 1900–1902 drought) was opened in the mid-1890s, and a School of Arts was built in 1903–04. An Anglican church was dedicated in 1907, and a Methodist church in 1914.Krause, The story of Maroon in the Fassifern District of Queensland, pp.28, 37-8; Maroon State School: Centenary Celebrations 1891-1991, p.56, 61-3. Early local government was provided by the Goolman Divisional Board, (1879), then the Goolman Shire Council (1903) which became Boonah Shire Council in 1937.
Closer settlement at Maroon was soon followed by calls for a local school. 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 community focus, 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 community halls reinforced these connections and provided a venue for a wide range of community events in schools across Queensland.Project Services, "Mount Morgan State High School" in Queensland Schools Heritage Study Part II Report, for Education Queensland, 2008, pp.4-5; Paul Burmester, Margaret Pullar and Michael Kennedy Queensland Schools: A Heritage Conservation Study, a report for the Department of Education, 1996, pp.87-8. 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 committee provided a building and found a teacher, and the Board paid the teacher's salary relative to the number of pupils.
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.Burmester et al, Queensland Schools: A Heritage Conservation Study, pp.84, 120-1.
In Maroon, a provisional school was opened in 1891 due to the efforts of the local community. A school building committee was elected at a meeting on 31 January 1891, and a written application for a provisional school was made in late May, when the building was almost finished.Maroon State School: Centenary Celebrations 1891-1991, p.11 Materials were donated by committee members; and the school, built with volunteer labour, was furnished and equipped by 30 May, and opened on 15 July 1891, at no cost to the government.With 15 pupils, according to Maroon State School: Centenary Celebrations 1891-1991, p.11; or 18 pupils, according to Krause, The story of Maroon in the Fassifern District of Queensland, p.31, and "School Jubilee. Celebrations at Maroon", Queensland Times, 17 December 1941, p.5. A local public holiday was declared, 80 people attended the celebration meal, and a dance held at the school lasted until daylight. ('Maroon (Upper Logan)', Logan Witness, 18 July 1891, p.3.) The building was also used by the community for public meetings, religious services and music lessons, and as a library (before the School of Arts opened).Maroon State School: Centenary Celebrations 1891-1991, p.13; "School Jubilee. Celebrations at Maroon", Queensland Times, 17 December 1941, p.5.
The school was built on land (just under ) donated by local landowner Thomas de Montmorenci Murray-Prior, chairman of the committee, who had inherited Maroon Station from his father, and was later transferred to the Crown in 1898 - the year that the Department of Public Instruction took over the school at the request of the school committee.Thomas de Montmorenci Murray-Prior had obtained the lease for the land (Portion 9) from his father, Thomas Lodge Murray-Prior, in 1887. After the elder Murray-Prior died on 31 December 1892, the land was transferred to T de M Murray-Prior, AW Darvall, and CH Barton as devisees in trust. (Certificate of Title 10307108 (1877); Deed of Grant 10849045 (1893); Maroon State School: Centenary Celebrations 1891-1991, p.11 (transfer of school to the Department)).
The low-set teaching building, although hailed as "one of the prettiest in West Moreton", soon proved inadequate for growing student numbers. Enrolment was 36 in 1896,Maroon State School: Centenary Celebrations 1891-1991, p.13. and in 1906, with enrolment at 54, the committee asked for it to be enlarged. The additions, consisting of a second classroom and an additional verandah, were completed by June 1907, the community paying one fifth of the cost.Maroon State School: Centenary Celebrations 1891-1991, pp.11, 17, 19. By 1908, the school bell was mounted on a free-standing timber frame adjacent to the provisional school building.Maroon State School Centenary Celebrations 1891 - 1991, p.20.
In 1909, the school became Maroon State School. That year, by lowering the required minimum average number of pupils for a state school from 30 to 12, the Department of Public Instruction upgraded the majority of provisional schools to state school status. By 1967, any remaining provisional schools either had been converted to state schools or had closed.Eddie Clarke, Provisional Schools in Queensland. A Brief History, a report for the Department of Education, Queensland, 1987, pp.2-3.
The Maroon State School's grounds were improved in 1910 by the addition of a playshed. The Queensland education system recognised the importance of play in the school curriculum and, as school sites were typically cleared of all vegetation, the provision of all-weather outdoor space was needed. Playsheds were designed as free-standing shelters, with fixed timber seating between posts and earth or decomposed granite floors that provided covered play space and doubled as teaching space when required. These structures were timber-framed and generally open sided, although some were partially enclosed with timber boards or corrugated galvanised iron sheets.Burmester et al, Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, p.16v. The hipped (or less frequently, gabled) roofs were clad with timber shingles or corrugated iron. Playsheds were a typical addition to state schools across Queensland between s and the 1950s, although were less frequently constructed after , with the introduction of highset school buildings with understorey play areas. Built to standard designs, playsheds ranged in size relative to student numbers.Burmester et al, Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, pp.21, 97.
In 1910, the Department of Public Instruction approved a hip-roofed timber playshed to cater for Maroon State School's students.Maroon State School Centenary Celebrations 1891 - 1991, p.11. The playshed was constructed by B Green at a cost of £49, and was a characteristic example of a six-post type, with light timber framing and a corrugated metal-clad roof. Each of the corner timber posts were "silled and strutted" below ground level, and timber seats were fixed to the posts on the two longer sides of the shed.ePlan, DPW Drawing 11435446 [13918322?], "Playshed at Provisional State School Maroon", 1910. A tank and spouting were added the following year, at a cost of £18.
In 1917 the school committee requested a new teaching building, as the 1891 building was too narrow, had small windows, was not ceiled or lined, and the shingles leaked. Instead, the shingles were replaced with corrugated iron in 1924,'Valley of Maroon, review of a rich area. Progressive farmers'. The Queenslander, 21 March 1925, p.14. By 1925, average attendance at the school was 42. and larger windows were later added to deal with the increased internal heat.Maroon State School: Centenary Celebrations 1891-1991, pp.12, 19.