Prenzlau State School is a heritage-listed state school at 357 Prenzlau Road, Prenzlau, Somerset Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Queensland Department of Public Works and built from 1899 to 1900 by C Ridsdale and Charles Wilson. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 12 June 2015.
History Prenzlau State School opened in 1894 as a provisional school on a site within the small agricultural settlement of Prenzlau in the Lockyer Valley, to serve the sparse but growing rural population. As settlement increased, the provisional school building was replaced by a Department of Public Works-designed teaching building (1900) after the school was designated as a state school in 1899 and a playshed was added in 1910. In 1923 the school was moved to its current site. An honour board in the teaching building commemorates those from the district who served during World War II. 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.
Traditionally the land of the Jagera people, European occupation of the Lockyer Valley for pastoral purposes began in the 1840s. Prenzlau's establishment, as Back Plains, dates from the 1870s, when the area was settled by German immigrants from the Uckermark near Prenzlau in Brandenburg, Germany. The name Prenzlau replaced Back Plains in the 1890s.Prenzlau, Queensland, accessed 7 November 2014'Prenzlau', accessed 29 October 2014.
Prenzlau Provisional School opened after its school committee formed and fulfilled the requirements for the opening of a provisional school. Tenders for its construction were called in 1893 and the school opened on 24 January 1894.'Minden, Back Plains', Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, 5 August 1893, p.6Prenzlau State School Centenary Committee, Prenzlau 100 Years 1894-1994: A School & District History, Prenzlau State School, Prenzlau, 1994, p.9. The school remained unpainted until 1897. See: Prenzlau SS Centenary Committee, Prenzlau 100 Years, p.15. The school was located on a hilly, north-facing site surrounded by farmland.
The provision of state-administered education was important to the colonial governments of Australia. Following the introduction of Queensland's Education Act 1860, which established the Board of General Education and began standardising curriculum, training and facilities, Queensland's schools grew rapidly.Thom Blake, Chapter 9: Educating Queenslanders in Queensland Historical Thematic Framework, 2007 (rev.2013 by EHP), p.2. The State Education Act 1875 provided for free, compulsory and secular primary education and the establishment of the Department of Public Instruction. This further standardised the provision of education, and despite difficulties, achieved the remarkable feat of bringing basic literacy to most Queensland children by 1900.Greg Logan and Eddie Clarke, State Education in Queensland: a brief history, a report for the Department of Education, Queensland, 1984, p.2.
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. 4-5Paul Burmester, Margaret Pullar, Michael Kennedy Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, a report for the Department of Education, 1996, pp.87-88.
Due to increased enrolments, Prenzlau Provisional School upgraded to a state school in 1899. Tenders were called for constructing a new teaching building and converting the provisional school building into a teacher's residence. The estimated cost was £590, of which the School Committee was required to raise £118.Prenzlau SS Centenary Committee, Prenzlau 100 Years, p.17.
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, 120-121.
The new building at Prenzlau State School was built to a standard Department of Public Works design (C/T1) by Charles Wilson for £618 and was ready for use in March 1900.The Timber School Building design C/T1 is defined in Burmester, et al, Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, Part I, pp.103-4'Works Department Tenders', Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, 28 October 1899, p.4. Prenzlau State School is characteristic of one of the department's early timber school designs. It was a lowset, timber-framed and clad building containing a single classroom, with verandahs front and back and an enclosed annexe attached to the rear verandah, used as a hat room and lavatory. The classroom was vented by a roof ventilator in the centre of the hipped roof and square, latticed panels in the coved ceiling. The interior was lit by windows in the verandah walls and banks of high windows in the end walls.Burmester et al, Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, p19-20, 38.
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 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, a six-post timber playshed with a hipped roof was built at Prenzlau State School by C Ridsdale of Rosewood for £36.10s. Pupil numbers in this period averaged more than 50 per day.Prenzlau SS Centenary Committee, Prenzlau 100 Years, p.18-9. The playshed was a characteristic example of a six-post type, with light timber framing.Project Services, "Prenzlau State School" in Queensland Schools Heritage Study Part II Report, for Education Queensland, 2008.
Development of the Prenzlau area was steady. The Queensland Post Office Directory in 1911 recorded 27 farmers at Prenzlau and the census recorded a population of 55. Between 1906 and 1913, the Back Plains Dairy Company and the Hillside Cooperative Cattle Dip Company Limited operated in the area.'Our Minden Letter' Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, 21 August 1906, p.11'Sales by Auction', Queensland Times, 31 May 1913, p.21911 census cited by Queensland Places. "Prenzlau", <www.queenslandplaces.com.au/prenzlau>, accessed 29 October 2014.
In 1921, after several years of lobbying by the school committee about the unsuitability of the school's hilly site, and despite declining pupil numbers, the Department of Public Instruction, through the Lands Department, resumed land for a new school reserve. The owner, Mr Ruhl, was paid £30 as compensation.Prenzlau SS Centenary Committee, Prenzlau 100 Years, pp.19, 21.
Subsequently, in 1923, the school building and playshed were moved to the new site about to the northeast for £367. The removal of the buildings was completed in July 1923 and the school re-opened on 9 July 1923. A photograph of the opening shows the existing school building, now highset on timber stumps, with its roof ventilator, weatherboard walls, dowel balustrade and lattice corner panels.Project Services, 'Prenzlau State School'Prenzlau SS Centenary Committee, Prenzlau 100 Years, pp. 18, 23, The teacher's residence remained on its original site until at least September 1959 but was removed by 1963. 1959 Aerial, DNRM Smartmap QAP873-56 1963 Aerial, DNRM Smartmaps1963_QAP1368-94. The Department of Public Works had greatly improved the natural ventilation and lighting of classroom interiors over time, experimenting with different combinations of roof ventilators, ceiling and wall vents, larger windows, dormer windows and ducting. 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. Existing lowset teaching buildings, like at Prenzlau State School, were raised for increased ventilation with the added benefit of providing a covered play space in the understorey.'Maryborough', The Brisbane Courier, 29 January 1926, p.10. Reflecting these changes in education standards and philosophy, the key modifications to the Prenzlau teaching building on its new site included elevating it to become highset, lining the interior walls and enlarging the area of windows in the end walls.Project Services, "Prenzlau State School".
Repairs and improvements to the school took place periodically. In July 1927, the Education Department authorised repairs to the school and teacher's residence - undertaken by Messrs Profke and Hohnke of Marburg.'Prenzlau', Brisbane Courier, 12 July 1927, p.9. Prenzlau School Committee formed a working-bee on 5 October 1937 "to level off and put down an ant-bed cricket pitch in the school ground".'Prenzlau', Queensland Times, 6 October 1937, p.9. The following month another "working bee to level the ground under the school and make drains to divert the water that usually runs there" occurred.'Rosewood District-Prenzlau' Queensland Times, 8 November 1937, p.5. Meanwhile, in October 1937, August Luther of Coolana, was the successful tender for "walling-in of the basement of the Prenzlau State School building and the draining of the tank overflows".'Prenzlau', Queensland Times, 23 October 1937, p.14.
World War II affected many schools. Typically, they were a focus for civilian duty during wartime,Burmester et al, Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, pp.60-2. and Prenzlau State School was no different - acting as a Ration Book Issuing Centre in June 1942.'Public Notices', Queensland Times, 10 June 1942, p.5. The Golden Jubilee of the school's opening was celebrated in a low-key manner in 1944.Prenzlau SS Centenary Committee, Prenzlau 100 Years, p.26.