Toowoomba North State School is a heritage-listed state school at 139 Mort Street, Toowoomba City, Toowoomba, Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1938 to 1957. It was formerly known as Mort Estate National School. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 6 May 2016.
History Toowoomba North State School (opened in September 1869 as the Mort Estate National School) is located to the northwest of Toowoomba's CBD. It is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. It retains a Depression-era brick school building (1938, 1950), constructed as a Depression-era work project; a 1950s timber school building with extensions (1951–57, including a vocational training building addition); set in landscaped grounds with assembly and play areas, sporting facilities and mature trees. The school has a strong and ongoing association with the Toowoomba community.
European settlement of the Toowoomba area commenced in 1840 when squatters occupied pastoral runs on the Darling Downs. Near the boundaries of Westbrook, Gowrie and Eton Vale runs and at the junction of two routes to Gorman's and Hodgson's gaps through the Main Range, the small settlement of Drayton (originally known as 'The Springs') evolved from 1842 as a stopping place for pastoralists and travellers. Six kilometres to its northeast, was an area known as "The Swamp", later named Toowoomba, which was first surveyed in 1849 as 12 suburban allotments of Drayton. Further survey and auction took place in 1853 for 1–2 acre allotments. Toowoomba grew rapidly due to its better land and water supply, support from squatters and land speculators, and, from 1855, an easier route to Brisbane via The Toll Road. It was declared a municipality (the Borough of Toowoomba) in July 1860 and continued to develop rapidly during the 1860s with strong promotion of the town by local residents, and successful lobbying for government funding for civic improvements by political representatives.QHR602824 Toowoomba South SSMaurice French and Duncan Waterson, The Darling Downs: A Pictorial History 1850-1950, Darling Downs Institute Press, Toowoomba, 1982, p. 130A B Yeates, 'Toowoomba's First Decade, 1850-1860' in Library Board of Qld, Settlement in the Colony of Qld, Library Board of Queensland, Brisbane, 1978, pp. 3-9Queensland Government Gazette, vol. 2, 1861, T P Pugh's Printing Office, Brisbane, 1862, pp. 200-1Maurice French and Duncan Waterson, The Darling Downs: A Pictorial History 1850-1950, p.130Ivan McDonald Architects in association with Mark Baker Town Planning Consultants Pty Ltd, Toowoomba City Centre Heritage Study, p.16 cited by QHR 602824, Toowoomba Sth SS.
The provision of state-administered education was important to the colonial governments of Australia. National schools, established in 1848 in New South Wales, were continued in Queensland following the colony's separation in 1859. Following the introduction of the Education Act 1860, which established the Board of General Education and began standardising curriculum, training and facilities, Queensland's national and public schools grew from four in 1860 to 230 by 1875.Thom Blake, "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 established 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.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 and Michael Kennedy Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, a report for the Department of Education, 1996, pp. 87-8.
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.
Toowoomba North State School opened as the Mort Estate National School on 6 September 1869 on land donated by pastoralist and politician, James Taylor, MLA. The population of Toowoomba at the time was 3000. The school was opened as a Boys School, with an enrolment of 141 boys, and a Girls and Infants School, with a commencing enrolment of 113 pupils. Both were housed in a brick building facing Mort Street.Toowoomba North State School, Toowoomba North State School 1869-1969 Centenary Souvenir, n.p.Toowoomba North State School, <https://toownortss.eq.edu.au/Ourschool/History/Pages/History.aspx>, accessed 3 March 2016'The Drayton Reservoir', The Toowoomba Chronicle and Qld Advertiser, 30 September 1871, p. 2. Within a year, the school's enrolments had doubled to 286 enrolled at the Boys School with an average attendance of 140, and 261 enrolled at the Girls and Infants School with an average attendance of 130.Toowoomba North State School, 1938 Souvenir Magazine, p. 5.
Later the Girls and Infants School was housed in a separate masonry building facing Taylor Street on one acre, donated by James Taylor in 1874, and located behind the Boys School, which faced Mort Street.DPW Revised Site Plan 26 July 1935. It was constructed on land donated by James Taylor in January 1874. See DNRM, Survey Plan 16318.
Toowoomba continued to grow throughout the remainder of the 19th and the early 20th century. By the 1870s Toowoomba had consolidated its status as the main urban centre of the Darling Downs. The arrival of the Main Line railway in 1867 secured the town's development and subsequently made it the hub for the Southern and Western railways. The economy diversified to include numerous small-scale manufacturing outlets, while the majority of administrative, service and other government and education functions for the surrounding region were centred on the town. Toowoomba's progress was reflected in improvements to the physical environment. Important capital works were commenced or completed, including the draining of its swamps, improved water supply, gasworks for lighting, extensive tree plantings and the initial development of Queen's Park. Earlier temporary structures were increasingly replaced with more permanent and impressive buildings.Maurice French and Duncan Waterson, The Darling Downs: A Pictorial History 1850-1950, pp. 130-1Ivan McDonald Architects in association with Mark Baker Town Planning Consultants Pty Ltd, 2001, Toowoomba City Centre Heritage Study, pp. 13-5. cited by QHR602824 Toowoomba South SS.
In the first two decades of the 20th century, the school committee made representation to the Department of Public Instruction, through its Minister and local members of parliament, for a new school on the basis that the buildings and grounds were inadequate.Toowoomba North State School, 1869-1969 Centenary Souvenir, n.p.
In Toowoomba North (Boys, and Girls and Infants Schools) was granted its request for purchase of land for school grounds to supplement its small site. "The Farm", 6373 sqm of land diagonally opposite the school on the corner of Mort and Taylor Streets, which was already rented for sporting activities, was bought. One acre of the Cory Estate to the school's west was purchased, onto which the headmaster's residence was moved, allowing the whole of the existing Taylor Street land to be used for school buildings and grounds.Toowoomba North State School, Toowoomba North State School 1938 Souvenir Magazine, Toowoomba North State School, Toowoomba, 1938, p. 9DNRM, Survey Plan S P48667. However, the opening of the Newtown State School in October 1924 reduced enrolments at Toowoomba North, making a new school unnecessary.
By the early 1930s the school buildings were in a state of disrepair.QSA, Item ID 16344, letter from Janet S Glannlee to Under-Sec, Dept Public Instruction, 20 January 1931QSA, Item ID 16344, DPI District Inspector Report to Director of Education, DPI, May 1934.
The Great Depression, commencing in 1929 and extending well into the 1930s, had caused a dramatic reduction of building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. In response, the Queensland Government provided relief work for unemployed Queenslanders, and also embarked on an ambitious and important building programme to provide impetus to the economy.
In June 1932 the Forgan Smith Labor Government came to power from a campaign that advocated increased government spending to counter the effects of the Depression. The government embarked on a large public works building programme designed to promote the employment of local skilled workers, the purchase of local building materials and the production of commodious, low maintenance buildings which would be a long-term asset to the state. This building programme included: government offices, schools and colleges; university buildings; court houses and police stations; hospitals and asylums; and gaols.'Labor at the Helm', The Worker, 20 July 1932, p.8'Queensland Parliament', The Northern Miner, 17 August 1932, p.2'Public Buildings', Daily Mercury, 19 October 1933, p.7DPW, Report of the DPW for the Year Ended 30 June 1934, Queensland Government Printer, Brisbane, 1934, pp.6-8DPW, Report of the DPW for the Year Ended 30 June 1935, Queensland Government Printer, Brisbane, 1935, p.2Report of the DPW for the Year Ended 30 June 1936, Queensland Government Printer, Brisbane, 1936, p.2'State will spend over £460,000: big building plans', The Courier-Mail, 28 December 1933, p.9Report of the DPW for the Year Ended 30 June 1939, Queensland Government Printer, Brisbane, 1939, p.2.
Many of the programmes have had lasting beneficial effects for the citizens of Queensland, including the construction of masonry brick school building s across the state. Most were designed in a classical idiom to project a sense of stability and optimism which the government sought to convey through the architecture of its public buildings.
The construction of substantial brick school buildingsBuilding Type E/B1 according to Burmester et al, Queensland Schools: A Heritage Conservation Study, p.59. in prosperous or growing suburban areas and regional centres during the 1930s provided tangible proof of the government's commitment to remedy the unemployment situation. The Queensland Public Works Department (DPW) and Department of Public Instruction (DPI) were extremely enthusiastic about the brick school building s designed in the 1930s. They were considered monuments to progress embodying the most modern principles of the ideal education environment.Burmester et al, Queensland Schools: A Heritage Conservation Study, p.60.