Mitchelton State School is a heritage-listed state school and state school at 47 Glen Retreat Road, Mitchelton, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Boulton & Paul, Ltd and Department of Public Works (Queensland) and built from 1950 to 1960. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 23 August 2018.
History Mitchelton State School opened in 1916 as Groveley State School. Located approximately 8.5 km northwest from the Brisbane CBD, the school (Years 3–8) moved to its current site in 1952, while the infants school (Years 1–2) remained at the former site until 1986. The school comprises an early 1950s master-planned school site with asymmetrical placement of buildings. Six buildings from the original planning scheme remain:
a Boulton & Paul Prefabricated Timber Building – Block A (1953, extended 1954, and 1970) Highset Timber School Buildings with semi-enclosed stair – Blocks B (1952), C (1952, extended ), D (1958, extended 1959) and E (1957) a timber Administration Bridging Wing (1952, extended 1970) connecting Blocks B and C
and connecting walkways between buildings. The buildings are set in landscaped grounds with mature trees, assembly and play areas, and sporting facilities. The school has a strong and ongoing association with the Mitchelton community.
Originally part of the lands of the Turrbal people, the future site of Mitchelton State School was sold by the Queensland Government in May 1864.Department of Natural Resource and Mines (DNRM), Deed of Grant (DoG) 10043068, 26 Aug 1864. Crown lands within the Enoggera parish had been leased from 1849 - see "Crown Lands Within the Settled Districts (Leases by Auction)", Moreton Bay Courier, 15 Sep 1849, p. 4. A farming community developed in the Mitchelton-Keperra area, which featured vineyards and wineries.
The establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of new communities and integral to their success. 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. Groveley State School, established for the children of the surrounding farming community, opened on 9 October 1916 on a 2-acre (0.81ha) site purchased from Sarah Jane Keylar and located on Samford Road, north of the current school site.QSA, Item ID 14791, Administration file, school Groveley No.1538 (later Mitchelton) State School, 4 Aug 1916-26 Jul 1922. DNRME, Survey Plan RP18834, 1914Mitchelton State School Magazine Committee, 100 Years of Education 1916-2016: Celebrating 100 Magnificent Years at Mitchelton State School, Mitchelton State School, Brisbane, 2016, p. 36. Nearby was Groveley Lodge, reached via a drive aligned with the current Grovely Terrace, the former home of John and Mary Nicholson, who established Groveley Farm and Winery.
Although intended for transportation of dairy and farm produce, the opening of the railway line extension linking Gaythorne to Mitchelton (on the Dayboro branch railway line, now Ferny Grove line) on 2 March 1918, stimulated subdivision of farming land for housing. The first of these interwar housing estates, on sale from May 1918, was stage one of the Groveley Lodge Estate, adjacent to the Groveley State School.The Mitchelton Estate, about half a kilometre closer to Brisbane along Samford Road had been created by 1895 - see A R McKellar, McKellar's Official Map of Brisbane & suburbs, Surveyor-General's Office, Brisbane, 1895, sheet 1SLQ, Groveley Estate section 1 map, 1918, Record no. 21201134810002061SLQ, Oxford Park Estate, Enoggera map. Record No. 21104768650002061 See locality map, bottom RHSSLQ, Record no. 21201134810002061SLQ, Groveley Lodge 2nd Section, 1921, Record No. 21201134950002061SLQ, Groveley Lodge Estate Mitchelton 3rd Section, Estate Map, 1922, Record No. 21200025210002061SLQ, Mitchelton View Estate, Record No. 21104884310002061.
Groveley State School was renamed Mitchelton State School in 1923.Mitchelton State School Magazine Committee, 100 Years of Education 1916-2016: Mitchelton State School, p. 38. The population of the school grew due to housing development in Mitchelton, and a larger school site became necessary. In 1935 the Department of Education resumed about 6.5 acres (2.63ha) south of the school, for this purpose. This land on Glen Retreat Road was reserved as R1426 in 1937.'Mitchelton Playground', Daily Standard, 25 Oct 1935, p. 5Queensland Government Gazette (QGG), 1937, Vol. 1, p. 321DNRM, CoT 11905090 & 11905095 (comprising 6 acres 1 rood 53.4 perches). The 1935 newspaper reported that 6.5 acres had been resumed, but the land reserved in 1937 was 7 acres, 1 rood, 37.4 perches, the difference was probably added through road closure. See Survey Plan 46567. Plans were prepared for the new school site, however, it did not move until 15 years later.QSA Item ID15414 Mitchelton SS Files (Correspondence), "DPW Mitchelton SS Plan of New Site showing layout", 13 Apr 1937.
The outbreak of the War in the Pacific in December 1941 affected Queensland schools. The Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools in January 1942, and although most schools reopened on 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war ended.Ronald Wood, Civil Defence in Queensland During World War II, 1993, p. 79'Schools reopen, some await shelter survey', The Courier Mail, 2 Mar 1942, p. 3. Typically, schools were a focus for civilian duty during wartime. At many schools, students and staff members grew produce and flowers for donation to local hospitals and organised fundraising and the donation of useful items to Australian soldiers on active service.Burmester et al., Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, pp. 60-2. This was the case at Mitchelton State School.'Schools' War Effort Pupils Busy at Net-Making', The Courier-Mail, 17 Jul 1943, p. 4.
After World War II, the Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education that began in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from immigration and the unprecedented population growth now termed the "baby boom". Queensland schools were overcrowded and to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.Project Services, Queensland Schools Heritage Study Part II Report, for Education Queensland, January 2008, pp. 28-31. The overriding concern for the Department of Public Instruction, faced with overcrowding and a lack of resources, was the need to build school buildings as expeditiously and economically as possible.Burmester et al., Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, p. 70.
The population of Mitchelton and its adjacent suburb, Keperra, doubled between 1947 and 1954 and this was reflected in the growth of Mitchelton State School's enrolments. Pupil numbers increased from 331 in 1939 to 657 in October 1950. Temporary classrooms were added in 1947 and 1949, but overcrowding continued.'School Building Improvements', The Telegraph, 9 Jan 1947, p. 3. The community requested that work on the new school for Mitchelton commence and in 1951, the Department of Public Works announced it would build six classrooms on the new Mitchelton State School site.'Pupils increase at Mitchelton', Brisbane Telegraph, 27 Sep 1949, p. 17'New School is growing piecemeal', The Courier-Mail, 4 Oct 1950, p .7'£17,250 for extra school classrooms', Brisbane Telegraph, 2 Aug 1951.
Post-war, the Department of Public Instruction focused on more appropriate siting of new schools within their neighbourhoods, as well as site planning for expansion and ideal solar orientation. In the early 1950s, Department of Public Works (DPW) architects developed master planning concepts that influenced the design and layout of the whole school. Initially, these plans were broadly based on regular and symmetrical plan forms around a central or prominent axis.Burmester et al., Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, pp. 73-74. Educationalists argued that the ideal orientation of classroom buildings was 10 degrees east of north, with verandahs protecting the northern side and classrooms facing south. This led to the construction of school buildings that were oriented in relation to the sun rather than the site boundaries.Burmester et al., Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, pp. 65-6. The original positioning of Mitchelton State School's buildings, with three parallel connected wings orientated this way to the sun, are evidence of these planning considerations.Burmester et al., Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, p. 66.
The DPW introduced and developed new standard plans for school buildings from 1950. These buildings were high-set timber-framed structures with the understorey used as covered play space. Introduced in 1950, the principal type, the Highset Timber School Building with semi-enclosed stair, was a long and narrow building with a gable roof. The stair connected the understorey to a north-facing verandah running the length of the building. Classrooms opened off the verandah and had extensive areas of windows; almost the entirety of the verandah wall and the opposite classroom wall were glazed, allowing abundant natural light and ventilation. This building type was the most commonly constructed in the 1950s in Queensland.Type F/T4. See: Burmester et al, Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, p. 116. Plans for the first buildings of the new Mitchelton State School - Blocks B and C (both of this type) and a Administration Bridging Wing - were drawn in September and October 1951 and built in time for commencement of the 1952 school year.ePlan, DPW Mitchelton Primary School floor plan, drawing No. 15417545ePlan, DPW, Mitchelton New Primary school classroom floor plan, drawing no 151417523, 1951Type (F/T4). See: Burmester et al, Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, p.116
Block B had a north-facing verandah and classrooms on the upper level, with open space on the ground level providing a covered play area for students. The southern side had large areas of casement windows with fanlights, while the northern verandah wall had double doors with glazed panels and double-hung windows with fanlights. The classrooms were 21 ft wide (6.4m) and separated by timber partitions, some with large folding doors to combine classrooms and some with central double doors. The partition layout incorporated narrow hat rooms between classrooms. The building was supported on timber stumps with short timber bracing walls. The ground floor was only partially concreted and there was a lavatory at the western end. The verandah stair at the western end was partially enclosed with glazing. Verandah balustrades were timber rails.Project Services, Queensland Schools Heritage Study Part II Report, Mitchelton State School, 2007, pp. 5-6.
Built to the north and parallel to Block B, Block C was almost a duplicate of Block B but with variations to the verandah stair at the western end and it lacked the eastern-most classroom.Project Services, "Mitchelton State School", Project Services, pp. 5-6.