Duaringa State School is a heritage-listed state school and teacher's residence at Charlotte Street, Duaringa, Central Highlands Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1899 to 1934 by JC Thomson. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 31 May 2019.
History Duaringa State School, which opened on its current site in 1899, is located in the small town of Duaringa, approximately southwest of Rockhampton. The school is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture, as it retains an early Department of Public Works (DPW) timber school building (Block A, 1899), with a contemporary large DPW teacher's residence (1899), set on a large site with an early tree planting, play areas and sporting facilities.
Part of the traditional land of the Gaangalu people, the town of Duaringa was surveyed during the summer of 1875–6 as part of the westward extension of the Central Western railway line (originally called the "Great Northern Railway"), which had opened from Rockhampton to Westwood in 1867. Duaringa, previously known as "Colo" or the "Dawson Seven-mile Camp", was settled by Europeans in the 1860s as it was at the junction of two roads. Prior to that it had been a meeting place and a burial ground for the Gaangalu people. After a flood in early 1875 inundated the railway construction town of Boolburra, on the east bank of the Dawson River, the population relocated west to the Dawson Seven-mile Camp. This was surveyed and renamed Duaringa. When the railway opened to Duaringa on 28 March 1876, the town became the railhead for local wool shipments. A town reserve of resumed from the Nundubbermere pastoral run, was declared on 30 October 1878. After the railhead moved west, Duaringa survived due to the local pastoral and timber industries, and was the administration centre for the Duaringa Shire Council. The Colo Post Office, opened on 10 November 1875, was renamed the Duaringa Post Office from the start of 1876.A Murtagh-Scott (Ed), Duaringa State School Centenary 1879-1979, Duaringa, Duaringa State School, 1979, pp.3-4, 29'The Bulletin' Rockhampton Bulletin, 6 November 1875, p.2 (Colo or the Dawson Seven-mile Camp)Rockhampton Bulletin, 19 May 1876, p.2 (wool shipments)DNRME Survey Plan D1931 (Duaringa surveyed between November 1875-February 1876)'Paper and discussion on early Duaringa', Central Queensland Herald, 15 November 1956, p.22National Archives of Australia, Series J3111: Control Symbol: DUARINGA, "Post office history file - Duaringa", 1877-1977Queensland Government Gazette 1878, Vol 2, p.919 (town reserve)JD Kerr, "Queensland Rail Heritage Report, Final Report, July 1993", Part 1, Chapter 1 pp.5-6
A provisional school opened at Duaringa on 3 June 1879, in a slab hut with a bark roof, on a site north of the railway which had previously been rejected as a school reserve.Queensland State Archives Agency ID5174, 'Duaringa State School'Murtagh-Scott, Duaringa State School Centenary 1879-1979, p.7. 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.4-5P Burmester, M Pullar and M Kennedy Queensland Schools: A Heritage Conservation Study, a report for the Department of Education, 1996, pp.87-8. However, in 1892 the Duaringa provisional school was referred to as "a wretched tenement", with 30–40 children in a building meant for 25. Although a building committee for a state school was formed in October that year, concerns about Duaringa's permanence meant that an application for a state school was deferred, and instead the provisional school building was extended.Murtagh-Scott, Duaringa State School Centenary 1879-1979, p.7'First School in 1879 bark hut', Rockhampton Morning Bulletin, 2 June 1979 (clipping included in NAA, Series J3111: Control Symbol: DUARINGA, "Post office history file - Duaringa", 1877-1977).
Following increased confidence in the future of the town, in October 1898 a committee was elected to raise funds for the state school. In May 1899 the tender of JC Thomson, of £869 for a new school building and residence, was accepted. The school's site was east of Edward Street and south of Charlotte Street. The site had originally been gazetted as a square, reserve for a school in August 1877. The state school reserve was originally owned by the Railway Department, and included the house of an Inspector near the corner of Edward and Elizabeth Streets. This reserve was extended twice during 1893, to a total of , the whole of Section IX between Edward and George streets.Murtagh-Scott (Ed), Duaringa State School Centenary 1879-1979, p.7'Duaringa', The Capricornian, 5 November 1898, p.32Queensland Government Gazette 1899, Volume 1, p.750 (tenders called)'Duaringa', The Capricornian, 20 May 1899, p.12 (tender accepted).DNRME Survey Plan D1931, 1875Queensland Government Gazette, 1877, Vol 2, p.455 and 1893, Vol 1, p.1191, and Volume 2, p.934 (reserve extensions). The local community produced the required one-fifth of the building cost, and the new state school was completed in October 1899 and occupied the next month.'Duaringa' The Capricornian, 20 May 1899, p.12 (one fifth of cost)'Duaringa', The Capricornian, 4 November 1899, p.8 (contractor had finished school and residence).Murtagh-Scott (Ed), Duaringa State School Centenary 1879-1979 p.7 The front verandahs of both new buildings faced north, towards Charlotte Street.
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.Burmester et al, Queensland Schools: A Heritage Conservation Study, pp.84, 120-1.
The school building at Duaringa (known as Block A in 2019) was an early DPW timber school building. From 1893 the DPW greatly improved the natural ventilation and lighting of classroom interiors, 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. The school building at Duaringa seems to be a combination of the C/T0 and C/T1 types with the verandah hat enclosures of the C/T0 and the highset 14-light end windows of the C/T1.Burmester et al, Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, pp.18-20P Burmester, M Pullar and M Kennedy, Queensland Schools: A Heritage Conservation Study, Conservation Management, a report for the Department of Education, November 1996, pp.17-18). The timber-framed school building at Duaringa was lowset on stumps, and had a hipped roof with a central ventilation fleche, with the roof extending over the front and rear verandahs - both wide with a balustrade of timber rails. The rear verandah also had long semi-enclosed hat rooms, with hand basins, at each end. The single classroom's interior measurements were ; it had a coved ceiling; central double doors and two sets of three tall windows in each of the single-skin verandah walls; plus high banks of 14 windows to each end wall. The building was originally orientated so that the front verandah faced north.DPW Plan barcode 13567444, "Proposed State School and Residence, Duaringa", 14 April 1899DPW Plan barcode 13567455, "Duaringa State School Block Plan", March 1934.
A school residence was built at the same time, and appears to be an early version of the DPW's large timber residence of type C/R3.Burmester et al, Queensland Schools: A Heritage Conservation Study, Conservation Management, p.29 Unlike later examples of the C/R3, the Duaringa residence has a ventilation fleche, and a narrower dining verandah - 7 ft 7inch (2.3m), instead of the 9 ft 6 inch (2.9m) dining verandah of the C/R3.'Heritage Conservation Management Plan, Duaringa State School' (draft), December 2018, Roger Todd Architect, for Queensland Department of Education, p.15 Most Queensland state schools incorporated a teacher's residence on the site, particularly in rural areas. This was partial recompense for a low wage, an incentive for teacher recruitment in rural areas, and provided onsite caretakers. The detached teacher's residence was located within the school grounds at a distance from the teaching buildings, usually with a separate, fenced yard with gardens and trees. The designs ranged from one to four bedrooms and evolved simultaneously with the teaching buildings to adapt to modern needs and styles. Residences designed by DPW architects from 1893 were typically of a higher-quality in design, materials and construction than most similarly scaled private residences.Project Services, Queensland Schools Heritage Study Part II Report, for Education Queensland, January 2008, pp.33-5Burmester et al, Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, pp.12, 63, 105, 106.
Like the school building, the residence at Duaringa had a hipped roof with a matching central ventilation fleche, and was timber-framed and lowset on stumps. It consisted of a four-room core (two bedrooms on one side, sitting and dining rooms on the other), with an 8 ft (2.4m) wide front (north) verandah, while a 7 ft 7 inch (2.3m) wide dining verandah separated the core from a kitchen wing with a gabled-roof, which contained the kitchen (with stove recess), a store, bathroom and a bedroom. There was a separate outdoor earth closet (EC). The interiors were lined with wide tongue-and-groove (T&G) beaded boards, and the windows protected by timber, skillion-roofed hoods. The Duaringa residence is closest in form to a standard type that was built by the DPW from 1903 to 1914, but the fleche and the narrower width of the dining verandah are characteristic of its earlier date of construction.'Duaringa State School and Residence', heritage assessment prepared by Project Services for Education Queensland, 2007, p.9.
The school soon became the focus of community events. By April 1900, when the average school attendance was 73, a "Christmas-tree show and competition" was held in the school building, on Easter Monday night, to raise funds for wounded soldiers in South Africa (the Boer War).'Duaringa', Morning Bulletin, 13 April 1900, p.6'Duaringa', Morning Bulletin, 27 April 1900, p.7.
Additions were made to the school grounds during the early 20th century, including a playshed, for which a tender was accepted in July 1901; and fencing of the school grounds occurred in 1904.'Official notifications', Telegraph, 22 July 1901, p.2 (tender accepted for playshed, A Bertram Jr, £79)'Duaringa State School', Telegraph, 30 May 1904, p.4 (tender accepted to fence school reserve, DJ Draper, £62 1s 8d). In 1911 a lawn tennis match was played between a visiting family and a local team "on the school court", and by 1933 the tennis court site (extant in 2019) had been completed, with the school committee holding euchre parties and dances to raise funds for the court and tennis equipment.'Duaringa', Morning Bulletin, 28 August 1911, p.4'Duaringa', Central Queensland Herald, 17 August 1933, p.41 (monthly school dance and euchre party held in school)'Duaringa', Central Queensland Herald, 26 October 1933, p.41.