The first school in Barcaldine
In January 1887 a tender of £684 from Moir, Cousins and Co. was accepted by the Works Department to build a State School in Barcaldine. The building was handed over to a school committee in May. It first opened temporarily on June 15 and 16 so that intending pupils could be classified and 120 enrolled.
Official opening day was July 4.
The headmaster, P. J. McDermott was assisted by Misses Glanville, Cooke and Lennon, all of whom had been conducting private schools. One assumes that until the opening the children were being taught in small classes on private premises.
Numbers at the school increased so rapidly that wings were added on either side before the year ended. These were old classrooms from Bogantungan, one of which had also seen service at Pine Hill.
They were ill-designed, dark and cramped, but remained in use for more than fifty years despite continual requests and complaints to the Education Department. Overcrowding at the State school was relieved when a convent school opened on February 3, 1896.
Changing face of the State School building
In December 1901, the school faced a crisis when its head teacher, Mr. Carey, died suddenly and Miss Glanville, an experienced assistant, was told to carry on as best she could until the vacation.
The old ‘railway’ buildings that formed the school originally were often renovated and repaired: A sum of £270 was spent in 1909, £255 in 1911, and £126 in 1923.
In 1913 a residence for the head teacher was constructed by O’Brien and Co. for £650.
But the school remained uncomfortable, dark and cramped.
During the first world war, the school was hard pressed with poor facilities and too many pupils.
Evacuated children swelled enrolment at a time when teaching staff was depleted by military enlistment. The buildings, parts of which had come with the line in 1886, were still dark, unsound and very shabby by then.
Three classrooms were crammed with over 200 pupils and only six teachers.
Plans for a new £3,000 school drawn up in 1939 were deferred and even a personal plea from local MLA, Frank Bulcock, could not alter the decision. Although his secretary described the need for a new school as ‘a matter of pressing urgency’ in August 1941, nothing was done until 1944.
For about four months from May that year classes were held in the supper room and on a side verandah of the Shire Hall, supervised by head teacher, J. Hogan, while a new school was built. It did not meet with general approval. A ‘Grateful Parent’ wrote sarcastically to the Longreach Leader to say he was glad the Works Inspector had put parents right by explaining the building was ‘ideal for tropical conditions’. It would have been bad, he said, to consult parents who might have designed a school that would subject children to cooling breezes.
In 1942, before the new school was built, the Longreach Leader reported that air raid trenches were built in the school grounds, and that a Jap, to catch a Barcaldine child above ground, would have to sneak up on him or her.
1954, the school built in 1944, was painted for the first time, having only been stained with oil when constructed. In 1956, a secondary department to Grade 9 opened with 17 students and two teachers. Until classrooms were built, lessons were taken in St. Peter’s parish hall and some country girls were boarded at the convent. Expansion of the department continued in the 1960s to Grade 12 level.
Increasing facilities at the State School required more land. Barcaldine members of QCWA were notified in 1945 that the School of Arts site they occupied was needed but it was several years before other arrangements could be made.
Rights of the Child were different in 1953 when a complaint was made against the headteacher, H D Wolter, of alleged assault against a pupil. The case was heard before the Stipendiary Magistrate, Mr P T Noone in the Barcaldine Court of Petty Sessions. It was dismissed with costs against the plaintiff (Central Queensland Herald 30 April 1953)
NEW SCHOOL 1987
Plans for a new state school complex were approved in 1985 by the Works Department for construction south of the town before 1990.
By then, more than 300 pre-school to Year 12 students were crowded onto 1.6 hectare at the original site. St. Joseph’s Convent School had an attendance of over 80.
The new State School was constructed in 1987 with the primary section ready for use in 1988. By the 1990s, the new school was well settled in its new situation on the south eastern end of town. Communication facilities were upgraded in 1998.
Central western athletic carnivals for schools, as always, were held annually but had moved in venue to the State School’s playing field. A splendid new covered and flood lit area for sport was constructed in the school grounds in late 2007 and was ‘unofficially christened’ on November 16 with a Mixed Netball Night involving 12 teams.
In 2008, Barcaldine State School, from preschool to Year 12 students, had an enrolment of 284. The school achieved a triumph in 2007 when it was able to send a group of students to Brisbane. Trained by their music teacher, Jo Martin, the school had already won a regional section of a State Rock Eisteddfod in Rockhampton for their 8 minute re-enactment of the Shearers’ Strike. Among many subscribers, the Gas Power Station donated $10,000 to the cost of travel and with other fund raising it became possible for the school to compete in the Brisbane final. They returned in September with an Award for Excellence for School/Community Support and Spirit.
Text sources include: Hoch, Isabel. 2008. Pages 33, 53, 63, 89, 95, 105, 107, 125, 135, 143, 151, 155
