Push to protect Brisbane State High School's 90-year-old classrooms
Several Brisbane State High School classrooms that are more than 90 years old and still have a blackboard have been put forward for heritage protection.
The Department of Education has moved to protect the school’s building under the Queensland Heritage Register.
The school has two adjacent campuses, the northern Merivale Street campus and the southern Vulture Street campus.
The campuses date to the 1860s when they were established as the South Brisbane Primary School site and it began operating under the name of Brisbane State High School in 1921 with about 490 children attending.
The school now caters to more than 3000 students.
A two-storey brick building, called Block H, at the Merivale Street campus, dates to 1864 and is one of the oldest state school buildings in Queensland.
It was entered into the state heritage register on October 31, 1994.
An application has now been made for a three-storey red-brick building on the Vulture Street campus, known as Block A, to also be added to the register.
Block A was built in 1925.
The building houses administration offices and staff rooms on the ground floor and student classrooms on the second and third floor.
There is one early blackboard that remains intact in the second-floor classroom in the eastern wing.
The statement of cultural heritage significance, submitted as part of the application, said Block A reflected the Queensland government’s progressive commitment to providing secondary education.
“This represented a modernisation of the state education system and commitment by the state government to provide secondary education to Queensland students who could not afford to attend a grammar school or denominational high school,” the statement said.
“It is one of the earliest state high schools constructed in Brisbane which included specialist classrooms such as laboratories and a gymnasium.
“Block A also demonstrates the state government’s growing preference in the early 20th century for brick school buildings and is an early example of an urban brick school building.”
Public consultation on the applications to add the school building to the register is open until August 10.
If the building at Brisbane State High School is added to the Queensland Heritage Register any proposed changes, additions or construction of new buildings will be assessed under a set of criteria for heritage buildings.