Cairns Technical College and High School Building is a heritage-listed state school at Sheridan Street, Cairns North, Cairns, Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Nigel Laman Thomas of the Department of Public Works (Queensland) and built from 1939 to 1941 by day labour. It is also known as Block A of Cairns State High School. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 9 May 2014.
History The Cairns Technical College and High School building was constructed in 1941 as a purpose-designed facility for state-run secondary and technical education in Cairns. It was designed by the Department of Public Works as part of the Queensland Government's unemployment relief program during the 1930s and was built using day labour during a period of pronounced construction in Cairns. This commanding, three-storey brick building at the corner of Sheridan and Upward Streets is an important element in the city's streetscape.
State education in Cairns began in 1878 with the opening of Cairns Central State School on Aplin Street.
As in other Australian colonies, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. This helped to ensure consistency and economy. The standard designs were continually refined by government architects in response to changing needs and educational philosophy. Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in their approach to climate control, lighting, and ventilation. Due to the standardisation of facilities, schools across the state were developed in distinctly similar ways and became complexes of typical components.
Higher education in Cairns was offered by private schools from at least the 1880s. Citizens of Cairns agitated for a state high school from around 1915 and in February 1917 Cairns State High School was established as a secondary department on the grounds of the Cairns Central State School (then called the Cairns Boys' State School).
From their introduction, the design of high school buildings was the responsibility of the Department of Public Works. Initially, high schools were established within existing technical colleges, utilising their buildings to save expense. The first purpose-built high school buildings were constructed in 1917 and were large, elaborate buildings that were variations of a standard design introduced in 1914, as well as vocational education buildings built to standard designs.
By 1918 the high school in Cairns was considered inadequate and a separate high school was requested. At the same time, the Cairns Technical College (a private institute established prior to 1899) was looking to move out of their accommodation within the Cairns School of Arts. The Department of Public Instruction took over the operation of Cairns Technical College, combined it with the high school, and created Cairns Technical High School in 1924. This occurred at other technical colleges in Queensland after the Technical Instruction Act 1908 empowered the government to take over technical colleges run by local school of arts committees. The government had taken an active interest in technical education from the early 1900s. This came from a widespread concern about the growing industrial success of Germany, attributed to its extensive technical education program, and from Queensland's growing manufacturing sector, which created a need for a more skilled workforce in a variety of trades. After 1908 the government expanded their provision of technical education, establishing new colleges in several centres, including Maryborough, Bundaberg, Rockhampton and Mackay. Over the 20th century, the government expanded its provision of technical education to form an integral element of their program. Cairns Technical High School began teaching students from 28 January 1924 in new timber buildings on a large central site on Sheridan Street, officially opened 2 June 1925 by the Minister for Public Instruction, Thomas Wilson. The site had been reserved for a number of civic uses including a school as early as 1910.
Cairns experienced a major phase of development during the 1920s and 1930s. It was declared the City of Cairns in 1923, when it had a population of 8000. This rose to 12,000 by 1933, and 15,700 by 1941. Factors contributing to prosperity in Far North Queensland, and increased building activity in Cairns, included: the Cairns hinterland Soldier Settlement Schemes of the 1920s; the continued success of the local sugar industry; the expansion of wharf facilities; ships bringing tourists from the southern states; the completion of the North Coast railway line to Brisbane in 1924; the opening of the Gilles Highway (1926) and the Captain Cook Highway (1933); the extensive re-building necessitated by cyclones in the 1920s; and the poor condition of earlier timber structures.
In particular, the city centre became dominated by masonry and reinforced concrete structures during the interwar period. Important civic buildings were constructed, most in a Classical architectural style, intended to re-affirm the power and presence of government in the community. These included the Court House (1921), Cairns City Council Chambers (1930), Public Offices (1936), Customs House (1937), and Cairns Technical College and High School. The construction of these buildings by the Queensland Government reflected the confidence in the growth of Cairns as an important regional centre during the interwar period.
As the population of Cairns grew over the interwar period, the existing timber buildings of Cairns Technical High School were unable to accommodate the student population. A new brick building was designed by architect Nigel Laman Thomas of the Department of Public Works in July 1938.This was one of an important group of brick school buildings designed during and immediately after the Great Depression as part of the government's unemployment relief program. This program began in 1932 when newly elected Premier William Forgan Smith instituted a capital works program focussed on building modern infrastructure to provide relief work for unemployed Queenslanders. The "improvement" of schools was a primary aspect of the scheme. The relief work program ended in 1938, transitioning into a permanent, long-term, capital works program. It was under this program that the new brick building for the school was designed and built.
The pattern of brick school buildings in prosperous or rising suburban areas that had begun in the early 1900s continued during the 1930s on a much larger scale. The 1930s buildings form a recognisable and important type, exhibiting many common characteristics. Frequently, they were two storeys high above an open undercroft and built to accommodate up to 1000 students. They adopted a symmetrical plan and had Neo-Classical stylistic elements and a prominent central entry. They were able to be built in stages if necessary. The plan arrangement was similar to that of timber school buildings, being only one classroom deep, accessed by a long straight verandah. Ideally, the classrooms would face south with the verandah on the north but little concession was made for this and almost all brick school buildings faced the primary boundary road, regardless of orientation. Classrooms were commonly divided by folding timber partitions and the undercroft was used for covered play space, storage, toilets and other functions. However, the Cairns building is unusual in that it was built on a corner, and also right to the footpath, which increases its streetscape presence.
The Department of Public Works and the Department of Public Instruction in Queensland were extremely enthusiastic about the brick school buildings designed in the 1930s. They were considered monuments to progress embodying the most modern principles of the ideal education environment.
The marble foundation stone of the new brick building for Cairns, which reads "Cairns Technical College and High School", was laid on 7 October 1939 by Henry Adam Bruce, the Minister for Public Works and Public Instruction. The building was constructed using day labour and cost over and was officially opened 5 February 1941 by Attorney General, John O'Keefe. It was described as "magnificent" and a reminder that "education and democracy go hand in hand". The school continued to use the old timber buildings, which were altered to accommodate a new intermediate school. Also, new technical college workshops for engineering and plumbing trades were completed, and tennis courts were added to the grounds. The school was the only purpose-built state high school north of Townsville until 1960.
The new building had two long, narrow wings forming an L-shape abutting the Sheridan and Upward Street boundaries, with a prominent central entry diagonally facing the intersection. Designed in a Neo-Classical style, the three-storey structure was brick and concrete with a hipped roof. The exterior had a rendered base and had upper levels of face brick with rendered dressings. The entry had a round arched opening with giant order Ionic columns above, flanking a tall window into a stair hall. Glazing throughout the building was timber-framed and featured fine, timber glazing bars forming multiple panes.
The ground floor understorey was largely open, providing a protected playing area and also accommodating a teachers' room, a girls' retiring room, and a students' reading room. Toilets for girls and female teachers were located in a single-storey section at the end of the Upward Street wing of the understorey, while toilets for the boys and male teachers were located at the end of the Sheridan Street wing. The first floor housed the principal's room and domestic science rooms (dressmaking room, dining room, cookery room, laundry, and drying room) in the Sheridan Street wing, and a general office, classroom, science laboratory and lecture room in the Upward Street wing. The second floor accommodated five classrooms (three connected by folding partitions), bookkeeping and typewriting rooms, drawing room, and a teachers' room. Hat and coat rooms were on each floor and the building had a central main entrance hall and terrazzo stairs. The classrooms faced onto the streets (south-west and south-east) and circulation was via an verandah on the opposite side (north-west and north-east).
Contemporary reports stated: the building would "appeal to the aesthetic taste, and the dimensions of the building [were] commensurate with the rapid progress of the city, besides being a valuable asset from an educational point of view".
The new building for Cairns Technical College and High School opened during World War II, but the war had only a minor effect on the operation of the school. Cairns became an important supply and repair centre during the war, and a US Army hospital was built near the school on land that in 2014 is the school oval. Also, part of the school site near Grove Street was used as a military prison, and air raid slit trenches were dug in the school's playing fields. While the military presence increased, the civilian population decreased. In early 1942 over one third of Cairns' population evacuated the city. Also, the Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools in January 1942 (although this decision was soon reversed). Because of these factors, Cairns Technical College and High School opened a month late in 1942, with a much-reduced student population. The intended opening of the intermediate school in 1942 was also delayed.