Spinifex State College Junior Campus is a heritage-listed state high school at 6–12 Fifth Avenue, Parkside, Mount Isa, City of Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Department of Public Works (Queensland) and built in 1954. It is also known as Mount Isa State High School and Mount Isa Intermediate School. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 23 August 2018.
History Spinifex Junior College was founded in 1953 as Mount Isa State High School serving the mining town of Mount Isa. It is located on the west side of the Leichhardt River, about 0.75 km south of the main mine site and 1 km southwest of the Mount Isa central business district. The site includes five Hawksley prefabricated school buildings (1954–1960), a connecting link (1955–1957), and a head teacher's residence (1956). These were built when the town was rapidly evolving from a mining settlement of itinerant workers to a substantial regional company town supporting families. The school has a strong and ongoing association with the Mount Isa community.
The Mount Isa area is part of the traditional lands of the Kalkadoon people. Located about 820 km west of Townsville, the town is situated within an extensive mineral-rich area stretching from south of Cloncurry to west of Burketown. The Mount Isa mineral field was discovered by John Campbell Miles in 1923, who named the place after his niece Isobel (Isa being an abbreviation of Isobel). An early analysis of the ore revealed a very high lead content. It later also produced silver, zinc and copper. A rudimentary town developed after Mount Isa Mines Ltd (MIM) was floated as a company in January 1924. A township was surveyed on the east side of the Leichhardt River and soon included a police station, courthouse, hospital, hotels, post office, and banks. The Townsville-Duchess rail line (1912) was extended to Mount Isa in 1929.Mimag, published by TE Willmett and Sons Townsville, May 1955, p.19Kirkman, Noreen, Mount Isa Mines, social infrastructure programs 1924-1963, JCU PhD thesis, 2011, pp.1, 149Kerr, John, Triumph of Narrow Gauge, A history of Queensland Railways, Brisbane, Boolarong Press, 1990, pp.143-144, 224Blainey, Geoffrey, Mines in the Spinifex, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1960, p.157 By 1930 MIM had consolidated its activities in the field, financed initially by Russo-Asiatic Consolidated Ltd, and later with American Smelting and Refining Company backing. Many senior management staff were American. The town also had the largest Finnish community in Australia in the 1930s.
MIM created its own company township on the western side of the river, close to the mine, with company stores, bank and recreational facilities, while the private commercial centre remained on the eastern side. This created two settlements known as Mineside (west) and Townside (east). A convent school was established in 1932 between these two settlements. High school classes were offered at the Mount Isa Mines State School from 1937.Kirkman, p.50Eklund, Eric, Mining Towns, Making a Living, Making a life, "The northwest", UNSW Press, 2012.(online Google Books no page numbering - referenced by chapter title).Townsville Daily Bulletin, 8 February 1932, p.6, 13 March 1937, p.12.
The local Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, AJ (Norm) Smith wrote to the Minister for Public Instruction in 1945, advocating a merger of the two state schools to establish one central state school, combined with a technical college and a high top (the precursor to a high school, using existing school infrastructure). While the primary schools remained separate, this letter, along with the growth of the town, the development of MIM and its need for trained staff, served to initiate the foundation of a high school in Mount Isa.QSA, Item ID 13465 Mount Isa State High School Correspondence file - Report from Inspector of Secondary Schools and Technical Colleges, 21 June 1947Mimag, January 1949, p.7Mt Isa Weekly News, 12 January 1946, p.1.
During World War II (WWII), MIM initiated policies favouring the employment of married men and began building houses for married employees, providing barracks for single men. After WWII, a large housing construction project was initiated with the Queensland Housing Commission. The town's tent houses (a surviving example of which is now the heritage-listed Tent House) and corrugated iron dwellings were replaced with houses built in timber (some were recycled army buildings) or locally manufactured concrete bricks. Employee numbers grew from 1,025 in June 1947 to 2,550 in June 1952. This sharp increase was a direct result of the meteoric rise in the price of lead, as profits rose from £150,000 in 1946 to £500,000 in 1947, and £1,457,000 in 1947–48. This profitability resulted in the establishment of a lead bonus whereby employees were paid an additional few pence per shift, as a share in these profits (the lead bonus was not compensation for the health hazards of exposure to lead). The lead bonus reached £5 per week in 1947–48, and £17 5s during the Korean War in 1951, making Mount Isa a very attractive proposition to workers. By 1955 MIM was the largest mining company in Australia and by 1960 Mount Isa produced 60 per cent of Queensland's mineral wealth and employed more than 50 per cent of the state's mining workforce.Kirkman, pp.1, 123, 149-132Blainey, pp.193-198Eklund, Mining Towns, Making a Living, Making a life, "Mount Isa Normalising outback suburbia".
MIM continued to support long-term employees by employing their family members, while simultaneously demanding higher education standards. In the 1950s, the Apprenticeship Board required the completion of Year 8 for electrical apprenticeships and grades 6 or 7 for other apprenticeships. MIM required the Junior Public Exam (Year 10) for electrical apprentices and the completion of Scholarship (Year 8) or Sub-Junior (Year 9) for all others. This policy created a demand for secondary education. A 1949 report from the inspector of Secondary Schools and Technical Colleges advocated the establishment of a new intermediate and high school in Mount Isa with technical classes attached. The inspector noted that there were 60 apprentices employed in the mines, a further four in the town, and that the mining company would hire a further 100 if they were available. Enrolments in the three primary schools had grown from a total of 458 in 1945 to 771 in 1949. The establishment of a high school was regarded as urgent.Kirkman, p.149QSA Item ID 13465 Mount Isa State High School Correspondence file - Report from Inspector of Secondary Schools and Technical Colleges, 21 June 1947.
In 1950, the Department of Education acquired a nine-acre recreation reserve (a former football field), and an adjacent five-acre mining lease was surrendered by MIM, totalling just over 14 acres (5.66ha). Department of Public Works (DPW) architects produced plans for the new timber school on the site and called for tenders for its construction in late 1951. These plans were not fulfilled. Instead, in August 1952 it was announced Hawksley prefabricated aluminium buildings would be used.QSA Item ID 13465Survey Plans M75812 Rd39Government Gazette, 16 October 1926, p.1590, 2 September 1950, p.1242Survey Plans Rd6, Rd26, M75812, Rd39, Rd41Townsville Daily Bulletin, 1 September 1951, p.2Cairns Post, 2 November 1951, p.5Maryborough Chronicle, 20 August 1952, p.4.
Prefabricated buildings from Hawksley Construction Co. of Gloucester, England, were ordered by the Queensland Government for use in schools in response to the materials shortage and construction pressure of the post-WWII baby boom. The buildings employed an aluminium structure, external cladding of ribbed aluminium sheets, and aluminium-framed awning windows. Components used techniques developed during WWII in aircraft manufacture including pop-riveting, and synthetic gaskets and sealants. As a consequence, these structures had an industrial aesthetic.Paul Burmester, Margaret Pullar and Michael Kennedy, Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, a report for the Department of Education, 1996, p.69, 115
The DPW assembled the buildings highset or lowset, and with a verandah for circulation accessing a series of classrooms. Ideally, they were oriented so the verandah faced north and the classrooms faced south. The extensive, operable glazing provided abundant natural light and ventilation. The classrooms were 24 ft x 24 ft (7.3m x 7.3m), larger than most previous classrooms. The DPW ordered 27 Hawksley buildings comprising 90 classrooms, which began to arrive in Queensland in late 1952. The local Mimag magazine praised the choice of the Hawksley buildings because of the rapidity of construction.Burmester, et al, p.69Courier Mail, 23 January 1953, p.2Mimag, June 1954.
At Mount Isa, the first Hawksley building was erected quickly, completed by 25 March 1953, accommodating the high school during the day and technical classes at night for apprentices. The second Hawksley building was completed by the start of 1954 and accommodated the principal's office and science classrooms. The third (Block J, Hawksley Unit Type 'A') was completed by June 1954, with its concrete slab floor laid by MIM. It was a manual arts classroom building and included a woodwork room, sheet metalwork room, and trade drawing room. The fourth was completed in 1955 (Block F, Hawksley Unit Type 'G') and accommodated two general classrooms and a library. The fifth was completed in 1956 (Block G, Hawksley Unit Type 'B') and accommodated domestic science classrooms. The school held night classes for more than 100 students (mostly MIM apprentices) and adult education classes in shorthand, typing, and bookkeeping were offered. A fete held in June showcased the achievements of the students including the cooking from the new domestic science wing.Mimag, April 1953 "Mount Isa High School", p.9, "Our High School", June 1954Kirkman, p.149, 165-167DPW Annual Report 1952-3, p.16QSA Item ID 13465, 13466, Mount Isa State High School Correspondence filesMt Isa Mail, 16 October 1953, p.3, 6 November 1953, p.2Mt Isa Mail, 4 February 1955, p.1QSA Item ID 13466 Mount Isa State High School Correspondence fileDPW Annual Report 1954-55DPW Annual Report 1955-56 p.10DPW Plan 1600369Mt Isa Mail, 2 February 1956, p.2Mt Isa Mail, 7 June 1956, p.4.
The buildings were laid out on the site at regular intervals along a central spine created by a covered link. The link was built in stages as the buildings were added and they included covered "lunch areas", a broader section of the link on the north side of the buildings that included seats for students. The lunch area seats were disposed of after 2007.QSA Item ID 13465, 13466 Mount Isa State High School Correspondence filesMt Isa Mail 5 February 1954, p.3Mt Isa Mail, 4 March 1954, p.3Mt Isa Mail, 2 June 1954, p.2Mt Isa Mail, 16 June 1954, p.3Mt Isa Mail, 14 July 1954, p.3Mt Isa Mail, 1 September 1954, p.1Townsville Daily Bulletin, 14 May 1954, p.2Townsville Daily Bulletin, 14 October 1954, p.5Northern Miner, 9 October 1954, p.1