Kelvin Grove State College buildings are a heritage-listed group of state school buildings at Kelvin Grove State College on L'Estrange Terrace, Kelvin Grove, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. They were designed by Queensland Department of Public Works and built from 1918 to 1919. The school has a long history with a number of schools being its predecessors: Kelvin Grove Road Provisional School, Kelvin Grove Boys State School, Kelvin Grove Girls and Infants State School, Kelvin Grove State School, and Kelvin Grove State High School. The group of school buildings was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 23 August 2018.
History Kelvin Grove is a suburb of Brisbane, located approximately three kilometres northwest of the Brisbane city centre, and was the traditional country of the Jagera and Turrbal peoples. The area was developed primarily as a residential suburb from the 1860s.Kelvin Grove Fig Trees and air raid shelter, Entry in the Register QHR 602196.
Kelvin Grove State College was originally established as a primary school in 1875. In the 1950s it underwent a major redevelopment to create separate primary and infants schools that were regarded as leading examples of school architecture in the post-war period in Queensland. In 1960 the infants school was converted into a high school and the grounds were expanded. The two schools amalgamated in 2002 to become an independent public school with junior, middle and senior campuses. The school complex retains significant 1950s and 1960s buildings set within landscaped grounds including entrance gateways, purpose-designed forecourts, assembly and play areas, and a pedestrianised road.
Kelvin Grove Road School, 1875–1887 Local residents began fundraising for the establishment of a primary school on the Northern Road (renamed Kelvin Grove Road in the 1880s) in 1874 and a 1.66ha site (Portion 274) was set aside by the Board of Education.Queenslander 9 May 1874, p.9, 28 Nov 1874, p.2 Government Gazette 21 November 1874, p.2254Queenslander 28 November 1874, p.2. Kelvin Grove Road School was opened on 3 May 1875, costing £600 with a community contribution of £150. The establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early 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. School facilities also provided a venue for a wide range of community events.Telegraph 9 Apr 1875, p.2Brisbane Courier 4 May 1875, p.3Kelvin Grove State School 75th Anniversary Diamond Jubilee Souvenir history 1962, p.4.
Kelvin Grove Boys State School and Kelvin Grove Girls and Infants State School, 1887–1950 The school grew in 1886 when a separate boys' school was built on a triangular site excised from Victoria Park on the other side of Victoria Park Road. The girls and infants school remained on the 1875 site and the schools reopened on 7 November 1887 as Kelvin Grove Boys State School and Kelvin Grove Girls and Infants State School. The school bell from the 1875 school was moved to the boys school after 1887.Telegraph 31 Dec 1886, p.5Brisbane Courier 11 Feb 1886, p6, DNRME survey plan M331232Government Gazette, 15 Jan 1887, p.247 - see also DNRME survey plan N25286Map Suburban Sections 1 to 2 North Brisbane JOL record 21119880970002061Queenslander, 26 Nov 1887, p.869Souvenir Booklet 1962, p.26. The school grounds were beautified by tree plantings on Arbor Day from the 1890s until the 1930s.Brisbane Courier, 2 May 1891, p.630 Apr 1892, pp.5-6Paul Burmester, Margaret Pullar and Michael Kennedy, Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, a report for the Department of Education, 1996, pp. 4, 48-9Brisbane Courier, 7 Jun 1930, p.7Courier Mail, 22 Jun 1935, p.15.
In 1918 a World War I (WWI) honour board was unveiled in the boys school to commemorate the contribution of Kelvin Grove students and staff. It listed the names of 168 teachers and scholars and one nurse.Telegraph 17 May 1918, p.8. In 1919 a memorial gateway was constructed at the main entrance of the boys school, on the corner of L'Estrange Terrace and Victoria Park Road. It was designed and built by D Walker of Kelvin Grove and cost £24, which was raised by subscription. Made from reinforced concrete, it featured an ornamental lintel bearing the words "HONOUR OUR BOYS".Brisbane Courier 17 Feb 1919, p.9.
To beautify the school grounds, in 1930 a brick and concrete gateway was constructed at the southwest corner of the girls and infants school. It was officially opened on 6 June as part of Arbor Day celebrations.Brisbane Courier 7 Jun 1930, p.7BCC Detail Plan 728 drawn 1931DPW drawing Excavation of Ground at SW Corner 28 Nov 1929, QSA £126227.
In 1930 it was reported 757 girls and 527 boys attended the schools at Kelvin Grove, and the girls and infants school was described as the largest in Queensland. Some of the accommodation pressure on the timber school buildings was relieved in 1935 when the North Brisbane Intermediate School opened nearby, accommodating the two upper classes from each school.Brisbane Courier, 23 August 1930, p.9The University of Queensland took over Old Government House in December 1909. The governor then leased Fernberg House at Bardon [QHR 600275] and plans were produced for a new government house on this site, no longer required by the University. Telegraph, 8 September 1911, p.2Certificate of Title 11075065DNRME Survey Plan M333201 (Fernberg)See QHR 600275 Government HouseBrisbane Courier 23 Aug 1930, p.9Central Queensland Herald 1 Nov 1934, p.3Telegraph 19 Nov 1937, p.19.
During World War II (WWII), the boys school was occupied by the army.Courier Mail 16 Nov 1943, p.3Courier Mail 22 Jan 1942, p.3Request to US DPW 2 Aug 1945 QSA 126227. Site improvements were carried out in 1946 when new fences and concrete retaining walls were constructed around the school perimeters, including along the boundary with Victoria Park Road.QSA 126227.
Kelvin Grove State School, 1950–2002, and Kelvin Grove State Infants School 1950–1961 After WWII the existing timber buildings had become inadequate to cope with the growing student population at Kelvin Grove. In nearby Victoria Park, permanent huts constructed by the Allied forces had been converted into temporary housing in what became the second largest temporary housing settlement in Brisbane. By 1950 Victoria Park was the impermanent home for 460 families, which placed a high demand on the Kelvin Grove schools.Victoria Park Entry in the Register QHR 602495.
The Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education that began in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from immigration and the unprecedented population growth now termed the "baby boom", as well as a shortage of architects and skilled tradesmen.Project Services, Queensland Schools Heritage Study Part II Report, for Education Queensland, Jan 2008, pp.28-31Cairns Post, 3 February 1947, p.5The Department of Public Instruction became the Department of Education from 19571952 DPW Annual report pp.2-5 In order to cope, by the early 1950s the Department of Public Works (DPW) had developed new standard timber school buildings that were quick to construct, and also began importing pre-fabricated building systems from overseas. Construction of large masonry school buildings, which had been commonplace during the inter-war period, was no longer favoured, and only a few were completed in the immediate post-WWII period.Masonry school buildings completed between 1947 and 1950 include Ashgrove State School additions (1947), Bardon State School Infants Block (1948), Wynnum Central State School (first stage, 1949), Stafford State School (1949, QHR 601667), and Fortitude Valley State School (1950). Burmester et al, Queensland Schools: A Heritage Conservation Study, pp. 58-61, 70-77DPW Annual reports 1947-1950.
In April 1947 the Minister for Education, T L Williams, announced that two new, brick, co-educational school buildings would be built at Kelvin Grove to replace the old timber buildings - a primary school on the site of the girls and infants school and an infants school on the site of the boys school.Telegraph, 3 April 1047, p3. In November 1947 a design concept and site plan were prepared by architect Leslie Sturmer Jacobson, an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA), who was one of four newly arrived British architects recently recruited by the DPW. The new buildings were conceived as a complementary pair, addressing opposite corners of the intersection of L'Estrange Terrace and Victoria Park Road. They were to be modern in appearance and feature prominent central entrance bays - rectangular for the primary school and curved for the infants school.Courier Mail 2 August 1947 p.5 and record of entry Commonwealth archives 7952185Courier Mail 5 August 1947, p.3DPW Plan £15487813site layout for Kelvin Grove SchoolJohn Macarthur, Deborah van der Plaat, Janina Gosseye, Andrew Wilson, 'Hot Modernism, Queensland Architecture 1945-1975, pp. 168, 175 -76While Jacobson did not register with the Queensland Board of Architects, his compatriots Percy Blick and Stanley Hinxman both registered in February 1948Jacobson departed Queensland and was working for the WA Dept of Public Works by October 1949 (Daily News Perth, 31 October 1949, p.5)for discussion on post-war school design, see Hot Modernism p.176Special Report submitted to the Director-General of Education on 18 Apr 1952 recorded by the Alumni AssociationBrisbane Telegraph 1 May 1948, p.215 December 1949, p.811 Mar 1950, p.917 May 1952, p.7.
These buildings were designed at a time of transition, when the large Depression-era brick schools were being criticised for their appearance and unsuitability to modern educational philosophies. Queensland school design was changing in response to international influences, including that of the British Board of Education, which advocated adaptable designs in a less formal style, with the option for future enlargement. Educationalists wanted schools that were constructed of modern materials with attractive and modern coloured interiors. In the DPW design office, the design influences of the new British and other émigré architects were being adopted. While the majority of school buildings continued to be built to standard plans, some individually-designed masonry buildings were constructed, typically in areas of stable, suburban and urban populations. An evolution of the Depression-era brick school buildings, they were generally substantial structures of brick and concrete that introduced many innovative ideas that found their way into standard plans. For example, brick was progressively used more frequently in high schools as standard. New brick buildings were stripped of revival-style ornamentation in favour of a simpler, more streamlined aesthetic, with new features such as horizontal concrete window hoods introduced. For the Kelvin Grove schools, the concept plans and site layout for the schools, designed by Jacobsen, were further developed by other DPW architects, who prepared the detailed plans.Burmester et al, Queensland Schools: A Heritage Conservation Study, pp 71-72, 77Macarthur et al, Hot Modernism, pp. 175 -76DPW Annual reports 1947-1952Early modern-style schools include Bardon State School Infants Block (1948), Fortitude Valley State School (1950), Gympie Central State School (1952) and Brisbane Central Infants School (1952) [QHR 600312]Other DPW architects who signed the Kelvin Grove plans include Arthur John Dickenson and Neville Francis Cusack.