Rainworth State School is a heritage-listed state school at 185 Boundary Road, Bardon, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1929 to 1930. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 August 2019.
History Rainworth State School, which opened in July 1928, is located in the residential suburb of Bardon, approximately 4.2 km west of Brisbane's central business district. The school demonstrates the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. It retains the first stage of a Depression-era brick school building (1934) and a retaining wall with stairs (1933), set in landscaped grounds with play areas and sporting facilities. The school has a strong and ongoing association with the past and present community of Rainworth (a neighbourhood within the suburb of Bardon) and its surrounding suburbs.
The school site is located within the traditional lands of the Turrbal people. Originally called Upper Paddington, Bardon was surveyed in 1862, sold as country lots in the same year, and became gentlemen's estates and farms. The future school site was purchased by Brisbane merchant, George Harris, in 1862 as part of an almost 54-acre (21.9ha) landholding. Residential subdivision of the Bardon area began during the 1880s, but progressed slowly until after World War I. The Rainworth Estate, part of Sir Augustus Charles Gregory's former "Rainworth" property, from which the locality of Rainworth derives its name, was subdivided and quickly sold in 1925.DNRME: DoG 10011113, CoT 101095175
With residential development came the need for a school. The Department of Public Instruction purchased two adjacent, elevated, well-drained allotments, comprising seven acres and 33 perches (2.868ha), for a school site in December 1925, at a cost of £1008 17s 6d. In July 1926, it was agreed that a school would be established. Prior to the school's opening, local residents began clearing the school grounds.Helen Beazley and Julie Graham (eds). Rainworth State School 75th Anniversary 1928-2003. Rainworth State School, Rainworth, 2003, p.13.
Rainworth State School opened on 2 July 1928, with 253 students and five teachers. The new school was intended to relieve overcrowding at schools in surrounding areas and to serve the Rainworth, Rosehill and Soudan suburban estates, and parts of Birdwood Terrace, Upper Paddington, and Bardon. It comprised two high-set timber sectional buildings (now called Blocks A and B) connected by a northern verandah. The buildings, of the most commonly constructed standard type at this time, comprised eight classrooms, each accommodating 40 students. The building cost about £5374.'Rainworth School Official Opening Ceremony', Telegraph, 9 Jul 1928, p. 4'Rainworth School's Excellent Start', Daily Standard, 6 Aug 1928, p. 5'New State School', Telegraph, 15 Mar 1928, p. 14Queensland Department of Public Works (DPW). Report of the DPW to 30 June 1928. Queensland Government Printer, Brisbane, 1928, pp. 8. 45DPW. Report of the DPW to 30 June 1929. Queensland Government Printer, Brisbane, 1929, p. 25pdArchitect, Conservation Management Plan for the Department of Education, 2018, n.pPaul Burmester, Margaret Pullar and Michael Kennedy, Queensland Schools: A Heritage Conservation Study, a report for the Department of Education, 1996, pp. 42-44. By December 1928, 317 children were enrolled.'Fancy Dress Dance', Sunday Mail, 16 Dec 1928, p. 16.
Easier access to the school for pupils and those attending functions, resulted from the opening of an extension of the tram line from Rosalie to the Rainworth Estate on 11 October 1930, terminating on Boundary Road near the western boundary of the school. Enrolments at Rainworth State School reached 415 pupils in October 1931.'Rainworth School Fete', Brisbane Courier, 22 Apr 1929, p. 22'Not Approved', Brisbane Courier, 14 Dec 1929, p. 22'Rainworth Tram Extension', Brisbane Courier, 7 Mar 1930, p. 14'Rainworth Tramway', Telegraph, 13 Oct 1930, p. 7'Rainworth Tram Extension', Daily Standard, 13 Oct 1930, p. 5Beazley and Graham (eds), 75th Anniversary, p. 22.
The Great Depression, commencing in 1929 and extending well into the 1930s, caused a dramatic reduction of public building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. In response, the Queensland Government provided relief work for unemployed Queenslanders, and also embarked on an ambitious and important building program to provide impetus to the economy.
Even before the October 1929 stock market crash, the Queensland Government initiated an Unemployment Relief Scheme, through a work program administered by the Department of Public Works (DPW). This included painting and repairs to school buildings.'Relief of unemployment: big programme contemplated', Telegraph, 24 July 1929, p. 5'Unemployment: the relief scheme', Telegraph, 26 July 1929, p. 5. Extensive funding was given for improvements to school grounds, including fencing and levelling ground for play areas, involving terracing and retaining walls. This work created many large school playing fields, which, prior to this period, were mostly cleared of trees but not landscaped. These play areas became a standard inclusion within Queensland state schools and a characteristic element.Burmester, et al, Queensland Schools: A Heritage Conservation Study, p.58. Under this scheme, men were undertaking grounds improvement works to 20 schools in the metropolitan area, including Rainworth State School, in the 1929–30 financial year.DPW, Report of the DPW for the year ended 30 Jun 1930, Queensland Government Printer, Brisbane, 1930, pp. 15, 25.
In June 1932, the Forgan Smith Labor Government came to power from a campaign advocating increased government spending to counter the effects of the Depression. The government embarked on a large public building program designed to promote the employment of local skilled workers, the purchase of local building materials and the production of commodious, low maintenance buildings which would be a long-term asset to the state.'Labor at the Helm', The Worker, 20 Jul 1932, p. 8'Queensland Parliament', The Northern Miner, 17 Aug 1932, p. 2'Public Buildings', Daily Mercury, 19 Oct 1933, p. 7DPW, Report of the DPW for the Year Ended 30 June 1934, Queensland Government Printer, Brisbane, 1934, pp. 6-8DPW, Report of the DPW for the Year Ended 30 June 1935, Queensland Government Printer, Brisbane, 1935, p. 2DPW, Report of the DPW for the Year Ended 30 June 1936, Queensland Government Printer, Brisbane, 1936, p. 2'State will spend over £460,000: big building plans', The Courier-Mail, 28 Dec 1933, p. 9DPW, Report of the DPW for the Year Ended 30 June 1939, Queensland Government Printer, Brisbane, 1939, p. 2. The construction of substantial brick school buildingsDPW Building Type E/B1. (Burmester et al, Queensland Schools: A Heritage Conservation Study, p. 59). in prosperous or growing suburban areas and regional centres during the 1930s provided tangible proof of the government's commitment to remedy the unemployment situation.Burmester, et al, Queensland Schools: A Heritage Conservation Study, p. 60.
Depression-era brick school buildings form a recognisable and important type of Queensland school architecture, exhibiting many common characteristics. Most were designed in a classical idiom to project the sense of stability and optimism which the government sought to convey through the architecture of its public buildings. Frequently, they were two storeys above an open undercroft and built to accommodate up to 1000 students. They adopted a symmetrical plan form and often exhibited a prominent central entry. The plan arrangement was similar to that of timber buildings, being only one classroom deep, accessed by a long straight verandah or corridor. Classrooms were commonly divided by folding timber partitions and the undercroft was used as covered play space, storage, ablutions and other functions. Due to their long plan forms of multiple wings, these buildings could be built in stages, as available funding permitted and student numbers required; resulting in some complete designs never being realised. This was the case at Rainworth State School.Burmester, et al, Queensland Schools: A Heritage Conservation Study, pp. 59-60'New Rainworth School', Daily Standard, 18 Aug 1933, p. 1.
Despite their similarities, each Depression-era brick school building was individually designed by a DPW architect, which resulted in a wide range of styles and ornamental features being utilised within the overall set. These styles, which were derived from contemporary tastes and fashions, included: Arts and Crafts, typified by half-timbered gable-ends; Spanish Mission, with round-arched openings and decorative parapets; and Neo-classical, with pilasters, columns and large triangular pediments. Over time, variations occurred in building size, decorative treatment, and climatic-responsive features.EHP analysis of Depression-era Brick Schools, based on contemporary photographs, QHR listed schools, Project Services Heritage Reports (2006) and original DPW building plans. The Chief Architect during this period was Andrew Baxter Leven (1885–1966), who was employed by the Queensland Government Works Department from 1910 to 1951, and was Chief Architect and Quantity Surveyor from 1933 to 1951. The DPW architects involved in the design of Rainworth State School were Raymond Clare Nowland and Harold James Parr.DPW, ePlans, drawing ID 15464614 "Rainworth State School, Additions Portion No1", March 1933
The Department of Public Instruction and the DPW approved a brick school building scheme for Rainworth State School, in the expectation of growing pupil numbers in this developing suburban area. In March and April 1933, plans were drawn for two substantial brick buildings to replace Rainworth State School's existing timber ones. The centre line of the new building scheme was aligned with the existing steps from Boundary Street. The plan of the two buildings and the aesthetic treatment of the rear building to the south, which was to be constructed first, were similar to Coorparoo State School's brick building scheme, designed in 1927 and implemented between 1928 and 1942. The Rainworth State School scheme was to be built in stages until ultimately containing 40 classrooms and accommodating 1,200 pupils.DPW, ePlans: drawing 15464614, Rainworth State School Additions, Portion 1, Mar 1933drawing 15464636, Rainworth State School Block Plan and Stair Details, Apr 1933drawing 15464625, Rainworth State School Additions Portion No. 1 Construction Details, Apr 1933
Stage One of the school scheme (the eastern section of the rear building) was a two-storey brick building (now called Block C). Its construction was completed during the 1933–34 financial year. The building was of fire-proof construction with external walls of facebrick and roughcast render, surmounted by a galvanised iron roof. It comprised two classrooms for 40 pupils each on both floors, providing accommodation for 160 pupils, plus a stair hall at the western end, accessed by north and south-facing entrances with porticos and short stairs. It had north-facing verandahs on both levels with arched openings at the ground floor and decorative concrete first floor balusters. Intended to be extended to the west, it included exposed keyed brickwork to facilitate future building.DPW, ePlans, drawing ID 15464614 "Rainworth State School, Additions Portion No. 1", March 1933Department of Public Works, Annual Report of the DPW to 30 June 1934, Queensland Government Printer, Brisbane, 1934, p. 13.