Ipswich Grammar School

General

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Also known as

Ipswich Boys’ Grammar School

Classification

State Heritage

Register status

Entered

Date entered

21 October 1992

Types

Education, Research, Scientific Facility: School - grammar

Education, Research, Scientific Facility: School - private (non-denominational)

Theme

9.2 Educating Queenslanders: Providing secondary education

Architects

Backhouse, Benjamin Joseph

Gill, George Brockwell

Construction periods

1863, Main Building (1863-1922)

1913, Science Building

1956, Maude Kerr Oval

1963, Hancock Oval

1973, Edith Fox Dormitory Tower and JE Hancock Dormitory Tower

unknown, Fig Trees (by 1944) & mature trees on the eastern side of the 1955 entrance driveway and on both sides of the c1988 driveway re-alignment

unknown, Entrance Driveway (1955 and c1988 re-alignment)

Historical period

1840s–1860s Mid-19th century

Location

Address

Woodend Road, Ipswich

LGA

Ipswich City Council

Coordinates

-27.61280477, 152.75212621

Significance

Criterion AThe place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland’s history.

Ipswich Grammar School (1863), the first secondary school established under the Grammar Schools Act 1860 and the longest in continual operation, is important in demonstrating the provision and evolution of secondary education by grammar schools in Queensland. It retains a selection of buildings designed by prominent architects that illustrate key developments in the evolution of grammar schools, set in landscaped grounds with sports ovals and mature trees.

The substantial Main Building (1863-1922, its earliest sections designed by Benjamin Backhouse) is important in demonstrating the provision of education in colonial Queensland and reflects the development of Ipswich as a major regional centre.

The Science Building (1913, designed by George Brockwell Gill), an early physics and chemistry teaching building, is important in demonstrating the provision of purpose-built science teaching facilities at secondary schools, due to increased emphasis on what was termed ‘practical science’ in the Queensland secondary school curriculum in the early 20th century.

The Fox Dormitory and Hancock Dormitory Towers (both 1973, designed by Stephen Trotter) are important in demonstrating the major growth of Ipswich Grammar School boarding student numbers in the post-World War II period, necessitating expanded and improved boarding accommodation and facilities, in accordance with the school’s first masterplan for the site (1972).

The landscaped site with sports ovals and mature trees demonstrates the importance of sport and appropriate setting in the grammar school ethos.

Criterion DThe place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.

Ipswich Grammar School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a 19th century Queensland grammar school, a class of cultural place that has made an important contribution to the provision and evolution of education in Queensland. The first of its kind, the place is an excellent and substantial illustration of its class of cultural place, embodied in its:

• prominent, elevated, and central suburban site on a main thoroughfare;
• generous, landscaped school grounds comprising quadrangles, sports fields, and mature ornamental trees; and
• highly intact Main Building (1863-1922) with its teaching facilities, headmaster’s residence, and student boarding facilities, including dormitories, bedrooms, dining rooms, common rooms, ablutions, boarding master accommodation, kitchens, laundries, and servant accommodation.

Criterion EThe place is important because of its aesthetic significance.

Ipswich Grammar School is important for its aesthetic significance, the Main Building (1863-1922) being an impressive Gothic Revival building in a landscaped setting. Prominently sited on a ridgeline, the Main Building's picturesque arrangement of building wings, gables, and towers silhouetted against the sky, viewed from Burnett Street across the flat, manicured grass of Maude Kerr Oval, is a landmark within the Ipswich townscape. More distant views of the Main Building are had from the surrounding neighbourhood to the southeast, and the place has been the subject of art works since the 1860s.

Highly intact, the Main Building (1863-1922) is notable for its fine architectural quality. It is a harmonious and visually pleasing assembly of formal building elements, comprising: well composed and proportioned elevations; asymmetrical forms and winding interior layouts; high-quality construction and decorative treatments; and a Gothic Revival style with attractive architectural features including lookout towers, bellcote, buttresses, tall gables, and steep roofs. The highly intact school hall interior is particularly beautiful with its lofty, trussed ceilings, tall windows, and mezzanine with tracery balustrade.

Criterion GThe place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.

Ipswich Grammar School has a strong and ongoing association with past and present students, boarders, parents, staff members, and the surrounding community through sustained involvement since its establishment in 1863. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Ipswich and the wider Queensland community, with generations of students taught at the school, and as a venue for social interaction and community focus. Contributions to its operations have been made through repeated volunteer actions and donations by the Ipswich and district community and by former students for over a century via the school’s active Old Boys’ Association.

Criterion HThe place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland’s history.

Ipswich Grammar School has a special association with architect Benjamin Backhouse, whose considerable architectural contribution, particularly his public buildings and schools, was important in shaping the early Queensland built environment. As the designer of the first two stages of the Main Building (built 1863 and 1865), which forms the school’s core, Ipswich Grammar School was one of Backhouse’s first major commissions and his most substantial built work in Queensland.

History

Ipswich Grammar School, located in the city of Ipswich in south-east Queensland, was the first secondary school established in Queensland under the Grammar Schools Act 1860. The school’s Main Building (1863-1922) is a fine example of Gothic Revival architecture, and its earliest sections were designed by noted architect, Benjamin Backhouse. The school, its buildings, and landscaped setting reflect education policies and architecture across more than a century, supported by strong, sustained community involvement.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, grammar schools in Britain began expanding their curriculum beyond the confines of classical languages and literature. Ipswich Grammar School was established in this climate of educational change, expansion, and centralisation.

Education in pre-Separation Queensland was limited to the teaching of reading, writing, arithmetic, and religious instruction, and was often conducted from the parlours of private establishments or homes. After Queensland became a separate colony from New South Wales on 10 December 1859, the Queensland government faced the increasing need to provide an educational system for the new colony. Two important pieces of legislation were enacted in 1860 to facilitate the development of Queensland education ‒ the Education Act 1860, which established a Board of General Education that began standardising curriculum, training, and facilities; and the Grammar Schools Act 1860, which encouraged the establishment of grammar schools by providing a government subsidy of £1000 when an equal sum of money was raised by donation or subscription in any district.[1]

Early efforts to establish a grammar school in Brisbane, resulted in sectarian rancour and suspension of the proposal. However, in Ipswich progress was made quite rapidly with £1000 subscribed by June 1861, although not without some debate. On 20 August 1861, the first meeting held to discuss the establishment of a grammar school in Ipswich was chaired by local Mayor, John Murphy and attended by approximately 200 people. Although sectarian rivalries resulted in the meeting ending in chaos and brawling, at a similarly turbulent meeting staged one week later, it was resolved to establish Ipswich Grammar School.[2]

Disgruntled Ipswich Roman Catholics, who believed they were not fairly represented on the committee to facilitate the establishment of the grammar school, subsequently withdrew their money from the fund. Nevertheless, the committee reported by 11 March 1862 that it had acquired all but £40 of the necessary funds. Two weeks later, the first Trustees were elected and in April 1862 they decided to call for plans and specifications, with prizes for the best and second-best submission. Ultimately, Benjamin Backhouse was the only architect to respond to the Trustees’ call and his plans were accepted after some modifications to allow for toilets within the school building.[3]

Benjamin Backhouse (1829-1904) practiced as an architect in Queensland from 1861 to 1868, and was responsible for the designs of more than 100 buildings across the colony. Awarded in May 1862, Ipswich Grammar School was a major commission and is his largest known Queensland building.[4]

Backhouse designed ‘some of Brisbane’s earliest buildings of architectural pretension’.[5] He had considerable experience with school design and was responsible for the designs of some of the earliest government schools (1864-7),[6] and produced a ‘model’ plan in 1864 for the Queensland Board of Education. This helped to introduce the concept of building standardisation, which influenced government school design and provision for more than a century.[7] Extant examples of Backhouse’s education designs are Warwick National School (1864, QHR 600947 ‘Warwick East State School’) and South Brisbane Primary School (by 1865, QHR 601222 ‘Brisbane State High School’).[8]

Backhouse was a prominent citizen, and his short time in Queensland made a notable impact. He was also a Justice of the Peace, council alderman, and played a central role in the establishment of the Brisbane Grammar School.

The Ipswich Grammar School Trustees gained a more enthusiastic response to their call for building tenders following the acceptance of Backhouse's plans, with several replies received. Ipswich building firm McLaughlin & Ferguson was successful with a quote of £2890.[9]

1863-1900
Built on a 20-acre (8.35ha) site, within the traditional lands of the Yuggera Ugarapul People,[10] Ipswich Grammar School was located on the top of a ridge that overlooked the thriving town of Ipswich. The site was bounded by Woodend Road and Burnett, Darling and Waghorn Streets.[11]

Dubbed the ‘squatters’ capital’, Ipswich had evolved from the convict out-station of Limestone, established in 1827. Following its survey in 1842 for free settlement, Ipswich developed as an important commercial centre due to its location at the head of navigation of the Brisbane and Bremer Rivers and at the junction of routes to the important pastoral districts of the Brisbane Valley and the Darling Downs. Goods from these regions passed through Ipswich enroute to the coast and this trade contributed substantially to Ipswich's rapid growth and prosperity. Coal was mined at Ipswich from 1846; mercantile, civic, and ecclesiastical services were established during the 1850s; and in the late 1860s the town became the railhead of Queensland’s first rail line, Ipswich to Grandchester.[12]

By September 1863, work on Ipswich Grammar School had progressed well and the Trustees announced in the Queensland Times newspaper that the school would ‘be conducted as nearly as possible upon the plan of the best public schools of the Mother Country... . The school buildings situated on the western hill - overlooking the town of Ipswich and from that elevated position command a varied and extensive view of the surrounding country’.[13] The school became a landmark of Ipswich and a reflection of the growing importance of the town as a centre for business and industrial activity. Its opening was suitably grand with the Queensland Governor, Sir George Bowen, presiding over the event on 25 September 1863.[14]

The 1863 building was a two-storey, face brick structure with a stone base. It had a long east-facing front wing, and a short, perpendicular, rear service wing. The front wing was in two parts: at its northern end was a headmaster’s residence over both levels with visitors’ reception; and at the southern end were the teaching rooms (one large classroom and a double-height ‘school hall’) on the ground floor and boys’ boarding rooms on the first floor. The headmaster (and his family) managed and supervised the boarding operations, and the service wing accommodated a large kitchen, scullery, and larder on the ground floor, and servants’ bedrooms on the first floor.[15] To the rear of the building were open spaces on either side of the service wing: a large ‘kitchen court’ to its north; and a students’ quadrangle to its south.[16] The four functions of the building (headmaster’s residence, teaching rooms, boarders rooms, and service rooms) had separate but interconnected circulation routes, and had a hierarchy of details and decorative finishes.

The school's first headmaster, Stuart Hawthorne (headmaster 1863-9), welcomed its first 18 pupils within two weeks of the school opening.[17] Enrolments quickly ‘far surpassed’ expectations, such that extensions to the 1863 building were deemed ‘urgent’.[18] By July 1864, Backhouse had designed a large extension that tripled the teaching space. This was constructed by McLaughlin & Ferguson in 1865 at a cost of £4500, plus £188 for fittings, twice the cost of the original wing. One third of this cost was covered by the Trustees, a ‘heavy liability’, but one taken on confidently due to the school’s success in attracting students.[19]

The 1865 extension matched the earlier wing in details and materials. It comprised a long, one- and two-storey wing, perpendicular to and extending westwards off the southern end of the 1863 front wing. It formed the southern edge of the student quadrangle. The wing held two functions: teaching rooms at its eastern end, including an expansion of the school hall, two large classrooms, octagonal tower for ‘astronomical observations’,[20] library, and museum;[21] and a new boarding facility at its western end for up to 15 boarders, including kitchen, and laundry. It was managed as a separate business by the Mathematics Master who was also housed in the wing.[22]

The Main Building was built in a Gothic Revival architectural style, reported at the time as being ‘similar [to] institutions at home [Britain]’.[23] It was considered an appropriate style for a grammar school, and was used for the initial buildings at Queensland’s first four grammar schools (1863-1881).[24]

The building, which ‘occupied a very commanding position adjacent to the town’,[25] was considered a fine, prominent edifice in the townscape, illuminated with coloured lights and bonfires for special occasions as early as 1866.[26]

In Ipswich Grammar School’s first three years, student numbers steadily increased, before waning in the subsequent three years owing to the worsening economic climate and the opening of the Brisbane Grammar School in 1869 (relocated 1881).[27] Other grammar schools followed: Brisbane Girls’ Grammar (1875); Toowoomba (1875); Maryborough (1881); Rockhampton (1881); Maryborough Girls’ (1883); Townsville (1888); Ipswich Girls’ (1892); and Rockhampton Girls’ (1892).[28]

Queensland’s ten grammar schools shared common characteristics. They typically occupied prominent, elevated, and central suburban locations, on a main thoroughfare. They had generous, landscaped school grounds, which were developed over time with quadrangles, sports fields, and mature ornamental trees. Their main buildings were architecturally similar, in a Gothic Revival or Italianate style, and included a range of teaching facilities (assembly halls, classrooms, and libraries), and accommodation for their headmaster/headmistress and student boarders (dormitories, bedrooms, dining rooms, common rooms, ablutions, boarding master accommodation, kitchens, laundries, and servant accommodation).

Between 1869 and 1900, Ipswich Grammar School had just two headmasters – John Macrae (headmaster 1869-75) and Donald Cameron (headmaster 1875-1900). Although the period from the 1870s to 1900 was characterised by varying economic conditions, it was an era of expansion for the school with student numbers peaking in the mid-1880s, and building and grounds improvements being undertaken.

In 1877, alterations and additions were made, carried out by John Farrelly at a cost of £1262.[29] This included the construction of a long, rectangular brick dormitory, dining, and laundry wing, extending along the southern face of the 1863 rear service wing, and forming the northern edge of the quadrangle.[30] It was a two-storey, face brick structure and brought boarder capacity to 33.[31] The ground floor accommodated a large boarders’ dining room at its eastern end (with access from the adjacent 1863 kitchen), a central stair hall and adjacent bathroom, and a large laundry and wash house at its western end. The first floor accommodated two large dormitories, separated by a central housemaster’s room, with openings and only part-height partitions to allow supervision and maximum ventilation.[32]

A long, timber verandah was added to the ground floor of the east and south sides of the quadrangle (to the 1863 and 1865 wings); its detailing matches that of the 1877 playshed so it is likely part of the 1877 work. The school reportedly had a ‘verandah’ added in 1890, built by contractors Worley & Whitehead, but its extent and location are not known.[33] By the mid-1880s, the original roof slates were being replaced by ironbark shingles, and later by corrugated metal sheets. In 1886, the face brick sections of the principal (eastern and southern) elevations and the towers were ‘cemented’ (rendered) over and scribed to resemble ashlar coursing. At the same time the classrooms and school hall interior walls were similarly stuccoed and scribed. Many other repairs and improvements were made to the building at this time.[34] In 1900, a ‘boarder’s balcony’ capable of accommodating a further 16 boys, was added to the school (not extant).[35]

From inception, sport played an important role at Ipswich Grammar School, as it did at Queensland’s other grammar schools for boys. At the time of the school’s opening in 1863, it was stated that the Ipswich Grammar School’s grounds had ‘ample room for the formation of a cricket-ground’.[36] Cricket fields were built at the other boys’ grammar schools – Brisbane (by 1882),[37] Rockhampton (1886),[38] Toowoomba (by 1889),[39] Maryborough (by 1894),[40] and Townsville (1927)[41] – and formed a prominent feature of their grounds and school life. The lack of a cricket ground was addressed in 1876, when a tender of £20 was accepted for ‘laying down of a cricket ground and clearing the paddock’;[42] (on land no longer owned by the school, located south of what is now Blair State School and bounded by Burnett, Herbert, Cribb, and Syntax streets opposite the current Maude Kerr Oval). This land had been granted to the school in 1863 as part of its endowment under the Grammar Schools Act 1860.[43]

The Ipswich Grammar School grounds were subject to criticism during its early years. In the 1860s the grounds had been largely unimproved and decried by a correspondent to the Queensland Times: ‘the wretched condition of the grounds, uncleared, unstumped, without a drive or a gate at the front entrance ... is a discredit to the institution and the town.’[44] In 1876, another correspondent to the Queensland Times remained unimpressed: ‘There is little in the exterior of the Ipswich Grammar School to attract attention. Only within a few months has any improvement been made in the approaches, by a somewhat unpretending [sic] rail fence. The grounds surrounding are still in the “wattle-cum-gum-tree negligée” style … with a few specimens of shade-trees of modern planting, which really ought to “take umbrage” at the manner in which they have been planted.’[45]

1900-1945
In order to fund improvements to the school, an application was lodged with the Department of Public Lands in 1900 to sell a portion of the school grounds.[46] This unsuccessful application was later renewed and approval granted in March 1910. Subsequently, the sale of seven residential allotments comprising 2.5 acres (1ha) at the northeastern end of the school grounds occurred in February 1911 and realised £851.[47] The money raised, combined with a government subsidy and donations made by the Ipswich and district community,[48] was used to build new servants’ quarters (not extant),[49] a room for sick boarders in 1912,[50] and a two-storey timber verandah (not extant) off the northern side of the 1863 headmaster’s residence,[51] as well as to build and equip a new science building.[52]

The Science Building was designed by Queensland architect, George Brockwell Gill, built by John Whitehead at a cost of £1080, and completed in 1913. The funds for the building were raised by the Trustees from the Ipswich and district community and the Old Boys’ Association, as a commemoration of the school’s 50th anniversary.[53]

Queensland’s grammar schools followed the British format for providing an education based on languages, particularly the Classics, Latin, and Greek, and usually English, Mathematics, and other academic subjects. However, increasing emphasis was placed on the provision of physical (or practical) sciences (physics and chemistry). At Ipswich Grammar School in 1869, ‘elements of the most important physical sciences’ were taught to students aiming for the learned professions or a university education, while those (the majority) who were not aiming so high, studied natural sciences. In 1907, the Rockhampton Grammar School headmaster reported that parents were demanding practical science be taught or they would remove their children from the school, and universities were making the subject compulsory.[54] The following year, the same headmaster expressed the opinion that a modern science building would make his school ‘thoroughly up to date and compare it with any school in the state’.[55] At a conference for Queensland’s grammar school headmasters and headmistresses held in January 1908, attended by Ipswich Grammar School’s headmaster, it was resolved, that further provision for experimental science studies (physics and chemistry), was essential for grammar schools.[56]

Competition from state secondary schools and technical colleges, and the trend of teaching science to access university courses, led grammar schools to recognise the need for science education supported by good facilities, to enable their continuance. Educational reforms in Queensland between 1909 and 1914 resulted in the introduction of high schools, expansion of technical colleges, inauguration of the University of Queensland, and establishment of a teacher training college. Starting with Brisbane, a high school was established within Brisbane Technical College in 1910, which was expected to feed students into the university’s departments of chemistry, physics, mathematics, and engineering. Warwick Technical High School commenced in July 1910 with a curriculum based on that of Brisbane Technical High School and with the same expectation of qualifying students for university matriculation in science and engineering.[57] In 1912, high schools opened at six major regional centres not already provided with a grammar school.[58] The high school curriculum included science teaching, with Gympie State High School’s laboratory in 1913 including £250 of apparatus and a fume cupboard. More high schools opened in the ensuing years at Roma and Brisbane (1920), and Cairns and Townsville (1924).[59]

Ipswich Grammar School’s Science Building was a rectangular, single-storey, brick building freestanding in the grounds south of the 1865 wing.[60] It accommodated a large classroom at either end – physics at its eastern end, and chemistry at its western end. The chemistry room had a small protruding chimney, possibly used as a fume extraction ‘cabinet’. Between these was a preparation room (or rooms), accessed from both classrooms.[61] The interior was remodelled in 1953-4[62] and remained used for science until 1970, then geography until 1977, when it was refurbished for music classes. It remained in this use until after 2013 when it was converted for use as a uniform shop and staff offices. In 2023, it remains one of only three known-extant, early, purpose-built science buildings at a grammar school, the others being: Brisbane (1912) and Toowoomba (1918).

The other boys’ grammar schools in Queensland similarly constructed new, purpose-built science classrooms at this time.[63] Although science had been taught at the schools for decades prior, this was usually in generic classrooms. The new physics and chemistry laboratories replaced these earlier, outdated facilities in usually freestanding buildings or semi-detached extensions. Similar science buildings were not provided at the four girls’ grammar schools until the 1920s,[64] by which time the boys’ schools were typically constructing their second generation of science buildings.[65]

Soon after the outbreak of World War I (WWI), Richard A Kerr became headmaster of Ipswich Grammar School and remained until 1945. These were tumultuous and uncertain times, but the school flourished under the leadership of ‘The Boss’, as Kerr was affectionately known. By 1921, the 1863 headmaster’s porch was replaced with a wider verandah.[66] Between 1914 and 1930 student numbers more than doubled from 96 to 198, and demand for extra teaching space and dormitories resulted in the 1922 construction of an extension on the western end of the 1865 wing, replacing the small 1865 service block here.

Designed by Gill, the new extension was a two-storey, face brick structure and accommodated four large classrooms (two up and two down) separated by a central stair hall from east to west, that also connected through to the 1865 wing on both levels. It had a two-storey timber verandah along its western side and timber first floor balconies on north and south sides. Built by WE Pickles at a cost of £2466, it was completed early in 1922 in time for the school’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations the following year.[67]

Over time, alterations were made to the extension, including in 1954 when it was used to accommodate 18 senior boarders in small rooms and was named the ‘Bradfield Dormitory’. This was in honour of notable Queensland civil engineer and Ipswich Grammar School Old Boy, Dr John Bradfield, and later the extension was renamed ‘Bradfield House’.[68]

In 1923, two timber buildings, accommodating student facilities and boarders’ dormitories, were built adjacent to the western end of the 1877 wing.[69] Subsequently, economic depression during the 1930s and the outbreak of the World War II (WWII), halted further building developments at the school.

However, the interwar period brought a number of improvements to the school grounds, following continued criticism expressed in print in 1922: ‘The school is a quaint-looking, old-fashioned building, and the grounds surrounding are bare and ugly looking. The poor gravelly soil is very unpromising as a bed for flowers and shrubs to reduce the bare look of the place, and is no great credit to the people of Ipswich. Lawns, gardens, shade trees, and rustic seats are required to give the building the suitable setting.’[70]

In 1923, three early tennis courts (one from at least the 1880s and two from 1903),[71] located in the vicinity of what is now called Maude Kerr Oval, were being ‘thoroughly renovated’ (all were demolished by 1944).[72] In 1925, a new oval was constructed on the school’s land south of Blair State School, for £1200, using school funds and £200 donated by Ipswich Grammar School’s Old Boys’ Association.[73]

Improvement to the grounds continued during the 1930s. In 1932, three new tennis courts (not extant) were constructed north of the original driveway.[74] In 1934, a new lawn for sports was laid south of the Science Building .[75] Further work on this lawn, largely funded by the Old Boys’ Association, began in 1939, to create a ’junior sports field’ named in memory of Maude Kerr, the wife of the then Headmaster RA Kerr, who had died at the school in 1938.[76] During 1936 and 1937, the school’s first swimming pool (not extant) was constructed near the centre of the school site.[77] Much of this work on the school grounds during the Great Depression was undertaken by relief workers.[78] In 1939, the Queensland Times, reported that:

As a result of many months of work under the relief scheme, the school grounds were now in a much improved condition. Three excellent tennis courts were available in a good situation; gardens and trees were making a much better show; and soon a junior sports field, which would be a great asset to the younger members would be complete. The field will be called the Maude Kerr Oval ... .[79]

1945-1960s
In the two and half decades following WWII, Ipswich Grammar School experienced substantial change. A succession of five headmasters served the school, beginning with William G Henderson (headmaster 1946-51). Enrolments increased as demand for secondary education rose in response to the emergence of new clerical and professional jobs requiring secondary education, and as baby boomers[80] reached high school age, necessitating more buildings to accommodate them. Changes to secondary education including: addition of Year 8 to the secondary school programme from 1964; review of the junior and senior syllabuses; and addition of new courses to the curriculum, also demanded more facilities.[81]

At the same time, Ipswich Grammar School experienced serious financial difficulties as it sought to upgrade its rundown facilities to accommodate increasing student and boarder numbers. The school sought fund-raising support through loans and from the Ipswich and district community through its Ipswich Boys’ Grammar School Centenary Building Fund, launched in 1957, to exclusively fund construction and maintenance of school buildings and facilities (later IBGS Building Fund). Additionally, financial and physical assistance was provided by the Old Boys’ Association and by the Ipswich Grammar School Parents and Friends Association (formed in 1953).[82]

In 1946, a new boarders’ building was constructed.[83] This was named the Murray Hancock Memorial Block, after an Ipswich Grammar School Old Boy who had died during WWII, and extended off the northern side of the 1923 dormitory building. In 1947, the Old Boys’ Association established a War Memorial Library (in the ground floor of the 1863 front wing),[84] and in 1954 a brass memorial tablet was erected in the library (current location unknown) to commemorate Old Boys who died in WWI and WWII. The pressure on accommodation caused by the increase in boarders during the 1950s resulted in alterations to the Murray Hancock Memorial Block c1959, to enlarge the dining room and provide a new kitchen, laundry, and ablutions block.[85]

In 1953, the Ipswich Grammar School Parents and Friends Association refurbished the School Hall through their voluntary labour, and were praised by the school’s new headmaster, Charles E Olsen (headmaster 1953-8).[86]

In the immediate post-war years, further landscaping of the school grounds occurred. Remnant and regrowth native vegetation still covered the western half of the school grounds, apart from a central strip around the three tennis courts and the pool,[87] which was cleared by 1964. Over one weekend in 1951, ‘members of the Old Boys’ Association Council planted 500 pine trees in an L-shaped section of the Grammar School grounds facing Darling and Waghorn Streets … as a memorial grove’.[88] None remain in 2023, nor do other early planting schemes, such as one around the Maude Kerr Oval along Woodend Road and Burnett Street, in place before 1944.[89]

WWII had interrupted the construction of the Maude Kerr Oval,[90] but work resumed in 1953 and was completed in 1956.[91] The work required extensive excavation and upon completion the oval was approximately three metres lower than before and larger. The old cricket pavilion was moved from Blair Oval to the new oval, and a picket fence was erected around the perimeter by the Parents and Friends Association.[92] Both features were later demolished. In 1957, Ipswich’s Anzac Day ceremony was held on the new oval, attended by around 5,000 people.[93]

Two more ovals were created by 1961. Oval No. 3 (not extant) was formed in 1956, on the eastern edge of the school grounds for the primary school, which had opened the same year. This oval was replaced by the Ivor G Morris Physical Education Complex in 1978. Oval No. 4 (later called Hancock Oval) was built in the southeast side of school grounds between 1960 and 1961, and was officially opened in 1963. This oval was extended in 1985.[94]

Formal entrance driveways were a common feature of Queensland grammar schools. They were typically lined with trees and some were built as memorials or with later memorial gates.[95] In 1955, a new, long entrance drive was completed at Ipswich Grammar School, which ran from the intersection of Darling and Burnett streets in the southern corner of the school grounds, north to the main school building, sweeping around the eastern side of the Maude Kerr Oval. It replaced the school’s original entrance drive from Waghorn Street, which had been planted on both sides with a line of trees. The new entrance onto Burnett Street, with breeze block walls featuring the school’s name and badge, was named the RA Kerr Memorial Entrance to commemorate the former headmaster. Shrubs were planted along the driveway and around the entrance gates and a double row of ‘poplars’ linked the entrance with the new classroom block. In the late 1980s, the lower half of the driveway was realigned to exit into Darling Street and the Memorial Entrance was replaced by a new RA Kerr Memorial Entrance on Darling Street in 1988.[96] In 2023, no poplars remain but a number of mature trees are extant along the driveway’s former alignment.

Near the new entrance to the school, a freestanding headmaster’s residence was built; completed in August 1961. It incorporated a visitor reception room/headmaster’s office and was a commodious, four-bedroom house. It was a considerably more private residence than the 1863 accommodations, and was designed by architect and town planner, Dr Karl Langer.[97]

In the 1950s and 1960s, similar new freestanding headmaster’s/headmistress’ residences were built in the grounds of least five of the other seven other Queensland grammar schools operating at this time.[98] Of the six built in the period, five are extant in 2023. Alterations have been made to the headmaster’s residence at Ipswich Grammar School over time.

Following the completion of the new headmaster’s residence, construction began on a substantial new teaching building also designed by Langer, which at the time comprised the largest expansion of the school facilities since its establishment. The foundation stone was laid on 16 September 1961, and the building was completed in 1962. Costing more than £125,000, the building was funded using a Treasury loan, government subsidies, the Industrial Fund for the Advancement of Science Education in Schools, and donations to the Centenary Building Fund raised from the Ipswich and district community.[99] Of the eight Queensland grammar schools operating at the time, six constructed a substantial new classroom block with science component during the period.[100]

The Centenary Classroom Block was a long, rectangular, four-storey structure with a flat roof. It was in a Modernist style, oriented with its long sides facing north and south. It was cut into the steeply sloping land so that it was only two-storeys at its western end, separated from the 1863 building by a pedestrian plaza, to which its main entrance fronted. The building was prominent from the east, due to its height and location on sloping ground.

The building was laid out with a series of classrooms along its southern side and a broad, open verandah along its north with projecting enclosed stairs and a central toilet block. It had a grid-like concrete frame with face brick and windows in-fill walls, crimped-metal, sheet-clad, bag-rack balustrade, and featured projecting face brick headers and concrete breezeblocks on its end walls. The southern elevation was highly glazed with large, operable, aluminium-framed windows; the verandah wall featured vertical louvres of clear, ribbed glass at ceiling level above a face brick wall, and these facilitated a high level of natural (southern) light and ventilation of the interior.[101] The interior finishes included raw concrete for verandah floors, stairs, and some ceilings, terrazzo in the bathrooms, and flat-sheet lined walls and ceilings. The building’s proportions were substantial, with broad stairs, large classrooms, tall ceilings, and wide verandahs.

The building greatly increased the available classroom space, accommodating 13 classrooms, two science demonstration rooms, three laboratories, offices, masters' rooms, locker rooms, a tuckshop, and a large basement assembly area. The classroom partitions of the upper level were moveable to allow it to be converted to one large space for functions, and the roof structure was supported on steel open-web trusses, exposed within the classrooms.[102]

Since construction, the 1962 teaching building has been substantially altered. In 1980, seven classrooms were refurbished and in 1984 the science classrooms were stripped and converted to humanities classrooms and the tuckshop was extended.[103] The greatest change to the building occurred in 1987 with the construction of a four-storey building, the Clive Wyman Building, abutting its eastern wall and wrapping around the eastern half of its northern side. This obscured the building’s prominent eastern wall, and openings were cut through it to connect into the new building. At this time, it is likely that the building’s exterior face bricks were overlaid with a split-face concrete block cladding to match the Clive Wyman Building. At some stage, its vertical louvres were replaced with fixed glass, some verandah walls were replaced by modern glass partitions, and alterations were made to the partitions between classrooms. Also, large red panels now cover the breezeblocks of the western wall.

Enrolments continued to rise, but school finances remained problematic. The Board of Trustees were advised that for the school to be financially viable, it was necessary to either cap enrolments at 450 or expand to 1100 students. The school decided to expand.[104] Ambitious fundraising efforts commenced to transform the school ‘from old and proud to modern and capable’.[105]

1970s-1980s

The two decades of the 1970s and 1980s were a period of major growth for the school, with an enormous expansion of facilities. In 1972, the school’s first site master plan was completed for the school, by Queensland architect Stephen Trotter within the firm Fulton Collin Boys Gilmour Trotter & Partners, which envisioned a transformation of the grounds with many new buildings in two stages. Stage 1 of this plan was built by KD Morris & Sons[106] and completed in 1973. It included the construction of two new, five-storey dormitory towers (the Edith Fox Dormitory Tower, and the JE Hancock Dormitory Tower), a freestanding house for the dormitory housemaster, an administration building (not extant), library (later converted to a refectory), and a multi-purpose assembly and teaching hall (War Memorial Teaching Complex), all designed by Fulton Collin Boys Gilmour Trotter & Partners. These were all built to the south/southeast of the Main Building, dotted amongst the expansive open landscape.

Boarder numbers had grown between 1956 and 1970, prompting the two new dormitory towers, which were built to accommodate approximately 120-140 boys each[107] and were almost identical in plan. They were located far apart on the site – Fox Dormitory Tower standing at the northern end of the Maude Kerr Oval and Hancock Dormitory Tower to the east of the entrance driveway near its centre.

Positioned on steep slopes, they were both cut deeply into the earth, which was retained by tall, circular, concrete crib walls. Each was a cylindrical structure with concrete floor plates and loadbearing brick walls, with a tiled, conical roof featuring a tall central ventilation stack. Their exteriors were brick, lightly-bagged with render, and the windows were emphasised by projecting brick nibs and shielded by flat sheet hoods. A sloping concrete ramp provided the main access into the buildings at their second (middle) floor, and two stairwells provided internal vertical circulation. Each floor had a central, round ablutions room with a large ventilation stack to one side. Around this room ran circulation, opening off which were wedge-shaped bed alcoves, with two windows each and separated from each other by nib walls, and accommodating two bunk beds. Two smaller, more-private bedrooms were also provided per floor. This layout was repeated on the first to fourth floors with minor variations; early photographs show the ground floor had similar windows indicating it had a similar layout.

Although they were shared dormitories, the buildings provided a considerable increase in privacy and amenity for the boarders than had previously been provided by the school’s open, ‘barracks-like’ dormitories. The layout and carpeted floors reduced dormitory noise ‘dramatically’, allowing quiet and privacy for sleep and study.[108] The floor plans were intended to be changeable, with Trotter also providing two possible future interior arrangements.[109]

After the boys moved into the new towers, the Murray Hancock dormitories became redundant and were converted to art studios, with the entire building being demolished in 2020.[110]

The 1972 master plan provided for a further three matching dormitory towers standing in the school’s northern grounds, however, this did not eventuate. Since their construction, the Fox and Hancock dormitory towers have had some alteration, but this has largely been confined to the interior. In a renovation of the interior completed in 1990 the central ablutions room was stripped of its fittings and converted to a round hall, accessing the surrounding bed alcoves, which were partitioned to form separate, shared rooms. In one corner of each of these new rooms was built an ensuite bathroom.[111]

The Fox and Hancock dormitory towers were the first tall buildings built within the landscape of mature trees and sports fields on the southern half of the school grounds. As such, they were prominently visible from the surrounding streets, and became ‘a notable Ipswich landmark, visible from across town’.[112]

A small amphitheatre (named RG Edmondson Memorial Open Air Theatre, not extant) was constructed on the edge of the Maude Kerr Oval for $35,000 and opened on 28 Sep 1977 by the Hon WE Knox, MLA, Deputy Premier and Treasurer. Three new tennis courts were constructed in 1978 within the Ivor G Morris Physical Education Complex (on the site of the former rifle range adjacent to Waghorn Street). However, no tennis courts remain on site in 2023, having been replaced by a new tennis facility at the school’s Brassall complex in 2010.[113]

Stage 2 of the master plan began in late 1978. It included an expansive sports facility (the Ivor Morris Physical Education Complex, opened in 1980),[114] the CA Turner Manual Arts Building (opened in 1981), the Harry G Wilson Science Building (opened 1983), and the Clive Wyman Building (humanities, library, and computers, opened in 1987).

Between 1980 and 1982, the 1863 section of the Main Building and Bradfield House were refurbished. In 1989, the Ladley Centre (a four-storey, $2.7 million administration building with clock tower) was completed, standing to the northeast of the Main Building, and replacing the 1973 administration building in this location.[115]

1990s onwards
Additional buildings were added to the northern half of the site in the 1990s and early 21st century. Primary school classes were gradually re-introduced between 1994 and 2006, commencing with Year 7. Consequently, a new Junior School Building for Years 5 to 7 was constructed during 1998 facing Woodend Road, and opened on 10 October 1999. This was extended in 2005 to accommodate Year 4 students. In 2009, the building was joined to a new Early Childhood Education Centre for Prep to Year 3 students, for whom classes at Ipswich Grammar School commenced in 2006. This building was constructed between the swimming pool and the tennis courts, one of which was converted into a playground. It was officially opened on 12 October 2009.[116]

In the same year, another junior school building was constructed, the school’s multi-purpose Sports Dome, funded by the Federal Government’s Building the Education Revolution (BER). This building comprised an undercroft, a multi-purpose assembly area, and a library on the top level, and required removal of an adjacent school-owned house in Woodend Road and the relocation of another, plus rearrangement of the existing northern bus driveway. It was officially opened on 21 September 2011.[117]

From 2019 to 2023, work to the grounds and buildings immediately surrounding the Main Building occurred. The 1863 larder, rear and northern two-storey verandahs (by 1912), a 1912 building (likely servants’ quarters and stores), 1923 timber dormitory and boarders’ facilities buildings, and the 1946 Murray Hancock Memorial Building were demolished. These areas and the quadrangle were landscaped and a three-storey STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) building, completed in 2022, was constructed west of 1877 wing.

Social history
Like most schools, Ipswich Grammar School became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past students, parents, and teachers. Throughout its history, Ipswich Grammar School has celebrated its milestones through commemorative events and school histories for its 50th, 100th, and 150th anniversaries.[118] A strong Old Boys’ Association has functioned since 1907,[119] providing labour and money for school improvements, such as endowing buildings and improving the grounds.[120] This organisation continues to provide such support in 2023.

The school takes pride in its former students’ achievements. Its long and distinguished history is reflected not only in its physical expansion over the years but also in the mentoring by many distinguished Old Boys, including Alfred Backhouse, son of Benjamin Backhouse and one-time Deputy-Chancellor of Sydney University; John Job Crew Bradfield, Chief Engineer of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and designer of Brisbane’s Story Bridge (QHR 600240); Hugh Cornish, television executive; Sir Harry Gibbs, former High Court judge; as well as a host of excelling sportsmen.[121]

A number of war memorial projects were undertaken after WWII resulting in memorial buildings and memorial plaques being a feature at the school. The inclusion of war memorials in schools reinforced community connections. War memorials, including honour boards, are a tribute from the community and individuals to those who served, and those who died. They are an important element of Queensland’s towns and cities and are also important in demonstrating a common pattern of commemoration across Queensland and Australia. In 1946, the Murray Hancock Memorial Building (not extant), a new wing for boarders, was funded by old boy Viv E Hancock as a utilitarian memorial in honour of his son who died during WWII.[122] The War Memorial Teaching Complex (1973) is a later representation of this type of commemoration.

Honour boards and numerous chalices for victories in various sports events are housed at the school, illustrating the academic and sports achievements of generations of Ipswich Grammar School students.

In 2024, Ipswich Grammar School remains a prominent visual presence in the Ipswich townscape, and is represented through various media including photography, sketches, and paintings. The school’s significant buildings reflect its evolution in response to changing education curricula and policies over 160 years, while its landscaped grounds, including sports ovals and mature trees, demonstrate the continued importance of sport and setting to the school’s ethos. The school retains and reinforces strong social connections between it and its past and present school students and staff, and with the Ipswich and wider districts community.

Description

Ipswich Grammar School is a large complex on a generous, elevated site less than 1km west of the Ipswich city centre. The site is bounded by Burnett Street, Woodend Road, Waghorn Street, and Darling Street and the campus buildings cluster on a prominent high ridge across the northern half of the site. The southern half of the site is lower, with scattered buildings amongst playing fields and mature trees.  

Features of Ipswich Grammar School of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• Main Building (1863-1922);
• Science Building (1913);
• Edith Fox Dormitory Tower (1973) and JE Hancock Dormitory Tower (1973)
• Landscape Features; and
• Views.

All other buildings, structures, and landscape features are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.

Main Building (1863-1922)
The Main Building is the focus of the campus and stands at the southern edge of the hill, prominently visible from the south-west to south-east across the Maude Kerr Oval and from the 1955 entrance drive. The building is highly intact, retaining a high level of integrity and legibility of its original functions. The building retains important layers of alterations to its fabric made between 1863 and 1922 that reflect key changes to the school operations, and successive educational philosophies.

It is a brick one- and two-storey building on a stone base with a timber-framed roof clad with corrugated metal sheets. The building is Gothic Revival in style, with striking features such as octagonal, battlemented towers, slit windows, stepped buttresses, quoining, bellcote, and steep dormers.

Due to the almost 80-year span of construction, there are important differences in the decorative detailing of its parts.

The building comprises four attached, successive sections. These are:

• The original 1863 Section – a long, east-facing main wing with a short, rear service wing;
• The 1865 Wing – a long, south-facing wing extending off the southern end of the 1863 main wing;
• The 1877 Wing – a long, central wing projecting off the western side of the 1863 main wing; and
• The 1922 Wing (Bradfield House) – a square block attached to the western end of the 1865 Wing.

Features of the Main Building of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• All fabric constructed 1863 to 1922, including: stone foundations and base; brick walls and chimneys; timber floor, wall, and roof framing; dormer windows; timber porch (1865) and Quadrangle verandah (c1877); bellcote bell, bell-ringing mechanisms, and wind vane finial; corrugated metal roof sheets to 1922 Wing (all other main roofs were originally slate); timber verandah and balconies (1922) including large supporting brackets, weatherboard-clad balustrades, posts, roof framing, corrugated metal roof sheets; brick floor; fireplaces and chimney breasts; brick and lath-and-plaster partitions; and extensive timber joinery – doors, windows, fan and side lights, staircases, skirting boards, architraves, picture rails, cornices, balustrades, floor boards, and ceiling boards; original and early door and window hardware (primarily brass) and sash pulley systems; and early ventilated ceiling roses of first floor;    
• Alterations made 1863 to 1922, including: headmaster’s replacement verandah (by 1921); addition or removal of window and door openings; addition of render (1863-1922 only) to exterior walls, scored with ashlar coursing; and replacement of ceilings with timber boards or sheet-and-batten linings;
• Reconstructed 1863-1922 features, including: ogee- or quad-profile metal gutters, decorative acroteria and rainheads on pre-1900 sections, and round downpipes;
• Tower flagpoles (flagpoles are modern replacements and are not significant);
• Evidence of removed 1863-1922 fabric, including evidence of removed: timber walls (1865) of southern porch (marks in surviving surrounding structure); timber window shutters (1863) of eastern elevation (iron wall pins and hinges within surrounding brick walls, rendered over); concave-roofed headmaster’s porch (1863) of eastern elevation (outline marks on walls); original roof slates and later ironbark shingles in roof structure (battens, marks, notches); and doors and windows (door swing marks in floors, closed up openings);
• Hidden or disguised 1863-1922 fabric and surface finishes, including: red face brick and beige cement rendered dressings to exterior; clear finishing to timber; early paint schemes with stencilling; and lime washing/white washing (kalsomine); and
• Honour boards and similar school-related paraphernalia and furniture in the School Hall.

Features of the Main Building not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• Alterations and introduced fabric made after 1922 (excluding reconstruction of lost 1863-1922 fabric), including: addition of paint to the originally unpainted exterior cement render and to interior over originally painted and unpainted surfaces; addition of clock to 1865 tower; modern carpets and floor and wall finishes (tiles, lino); post-1922 partitions; openings cut into original partitions; closure of ventilation slits in walls; all modern electrical and plumbing services (lighting, fans, air conditioners, communications, toilets, bathroom and sanitary ware, etc.); modern doors and windows; reproduction plaster ceilings, cornices, and roses where not derived from reconstruction of lost originals; plasterboard wall and ceiling linings; enclosures made to verandahs and balconies (excluding original weatherboard enclosure of balustrade); modern stairs; modern door and window hardware; and balustrade wall and acroteria of headmaster’s replacement verandah.

Important open spaces surround the Main Building, providing natural light and ventilation of the interior and allow views to the principal (eastern and southern) elevations.

Open spaces of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• Open space on its eastern and southern sides of broad concourses that allow views to the southern and eastern elevations;
• Open space of the students’ Quadrangle (evident from 1863); and
• Open space of the former Kitchen Court (evident from 1863) north of the 1863 service wing.

Features of the open spaces not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• All furniture, surfaces, services, and vegetation. 

Science Building (1913)
The Science Building is a small, single-storey brick building standing to the south of the Main Building. The building is not highly intact – all doors and windows have been replaced, its gutters and roof ventilators have been removed, a verandah has been added to its southern side (1980s), and its interior has been refurbished and retains no visible original partitions or surfaces. The exterior is rendered and scored with ashlar coursing, but it is not known if this was the original exterior finish.

Features of the Science Building of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• All original (1913) fabric, including: brick walls; timber floor and roof framing; chimney; and original window and door openings (excludes door leaves and window sashes, which are not original).

Features of the Science Building not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• Alterations and introduced fabric made after 1913, including: non-original exterior wall finishes; external paint colours; all door leaves and window sashes and their hardware; roof sheets and their colour (pre-coated, dark grey); modern verandah on southern side; modern entrances on southern side at eastern end; interior fitouts and partitions; modern floor, wall, and ceiling surfaces and finishes (carpets, plasterboard, ceiling tiles); and all modern electrical services (lighting, fans, air conditioners, communications, etc.).

Edith Fox Dormitory Tower (1973) and JE Hancock Dormitory Tower (1973)
The Edith Fox Dormitory Tower (Fox Dormitory Tower) and the JE Hancock Dormitory Tower (Hancock Dormitory Tower) are two, almost identical, five-storey, brick and concrete boarding buildings. They both stand near the edge of the Maude Kerr Oval: the Fox Dormitory Tower near the north edge and the Hancock Dormitory Tower near the eastern edge but on the eastern side of the Entrance Driveway. They are cylindrical in plan form, with a conical roof and tall centre ventilation stack and have concrete and brick structures. They are accessed by a long, narrow sloping concrete ramp and their interiors are divided into wedges with a central round room.

The interior, which was originally more open plan, retains original partitions and stairs but has been refurbished to remove the original fitout of the central round ablutions rooms and convert the space to a central ‘hall’. Doors have been added to lead to the former bed alcoves which have been enclosed by new partitions to form bedrooms and an ensuite has been added to each new bedroom.

Features of the Fox Dormitory Tower and Hancock Dormitory Tower of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• Five-storey, cylindrical form with conical roof and tall vent stack; and
• Original (1973) fabric, including: brick walls and their textured render; integrated vertical brick fins either side of the window bays; aluminium-framed windows and original hardware; square, flat sheet window hoods; concrete entrance ramp and metal pipe handrail (has been boxed-in later); concrete floor plates; steel and timber-framed conical roof and tall vent stack, and tile cladding; brick interior partitions; and concrete internal stairs and their metal pipe balustrades.

Features of the Fox Dormitory Tower and Hancock Dormitory Tower not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• Surrounding concrete crib wall and vegetation;
• All non-original alterations and fabric, including: boxing-in of the entrance ramp handrails; non-original doorways/doors; introduced partitions and ceilings; ensuite and kitchenette fitouts, fixtures, and fittings; floor coverings; electrical services, lights, and air handling; and
• External and internal paint colour schemes.

Landscape Features
Landscape features of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• The open spaces of Maude Kerr Oval (1956) and Hancock Oval (1963), comprising large, manicured open grass playing fields (excluding all sports equipment, line markings, lights, and furniture); 
• Two mature fig trees (Ficus sp., likely F. microcarpa) (western tree mature by 1944, likely early 1900s planting; eastern tree planted by 1944, mature by c2000) standing south of the Centenary Classroom Block; and
• The open space of the Entrance Driveway (1955 and c1988 re-alignment);
• The area of mature trees on the eastern side of the 1955 entrance driveway and on both sides of the c1988 driveway re-alignment, including an area of remnant eucalyptus trees, through their contribution to the setting of the place.

Landscape features not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• All structures, sheds, sports equipment, goal posts, ground markings, furniture, lights, services, hard ground surfaces, garden beds, and vegetation not previously mentioned as significant. 

Views
Views of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• View from Burnett Street to the Main Building with its picturesque arrangement of gable ends and towers, prominently sited on the brow of a ridgeline above the manicured Maude Kerr Oval;
• View of the east and south (principal) elevations of the Main Building from the open concourses immediately east and south of the building, particularly to its bellcote and towers; and
• Panoramic views of the surrounding landscape from the Main Building and its towers.

References

[1] Thom Blake, ‘Educating Queenslanders’ in Queensland Historical Thematic Framework, 2007 (rev. 2013 by EHP), p.2; Department of Education, ‘Secondary Education’, <education.qld.gov.au/about/history/Documents/secondary-education.pdf>, accessed 5 Oct 2023. The latest version of the Grammar Schools Act is the Grammar Schools Act 2016. See: <legislation.qld.gov.au/view/pdf/inforce/2017-01-01/act-2016-052>, accessed 28 Sep 2023.
[2] ‘Ipswich’, The Courier, 22 Aug 1861, p.2; ‘Grammar School Meeting’, North Australian, Ipswich and General Advertiser, 30 Aug 1861, p.3.
[3] ‘Ipswich Grammar School’, Courier, 31 May 1862, p.4.
[4] Although his design for Brisbane Grammar School was larger and more elaborate, only the first stage of the design was completed, and it was demolished unrealised; comparison of works listed in Watson and McKay, Queensland architects of the 19th century, pp.10-11; From September 1862 Backhouse practiced in partnership with architect Thomas Taylor, as Backhouse and Taylor, but the partnership ended in conflict in June 1863. Taylor claimed he received no credit for the design of Ipswich Grammar School, and it is not known how Taylor could have had a hand in the design considering the timing of their partnership. The design was credited to Backhouse at the time, and since, and is consistent with his work prior to and after his connection to Taylor.
[5] Watson and McKay, Queensland architects of the 19th century, p.10.
[6] Including those at Toowoomba, Condamine, Laidley, Maryborough, Bowen, Nanango, Bald Hills, and Goondiwindi.
[7] Architect Richard Suter’s 1869 ‘recommended plan’ for provisional schools has been credited with introducing school design standardisation to the government, however, Backhouse’s ‘model’ plan for rural schools predates this. Standardisation remained in use under the responsibility of the Department of Public Works (later Project Services) into the mid-2000s.
[8] Paul Burmester, Margaret Pullar, Michael Kennedy, 'Queensland Schools: A heritage conservation study, 1996', pp.13, 96.
[9] Joseph Henry Allsopp, A Centenary History of the Ipswich Grammar School: 1863-1963, Ipswich: Ipswich Grammar School, 1963, p.19.
[10] Department of Seniors, Disability Services and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Cultural Heritage Database and Register, <culturalheritage.datsip.qld.gov.au/achris/public/public-registry/home>, accessed 23 Aug 2023. The site was reportedly used as a camping place and for tribal battle. See: ‘Ipswich Heritage study vol.1’, final report, 1992, p.3-6; ‘Early Memories’, Queensland Times, 3 Jan 1938, p.6; ‘Decadence of the Australian Native’, The Week, 28 Feb 1930, p.37. The Ipswich Grammar School endowment also included 8 acres 4.5 perches (3.25ha) bounded by Herbert, Syntax, Cribb, and Burnett streets (opposite the current Maude Kerr Oval) and a further 162 acres (65.56ha) adjacent to the Bremer River near the One Mile Bridge, which was increased to 200 acres (80.94ha) by 1866. See: Queensland Department of Resources (Resources), Certificates of Title: 10021061 and 10021060; Sophie Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, Ipswich: Ipswich Grammar School, p.237; Endowment to the IGS, 7 Oct 1863, Queensland State Archives (QSA) ID1139514.
[11] Resources, Survey Plans: I16.13, 19 May 1862; I16.13^, 2 Jul 1862; I16.17,19Apr 1863; I16.23, 17 Aug 1863. An earlier proposal for the school site comprised 4 acres 3 rood 24 perches (1.98 ha), but this was increased prior to the opening of the school.
[12] Queensland Woollen Manufacturing Company Ltd (former) [QHR602572]; Centre for the Government of Queensland, University of Queensland, 'Queensland Places: Ipswich' <queenslandplaces.com.au/node/447>, accessed 23 Nov 2023; Fitzgerald, From Dreaming to 1915, pp.178, 264, 269.
[13] ‘Advertising’, Queensland Times, 4 Sep 1863, p.3
[14] ‘The Ipswich Grammar School’, Courier, 24 Sep 1863, p.3.
[15] Backhouse anticipated extensions to the building shown in ‘Design for Proposed Grammar School – Ipswich – Block plan showing future extensions’, Backhouse, undated, drawing held in school archives. The drawing is damaged and does not show the area where the 1865 extension was built.
[16] Backhouse had planned for the quadrangle to be a large, square cloister comprising an open space with central circular fountain surrounded by a roofed open-sided verandah (‘Design for Proposed Grammar School – Ipswich – Block plan showing future extensions’, Backhouse, undated, drawing held in school archives). A ‘cloister’ was only partially achieved here by the verandah added in 1877. 
[17] BG Lawrence, Ipswich Grammar School, 1863-1913. Maitland, NSW: T Dimmock Ltd, 1914, pp.17-19; Allsopp, A Centenary History of the Ipswich Grammar School, p.28..
[18] 'Distribution of Prizes at the Grammar School', Brisbane Courier, 10 Jun 1865, p.5. Although student numbers steadily increased during the school’s first three years, they fell in the subsequent three years due to economic depression (1867-1869) and the opening of the Brisbane Grammar School in 1869.
[19] 'Distribution of Prizes at the Grammar School', Brisbane Courier, 10 Jun 1865, p.5.
[20] 'Town Improvements', Queensland Times, 16 Jul 1864, p.3; 'Ipswich', Brisbane Courier, 19 Jan 1866, p.3.
[21] The museum was housed in ‘Room 3 adjacent to the clock tower’ until it was dismantled in 1952 (in Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.170).
[22] The Mathematics Master’s boarding operations were taken over by the Headmaster in 1876 and his rooms then used for further boarding accommodation. This arrangement lasted until 1950 when the Trustees took control of the boarding accommodations – Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.147-8.
[23] ‘Ipswich Grammar School’, The Courier, 24 Sep 1863, p.3.
[24] Gothic Revival was used less on later grammar schools, with features of Italianate and Queensland vernacular architecture being used more strongly, possibly as a result of architects considering more climate appropriate building responses.
[25] 'Ipswich', Brisbane Courier, 19 Jan 1866, p.3.
[26] 'Ipswich', Brisbane Courier, 19 Jan 1866, p.3; untitled article, Queensland Times, 22 Feb 1866, p.3; 'Ipswich', Brisbane Courier, 28 May 1866, p.4.
[27] Brisbane Grammar School abandoned its original site, moving to a new site nearby into all new buildings in 1881. These new buildings still shared common characteristics with the other grammar schools.
[28] Other Queensland schools opened with the name ‘grammar’, but these were denominational schools, not secular state schools.
[29] Queensland architect Francis Drummond Greville Stanley was involved in part of this work, although the extent is not clear.
[30] The 1877 work also included an open-sided playshed in the Quadrangle (Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.242, demolished 1923) and gymnasium building (Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.242, located southwest of the main building, demolished 1923). In Backhouse’s 1864 plans for the 1865 extension, he designed a dormitory, dining, and laundry extension in this location, but it is not known if this is what was built or if it was a new design ('Town Improvements', Queensland Times, 16 Jul 1864, p.3).
[31] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.148.
[32] Rockhampton Bulletin, 12 Jan 1877, p3; Brisbane Courier, 31 Mar 1877, p.7; Stanley’s involvement in Queensland Times, 24 Apr 1877, p.3; a description of the 1877 works in 'Ipswich Grammar School Head Master's Report', Ipswich Herald, 24 May 1877, p.3; description of the accommodations in the wing is provided in ‘The Ipswich Grammar School’, Telegraph, 29 Apr 1878, p.4, which also reports the school had 21 boarders at this time.
[33] Bruce Buchanan & Associates Architects, ‘Ipswich Grammar School Preliminary Report on Restoration Stage 1’, Sep 1980, 3.01-3.02 in QHR 600601 Ipswich Grammar School Site File, DES Heritage database.
[34] 'Improvements at the Ipswich Grammar School', Ipswich Herald, 20 Mar 1886, p.5; this work may have included the addition of the single-storey, brick extension on the south side of the 1877 wing.
[35] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.148.
[36] ‘The Ipswich Grammar School’, The Courier, 24 Sep 1863, p.3.
[37]‘The Grammar School Matches’, Maryborough Chronicle, 23 Dec 1882, p.3.
[38] ‘Rockhampton Grammar School’, Morning Bulletin, 16 Dec 1886, p.5.
[39] ‘The Grammar School Ground’, Darling Downs Gazette, 21 Sep 1889, p.8.
[40] ‘Brisbane Grammar School V. Maryborough Grammar School’, Maryborough Chronicle, 3 Dec 1894, p.3.
[41] ‘Townsville Grammar School’, Townsville Daily Bulletin, 24 Jun 1927, p.7.
[42] ‘Local and General News’, Queensland Times, 11 Apr 1876, p.3.
[43] Resources, Certificate of Title 10021061; Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.254. (comprising 8 acres 4.5perches (3.25ha)). Relinquished c2000. See: Resources, SP116770).
[44] ‘The Ipswich Grammar School: Letter to the Editor’, Queensland Times, 11 May 1867, p.3.
[45] ‘Growls – Letter to the Editor’, Queensland Times, 9 Dec 1876, p.3
[46] Also known as the Lands Department.
[47] ‘Successful Land Sale’, Queensland Times, 20 Feb 1911, p.4; Department of Resources, Survey Plan I16.175, Sep 1910.
[48] 'Boys' Grammar School An Appeal', Queensland Times, 25 Nov 1911, p.3.
[49] The 1912 servants’ quarters was likely the single-storey building built on the kitchen court, north of the 1863 service wing, demolished between 1985 and 1992.
[50] The 1912 sick boarders’ room was likely part of the school ‘hospital’ (infirmary), which was accommodated in the former servants’ bedrooms of the first floor of the 1863 service wing and likely included a verandah extension off this side with a small enclosure at its western end and stair to the ground floor. The verandah was demolished in c2020.
[51] Two-storey verandah is visible in the 1912 photograph Picture Ipswich, reference ID: qips-2011-06-05-0001p.jpg, which also shows that the external north-facing wall of the 1863 building was face brick and not rendered at this time. Verandah was demolished c2020.
[52] 'Boys' Grammar School An Appeal', Queensland Times, 25 Nov 1911, p.3.
[53] 'Tender Accepted', Queensland Times, 18 Jun 1912, p.4; 'Boys' Grammar School', Queensland Times, 13 Dec 1912, p.6; 'Ipswich Jubilee', Telegraph, 27 Sep 1913, p.16; Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.242.
[54] Queensland Heritage Register (QHR) 600565, Ipswich Girls Grammar; ‘Ipswich Grammar School’, Darling Downs Gazette and General Advertiser, 13 Jan 1869, p.2; 'Boys' Grammar School', Morning Bulletin, 21 Sep 1907, p.8.
[55] 'Boys' Grammar School', Morning Bulletin, 19 Feb 1908, p.6.
[56] 'The Grammar Schools. A Conference of Teachers in Brisbane', Morning Bulletin, 29 Jan 1908, p.4.
[57] Queensland Department of Education, The Education Office Gazette, Jan 1911, p.9; ‘Warwick Tech High School’, Warwick Examiner and Times, 10 Dec 1910, p.4. ‘In 1891 a Royal Commission on Education advised that a 'system of secondary schools more directly controlled as to foundation and management by the State would be less expensive and quite as effective in the education of the youth of the colony'. Grammar schools would continue, but would be supplemented by a State secondary system similar to the 'superior' school system in NSW, in which secondary classes were attached to primary schools.’ See: Greg Logan and Eddie Clarke, State Education in Queensland: A Brief History, Brisbane: Dept of Education, Queensland, 1984, p.2 on Queensland Department of Education website, ‘Secondary Education’, <education.qld.gov.au/about/history/Documents/secondary-education.pdf>, accessed 8 Nov 2023.
[58] Namely, Charters Towers, Gympie, Mount Morgan, Warwick, Bundaberg, and Mackay, while secondary departments were attached to the primary schools at Herberton, Gatton, and Childers. See: Greg Logan and Eddie Clarke, State Education in Queensland: A Brief History, Brisbane: Department of Education, Queensland, 1984, p.2 on Queensland Department of Education website, ‘Secondary Education’, <education.qld.gov.au/about/history/Documents/secondary-education.pdf>, accessed 8 Nov 2023.
[59] ‘High School Laboratory’, Gympie Times & Mary River Mining Gazette, 16 Aug 1913, p.6; Qld Department of Education, ‘Secondary education’, <education.qld.gov.au/about/history/Documents/secondary-education.pdf>, accessed 8 Nov 2023, p.3.
[60] It is not known if the building when completed had face brick walls or was rendered externally as no early descriptions have been found to detail this. It is shown as rendered in a 1946 photograph.
[61] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, pp.116, 117, 242.
[62] 'Grammar School Dinner', Queensland Times, 26 Sept 1953, p.2.
[63] Science buildings were built at the boys’ grammar schools in: Toowoomba in 1906 (physics, not known if extant, 'Toowoomba Grammar School', Darling Downs Gazette, 26 Apr 1906, p.8) and 1918 (chemistry, heavily altered, 'Toowoomba Grammar School', Darling Downs Gazette, 26 Apr 1906, p.8); Maryborough by 1911 (demolished by 1957, QHR 600697 Site File, 'Maryborough State High School Heritage Conservation Management Plan', Converge, October 2015, p.27); Rockhampton in 1908 (chemistry, established within a former dining room not a new building, not known if extant, 'Boys' Grammar School', Capricornian, 12 Dec 1908, p.27) and 1910-3 (physics, not known if extant, 'Boys' Grammar School', Morning Bulletin, 9 Dec 1910, p.3 and 21 May 1913, p.4); and Brisbane in 1912 (extant, ‘Grammar School’, The Week, 02 Aug 1912, p.24) and 1915 (extant, Burmester, Paul and Margaret Cook, 'Conservation Plan for Brisbane Grammar School',  Mar 2000, p.10). Townsville Grammar School, which was fully rebuilt several years after it was destroyed by a cyclone in 1903, may have had a small timber building used for science by 1908 but it is not clear if it was built for this purpose. All Queensland’s boys’ grammar schools had established chemistry and physics laboratories, typically in a freestanding building, by 1914.
[64] Ipswich Girls’ Grammar School requested a similar science building in 1911 but were refused. (Main Building Ipswich Girls’ Grammar School Conservation Management Plan, Margaret Cook in association with Ivan McDonald Architects, 2015, p.66). Science buildings/extensions were built at: Ipswich Girls’ Grammar in 1922 (Margaret Cook in association with Ivan McDonald Architects, 'Main Building Ipswich Girls’ Grammar School Conservation Management Plan', 2015, p.66); Rockhampton Girls’ Grammar c1928 ('Old Girls' Concert and Dance', Evening News, 19 Mar 1927, p.4); and Brisbane Girls’ Grammar in 1933 ('New Science Room. At Brisbane Girls' Grammar School', Brisbane Courier, 24 Feb 1933, p.7).
[65] Maryborough Girls’ Grammar did not construct a comparable science laboratory. A large ‘domestic science’ building was built there in 1937.
[66] 1921 photograph, Picture Ipswich, reference ID: qips-2011-06-07-0023p.jpg.
[67] 'Ipswich Grammar Schools', Brisbane Courier, 8 Dec 1922, p.7.
[68] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.149; Peter Spearritt, 'Bradfield, John Job Crew (1867–1943)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, <https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bradfield-john-job-crew-5331/text9011>, published first in hardcopy 1979, accessed online 28 Nov 2023.
[69] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.242; the 1923 buildings were demolished in 2020.
[70] ‘Ipswich Grammar School’, Daily Mail, 11 Apr 1922, p.9.
[71] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.256.
[72] Headmaster’s Report 1923, IGS Archives cited by Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.256; QImagery, 1944 aerial, RAAF00030362.
[73] ‘Schools and Colleges’, Brisbane Courier, 17 Dec 1932, p.17; ‘The Ipswich Grammar School’, The Courier, 24 Sep 1863, p.3; ‘New Sports Oval’, Queensland Times, 15 Jun 1925, p.9; Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, pp.193, 254; ‘Grammar Schools’ Speech Day’, Queensland Times, 24 Sep 1948, p.3. The oval was opened on 13 June 1925.
[74] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.256. These tennis courts were demolished to accommodate the Harry G Wilson Science Building (1983) and the Centenary Classroom Block (1962) in the 1960s and 1980s.
[75] Headmaster’s Report 1934, IGS Archive cited by Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.253.
[76] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, pp.69-70, 253.
[77] JM Pearce Architects, Ipswich Grammar School Early Historic Buildings Conservation Management Plan, 2010, p.21; QImagery, RAAF0003062, 1 May 1944. The swimming pool was demolished during development of the area in the1970s and replaced by an Olympic-sized pool in 1978 as part of the Ivor G Morris Physical Education Complex. See: Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.256; QImagery: QAP27642290, 29 Jan 1974 and QAP35709709, 28 May 1981.

[78] ‘IGS Old Boys’, Queensland Times, 25 Jul 1936, p.10.
[79] ‘Headmasters Review’, Queensland Times, 16 Sep 1939, p.11. The Unemployment Relief Scheme was a Queensland Government initiative to provide work to unemployed men, which operated well into the 1930s. see: Carmel Black, Queensland Atlas: Depression Era, <qhatlas.com.au/content/depression-era>, accessed 11 Oct 2023.
[80] Those born during the period of unprecedented population growth after WWII, termed the ‘baby boom’.
[81] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, pp.35-39.
[82] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, pp.37-40
[83] Demolished c2019.
[84] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.120, 134; this was a reference library, not a lending library, and nothing of its fitout is extant.
[85] Designed by Dr Langer (UQFL158 Karl Langer Papers, Fryer Library UQ). Dr Langer was involved in designing a number of other minor alterations and additions (not extant) to the school during the period.
[86] 'Grammar School Dinner', Queensland Times, 26 Sept 1953, p.2.
[87] Qimagery: aerial RAAF0003062, 1 May 1944; RAAF000435665, 1 Jun 1946.
[88] ‘Forestry Plot at Grammar School’, Queensland Times, 30 Jul 1951, p.2.
[89] QImagery, RAAF0003062, 1 May 1944.
[90] ‘Improvements at the School', Queensland Times, 25 Jul 1936, p.10. The oval replaced three earlier tennis courts in the location.
[91] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.254.
[92] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.253.
[93] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, pp.253, 165, 180.
[94] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.254; QImagery, aerial, QAP15946997, 17 Aug 1964. Work on Oval No. 4 was funded by the Hancock family. John Hancock, President of the Old Boys’ Association, officially opened the oval on 25 May 1963.
[95] Early examples include: Brisbane Grammar School (1880); Maryborough boys’ and girls’ grammar schools (drive from the early 1890s, memorial gates added 1909); Ipswich Girls’ Grammar (drive 1892, memorial gates added 1952); Rockhampton Girls’ Grammar School (by 1896); and later examples at Rockhampton Grammar School (c1932); and Toowoomba (early 1950s).
[96] 'More School Improvements', Queensland Times, 7 Aug 1954, p.2; Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, pp.246-7; QImagery, aerials: QAP0548067, 1 Aug 1955; QAP2025006, 1 Sep1969; QAP4442194, 21 Jul 1985; QAP5121126, 11 Aug 1992; site visit by DES Heritage officers, 27 Sep 2023.
[97] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.246.
[98] Freestanding grammar school residences were built at: Toowoomba c1950 (extant); Brisbane Grammar School in 1962 (extant); Townsville in 1964 (demolished by 1990); and Rockhampton boys’ in 1970 (extant) and girls’ in 1971 (extant). In 1936 Maryborough’s two grammar schools were taken over by the state government and reused as high schools, so after this time they do not follow the pattern of the other grammar schools. It is not known if Brisbane Girls’ Grammar had a similar residence constructed in the period. No freestanding residence appears to have been built at Ipswich Girls’ Grammar School.
[99] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.38. The Industrial Fund for the Advancement of Science Education in Schools, which operated from the mid-1950s until 1968, was a UK-based body corporate of a group of major companies created to fund the construction and equipping of laboratories in independent and direct grant schools. (See: <eoas.info/biogs/P005079b.htm>, accessed 19 Oct 2023; <wellcomecollection.org/works/ecqd4awy>, accessed 19 Oct 2023.)
[100] Townsville in 1955; Rockhampton boys’ in 1957; Toowoomba in 1963; Brisbane boys’ in 1965; and Rockhampton girls’ in 1968.
[101] Ipswich’s cooling breezes, particularly in February and March (probably the hottest period of the building’s occupation by students), are from ENE to SSW (<mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/sites/windrose.phtml?station=YAMB&network=AU__ASOS>, accessed 17 Oct 2023).
[102] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.243-5.
[103] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.246.
[104] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.40. Enrolments reached almost 500 by 1971.
[105] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.41.
[106] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.249.
[107] It is not known precisely how many beds were provided. This calculation is based on a maximum possible = 28 beds per floor over five floors minus two beds for the second floor entrance; <fultontrotter.com.au/history/>, accessed 20 Oct 2023 provides 24 beds per floor, however, it was not built to the plan shown.
[108] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.249.
[109] <fultontrotter.com.au/history/>, accessed 20 Oct 2023.
[110] Demolished c2020.
[111] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.249.
[112] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.249.
[113] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, pp.254, 256, 258. 
[114] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, pp.249-250.
[115] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.250-1.
[116] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.252; J M Pearce Architects, 'Ipswich Grammar School Early Historic Buildings Conservation Management Plan', 2010, p.23.
[117] Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, p.252.
[118] Project Services, 'Mount Morgan State High School' in 'Queensland Schools Heritage Study Part II Report, for Education Queensland', 2008, pp.4-5; Paul Burmester, Margaret Pullar and Michael Kennedy, 'Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, a report for the Department of Education', 1996, pp.87-8; BG Lawrence, Ipswich Grammar School, 1863-1913. Maitland, NSW: T Dimmock Ltd, 1914; Joseph Henry Allsopp, Centenary History of the Ipswich Grammar School, 1863-1963. Ipswich: Ipswich Grammar School, 1963; Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, Ipswich: Ipswich Grammar School, 2013, online <https://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/permalink/61SLQ_INST/tqqf2h/alma9915544564702061>, accessed 19 Sep 2023; ‘The Week at a Glance’, The Queenslander, 4 Oct 1913, p.9.
[119] Ipswich Grammar School website ‘About IGS Old Boys’ <igsoldboys.com/about/>, accessed 5 Oct 2023. An earlier organisation existed from 1892 see: ‘Ipswich Schools’, Telegraph, 17 Dec 1892, p.2; ‘IGS Old Boys’, Queensland Times, 30 Jul 1914, p.6.
[120] Queensland Times: 'IGS' Old Boys’, 30 Jul 1914, p.6; 'IGS Old Boys', 26 Aug 1939, p.11; ‘Grammar Schools’ Speech Day’, 24 Sep 1948, p.3; 14 Sep 1954, p.5; 'Ipswich', Brisbane Courier, 21 Jul 1930, p.19; Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School, 1863-2013, pp.243, 253.
[121] Ipswich Grammar School, ‘Distinguished Old Boys’, <ipswichgrammar.com/community/old-boys-association/distinguished-old-boys>, accessed 9 Oct 2023.
[122] Paul Burmester, Margaret Pullar and Michael Kennedy, 'Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, a report for the Department of Education', 1996, pp.87-8; Church, The Story of Ipswich Grammar School 1863-2013, pp.243-4.

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