East Brisbane State School

General

Also known as

Brisbane East State School

Classification

State Heritage

Register status

Entered

Date entered

6 November 1995

Type

Education, Research, Scientific Facility: School - state (primary)

Theme

9.1 Educating Queenslanders: Providing primary schooling

Architect

Queensland Department of Public Works

Construction period

1899–1939, East Brisbane State School (1899 - 1939)

Historical period

1870s–1890s Late 19th century

1900–1914 Early 20th century

1919–1930s Interwar period

Style

Arts & Crafts

Location

Address

90 Wellington Road, East Brisbane

LGA

Brisbane City Council

Coordinates

-27.48601859, 153.0394971

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Significance

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

East Brisbane State School (established 1899) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains good, representative examples of government designs, which were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies, set in generous, landscaped grounds with mature trees.

Block A (built 1899 and extended 1900), the first of several Urban Brick School Buildings built in Queensland from 1899, represents a culmination of years of experimentation with natural light, classroom size, and ventilation by its designer, the Department of Public Works (DPW). It also demonstrates the increasing construction of brick school buildings at metropolitan schools in prosperous, developing areas.

The former Gymnasium (1907), the earliest known surviving example of a pre-World War II gymnasium built for a Queensland state school, is important in demonstrating the early emphasis on sport and fitness at Queensland schools, and the early pattern of local communities raising funds to provide sport facilities for its schoolchildren.

Designed by the DPW, the extensions and alterations to Block A (1939), and alterations to the Former Gymnasium (1951), including introduction of folding partitions to create smaller classrooms (Block A), and changes to earlier window and door arrangements to improve natural daylighting and ventilation of the classrooms (both), are good examples of the standard alterations made to older state school buildings to reflect evolving educational philosophies.

The Former Parade Ground (1900) and the provision of outdoor and understorey play areas and mature trees, demonstrate the Queensland Government’s educational philosophies that promoted the importance of play and aesthetics in the education of children.

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

Highly intact, Block A is an outstanding example of an Urban Brick School Building (1899-1900) and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of this class of cultural places through its:

• prominent location at the front of the school;
• impressive, high-quality design and detailing;
• highset wings of large, multi-class classrooms accessed by verandahs with attached teacher’s rooms;
• open understorey play area with student ‘lavatories’ (hand washing rooms);
• formal, symmetrical arrangement of teaching spaces and composition of elevations;
• direct relationship to an adjacent outdoor parade ground for student assembly and address;
• robust materials palette including face brick, iron, and timber; and
• provision of abundant natural light and ventilation of the interior through elevated classrooms with open understorey, broad verandahs used as primary circulation, high-set windows, fanlights over doors, lofty ventilated ceilings, and generous open space on all sides.

The later complementary modifications and additions (1939) to Block A are important in demonstrating the evolution of state school design with its subsequent standard provision of smaller, single-class classrooms, and increase in classroom light and ventilation, particularly in providing ‘correct’ left hand light. This is demonstrated through Block A’s:

• remnants of folding partitions, creating a series of smaller classrooms within the large wings, and doors with fanlights into each new classroom;
• large banks of lowset windows with fanlights into each classroom; and
• careful arrangements of windows, doors, and blank walls to ensure abundant left hand day light for students.

Criterion EThe place is important because of its aesthetic significance.

East Brisbane State School is important for its aesthetic significance as it possesses beautiful attributes and landmark qualities, and for its streetscape contribution. These attributes are embodied in Block A’s outstanding quality of design and construction, open space on all its sides, mature boundary trees, and its Former Parade Ground forecourt.

Highly intact, Block A’s beautiful attributes are embodied in: the formal composition of its substantial, symmetrical, U-shaped form around an open forecourt; its rectangular wings of classrooms flanked by long, broad verandahs with projecting teacher’s rooms; its central, picturesque belltower; its use of superior quality materials and craftsmanship with decorative treatments such as polychromatic face brickwork, moulded timberwork, and exposed fretwork iron roof structure; and its lofty spacious interiors with abundant natural light and ventilation.

The attractive form of Block A, set back from the street behind its large open forecourt, is conspicuous in its location with significant views of the place obtained from along Wellington Road and Stanley Street.

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

East Brisbane State School has a strong and special association with past and present pupils, parents, staff members, and the surrounding community since its establishment in 1899. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Brisbane for almost 125 years, with generations of children taught at the school, and it has served as a venue for social interaction and community focus. Substantial contributions to its operations have been made by its local community, parents, and students through repeated local volunteer action, donations, and the school’s Parents and Citizens Association. This is evocatively demonstrated through the school’s collection of school community objects and memorabilia including: the donated school bell (1910); early framed photographs of teachers; honour boards (1905, 1914 extended 1939, 2000); Roll of Honour (1915); and timber cabinets and their historical contents including trophies, books, and certificates.

History

East Brisbane State School opened on 10 July 1899 to meet the educational needs of the rapidly growing suburb of East Brisbane.[1] It retains excellent examples of school designs by the Department of Public Works (DPW), including: Block A (1899-1900, modernised and extended in 1939); and a rare, early Former Gymnasium (1907). These are set in landscaped grounds with play and sports areas, and mature trees.

East Brisbane is part of the traditional lands of the Turrbul and Jagera peoples.[2] Non-Indigenous development commenced in the early 1850s with the establishment of three large residential estates along the southern bank of the Brisbane River between the Shafston Reach and Norman Creek.[3] East Brisbane's first suburban boom occurred in the mid-1880s, when the larger residential estates were subdivided. Further subdivision for houses was spurred by the 1897 introduction of an electric tram line to the suburb, which had more than 1600 residences by 1906. Before there was a school in the vicinity, East Brisbane children attended state schools at South Brisbane, Kangaroo Point, and Dutton Park.[4]

The movement to establish a state school at East Brisbane commenced when a committee was appointed at a public meeting in 1890. A school reserve of 0.7ha was gazetted at the corner of Stanley Street and Wellington Road in 1895, adjacent to an 1885 drill shed reserve (to the north) and an 1895 cricket and sport reserve (to the west). Following appointment of a school building committee in 1897, establishment of the school progressed. Builder John W Young’s tender was accepted on 12 October 1898, and a school building was completed on 22 May 1899 – forming the first section of the building called Block A in 2023. The total cost of this first section was around £1910.[5]

The government planned the building to have a 350 student capacity. The single-storey, face brick school building comprised two wings in an L-shape raised on brick arches to form an open understorey play area. Each wing accommodated one large classroom (50ft by 25ft - 15.2m by 7.6m); with males in one classroom, and females in the other. The ceilings were 14ft (4.3m) high, coved, and lined with diagonal pine boards. The windows were tall and narrow with high sills and the gable roof, which included iron structural members, was clad with corrugated metal sheets and had rooftop ventilators. Wide verandahs along the long sides of each wing provided access to the classrooms and had small central projecting hatrooms or teacher’s rooms. The understorey included ‘lavatories’ (handbasin rooms).[6] By January 1900 the school also had two earth closet toilet blocks near the western (rear) boundary.[7]

East Brisbane State School was officially opened on Saturday 8 July 1899, and enrolments grew rapidly, with students transferring from other schools. Total enrolments in 1899 were 1008, far greater than its capacity. To cope, the understorey was enclosed with corrugated iron sheets to create teaching space, and the nearby military drill shed was also utilised.[8]

Commencing April 1900,[9] the building was extended, mirroring the original two wings to form a U-shape around a flat parade ground, and included a grand, three-storey face brick belltower. The building’s interior had rendered and whitewashed brick walls and the rooms were well lighted from high gable windows. Ventilation was via ceiling panels through iron tubing and Boyle’s [rooftop] ventilators.[10] It cost £2285/14s, bringing the total cost of the building so far to £4210, with one sixth of this to be paid for by the community, and was officially opened 13 October 1900. The extension increased the school’s capacity to 730 students. Total enrolments that year were 1277, with an average attendance of 756.[11]

The school building was an ‘Urban Brick School’, a type built in Queensland from 1899 in response to the population explosion accompanying the post-1890s Depression recovery.[12] This type was constructed in prosperous urban or suburban areas with stable or rapidly increasing populations. They were each designed individually by the Department of Public Works (DPW),[13] with variations in style, size, and form, but generally followed the standardised classroom sizes, layouts, and window arrangements, with a focus on providing abundant natural light and ventilation of the classrooms.[14]

By the end of 1905, a ‘very handsome honour board of artistic design’ had been erected by the committee in the school, ‘on which the names of pupils who gain scholarships and of the head boys and girls for each year are to be inscribed’.[15] The board was filled with names by 1914 and a second board was made, which in turn was filled by 1939 and was supplemented by wing panels attached to its side for further space. In 2023 these boards are hung in the main hall of Block A.

Changes to the school reserve occurred soon after its opening. The grounds were expanded to provide land for future school buildings in 1904, with the addition of 0.2ha to the north.[16] In 1905 the school building committee requested permission to plant trees along Stanley Street and also noted it ‘should be glad if some provision could be made towards … a gymnasium, as at present [the school has] no facilities for teaching physical culture’.[17]

Gymnasiums were not typically built at Queensland state schools, and funds for such buildings had to be partially raised by the school and its community. They were designed by the DPW and were shed-like with high, vaulted ceilings and included equipment such as ropes and rings, parallel bars, horizontal and sloping ladders, wooden horses, and mats. Surviving pre-World War II (WWII) gymnasiums in Queensland state schools are extremely rare, with only two known examples.[18]

Due to the high cost of a gymnasium, a standard open playshed (not extant) was built first in 1906, in the northwest corner of the extended grounds. As a decision was made that only females could use this playshed, a second playshed was requested for the males. By February 1908, the gymnasium (also referred to as a playshed) was built in the school’s southwest corner, in part using funds the school raised itself. That year Thomas Pye of the Government Architect's Office said the school had ‘the best playshed accommodation in the state’.[19]

The new gymnasium was a single-storey, timber-framed building with a raised timber floor set on low brick stumps. It accommodated a single, large room with a vaulted ceiling. It was fully enclosed by single-skin walls of vertical boards but had large sliding doors in its eastern side. It had a trussed hip roof with a central glazed hip lantern roof, and evenly-spaced banks of tall, narrow, centre-pivot windows in the north and west walls. Due to overcrowding at the school, the gymnasium was also used for classes, and for other community purposes.[20]

During World War I, East Brisbane State School raised funds from the surrounding community, particularly the parents of its students, to contribute to the Patriotic and Hospital Funds. At the breaking up day ceremony of 1915, a ‘roll of honour’ was unveiled, to list ‘past pupils of the school who had volunteered for the Front’,[21] which hangs in the main hall of Block A in 2023.   

From the 1910s to the 1930s, East Brisbane grew gradually as a residential suburb. By 1909, average attendance at the school was 963, and classes were being held on the open verandahs and under the school. In 1910-11 a separate, single-storey timber Infants School building (not extant) was constructed north of Block A.[22] A contemporary  school photograph shows a large fig tree standing in the school grounds on the corner of Wellington Road and Stanley Street and small, evenly-spaced fig trees planted along the Stanley Street boundary.[23] These small trees are considerably larger in a photograph of 1921.[24] By June 1918, enrolment had reached 1402, with an average attendance of about 1200.[25] In 1922, it was reported the school was ‘one of the largest schools in the State’.[26]

In response to continued high enrolments in the interwar period, and changes in classroom standards, Block A was extended, and its older sections were modernised to create more classrooms within the single-classroom wings and improve natural light and ventilation.[27] Designed by the DPW, these changes reflected the evolution in state school design that it had implemented since the construction of Block A in 1899/1900. Prior to 1909, state school classrooms had an equal number of windows on the students’ left and right sides. From 1909, this was changed so that windows were concentrated on one wall only, to permit natural light from the left hand side of the student – the ‘correct’ side for enforced right-handed writing. Classroom sizes were reduced in 1914 to be a standard 21ft (6.4m) wide, accommodate a single class only, and multiple classrooms were separated by folding or fixed partitions.[28]

The alterations to Block A, carried out between 1937 and 1939 and costing approximately £11,230, included extending the north and south wings eastwards by 40ft (12.2m), and adding a second storey to the central wing, accessed via a new stair in the central entrance hall.[29] Partitions were added into the four existing long classrooms (some partitions were folding) and in the new second floor to form a total of 20 classrooms (12 in the central wing, and four in each of the north and south wings) capable of accommodating 1000 students. New doors were added into each new classroom, and old high-level windows were altered, repositioned, and augmented by new windows to create larger areas of windows with lower sills on the students’ left hand side. The timber-framed western verandah and central hall were rebuilt in brick and concrete.[30] Some hatrooms were demolished, new teachers’ rooms were added to the western verandah, and timber verandah stairs were replaced by masonry ones in new locations.[31] The work was officially opened 29 September 1939.[32] Contemporary photographs show the front parade ground included large, brick-edged lawn areas near the building, lattice understorey screens, and circular garden beds with shrubs.[33]

Like many Queensland state schools, East Brisbane was affected by WWII. After Japan’s entry into WWII, in January 1942 the Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools, and although most reopened 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war’s end.[34] East Brisbane State School resumed in 1942 with only 400 students (roughly half its 1930s enrolment), sharing the grounds until 1945 with Australian military training units, including the Royal Australian Air Force and Army clerks.[35]

After WWII, enrolments did not recover to pre-war levels due to declining inner-city populations, leaving the second floor of Block A vacant.[36] By 1946, the boundary fig trees were reaching maturity and included newer trees. The 1906 girls’ playshed was removed between by 1949,[37] when the school grounds were extended northwards by 0.6ha (for a total size of 1.5ha), acquiring the remaining drill shed reserve to form a large sport and playing field.[38] In 1950, the Infants School building was also removed from the grounds.[39]

In 1951, a vocational training centre was established at East Brisbane State School, for boys and girls from 15 metropolitan state schools.[40] To accommodate woodworking classrooms, the gymnasium was remodelled by adding new partitions, windows, and doors. The original sliding doors were removed, replaced by French doors, casement windows, and a covered link to a new manual training building adjacent (Block C in 2023).[41]

Further buildings and facilities were added to the school over time, including a highset brick classroom building extending off the rear of Block A (1954, demolished c2001); a swimming pool (1960, extant 2023) with grandstands and dressing shed (by 1966, extant); a small highset timber classroom building northwest of Block A (c1968, demolished c2001); and replacement of the old toilets with a new toilet block (1973, demolished c2001).[42]

Other changes have been made to the school grounds. During the 1990s, the school was impacted by the major redevelopment of the adjacent Brisbane Cricket Ground stadium, ‘The Gabba’. In the early 1990s an area of the school grounds was leased to the Brisbane Cricket Ground Trust to construct a light tower for the cricket grounds.[43] By 1997, when the school had 240 pupils, as part of the redevelopment of the stadium the school received $1.6 million in exchange for leases above part of the school grounds to allow the eastern stand to overhang the rear of the school’s grounds.[44] As a result, several school buildings were demolished, and by 2001 a new activities shelter and a toilet block had been constructed under the overhanging east stand, as well as a new building north of Block A. Around 2010, a new resource centre building was built to the west of the swimming pool.[45] 

Post-WWII, there have been changes to Block A. Around 1961 external enclosed fire stairs were added to the central wing’s rear (west) verandahs (demolished c2001). In the mid-1970s administration was accommodated in the south wing’s classrooms, involving the addition of partitions and suspended ceilings. Enclosures have been made to the understorey, including adding storerooms, and tuckshop (by 1960, later replaced), and removing a teachers’ toilet. Lengths of verandah were enclosed over time. By 1981, classrooms in the north wing had been opened up into a single room by demolishing the 1930s partitions.[46] In the mid-1980s further partitions between classrooms were removed and verandahs enclosed, removing original balustrades. Further rear verandah fire stairs were added to the central wing around 1986. As part of the major redevelopment of the school in 1999, the former parade ground in front of Block A was remodelled to include garden beds, paving, and a curved brick entrance wall with a memorial plaque.[47]

Changes have also been made to the former gymnasium over time. The building was remodelled by 1981 to convert it to an assembly hall, which involved removing the partitions from the 1951 woodworking conversion. This reinstated its original large, single-room interior with a raised stage and small wings rooms added at one end. The work also involved extending the roofline on the north and east sides to form a verandah with a raised concrete floor. New French doors were added on these sides, replacing earlier windows and doors.[48]

For almost 125 years East Brisbane State School has been the focus of community interest, with events held in the school’s grounds and buildings since its establishment. Beginning with contributing funds to establish the school in 1899, the East Brisbane and surrounding communities have supported the operation of the school through donations, organising and attending fetes, balls, and concerts, and organising and membership of the School Committee (est. 1890), and Parents & Citizens’ Association (est. 1960s), which assisted the school to operate through managing the school tuckshop and uniform shop, fundraising for school supplies, working bees to maintain the school grounds, and arranging student social and educational events.[49] Money raised from functions organised by the community went toward constructing school buildings, providing student sports equipment and learning resources, and annual student trips to Redcliffe on the SS Koopa. Milestones in the school’s history, including its 50th and 100th anniversary, were celebrated by the school with commemorative public events and through memorials built within the school grounds. The school has maintained a collection of its important historical school memorabilia within Block A and school histories were published in 1998 and 1999.[50] 

In early 2023, it was announced that East Brisbane State School would be closed at the end of 2025, to facilitate the redevelopment of the Gabba for the Olympic and Paralympic Games being held in Brisbane in 2032.[51] In 2023 the school continues to operate from its original site and retains its Urban Brick School Building (Block A), and Former Gymnasium, set in landscaped grounds with mature shade trees on the school boundaries.[52]

Description

East Brisbane State School stands on a large, prominent site in East Brisbane, approximately 2km southeast of Brisbane CBD. The rectangular site is bounded on its east by Wellington Road, to which the school fronts, on its south by Stanley Street, north by Vulture Street, and west by the Brisbane Cricket Ground. Parts of the cricket stadium overhang and stand in the school grounds within easements.

Standing at the main front entrance of the school is Block A (1899-1900, extended 1939), a large brick classroom building, U-shaped around a central open area, the Former Parade Ground (1900). Standing southwest of Block A in the site’s southwestern corner is the Former Gymnasium (1907), a small, single-storey, timber building.

The school grounds include six mature fig trees (Ficus sp. likely F. microcarpa) lining the south and east boundaries, remnants of a more extensive planting scheme (by 1946) that has been reduced over time.

Features of East Brisbane State School of state level cultural heritage significance include:

• Block A (1899-1900, extended/remodelled 1939) and its open space on all sides;
• Former Parade Ground (1900);
• views to Block A from along Wellington Road and Stanley Street;
• Former Gymnasium (1907); and
• six mature fig trees (extant by 1946).

Features of East Brisbane State School not of state level cultural heritage significance include:

• all other buildings, structures, and landscape features not otherwise mentioned.

Block A (1899-1900, extended/remodelled 1939)

Block A comprises three connected wings forming a symmetrical U-shape around the Former Parade Ground. It is highly intact, retaining original fabric (1899/1900) and fabric from its extension/remodelling (1939).

The building faces east to Wellington Road and is highset to form an open understorey play area. The north and south wings are single-storey and the connecting centre wing is two-storey. The building is face brick with gable and hip roofs clad with corrugated metal sheets. Verandahs run along the long sides of the wings and return across the east side of the side wings, providing access to the classrooms. Attached to the centre of the verandahs of the side wings facing the Former Parade Ground are small face brick blocks – former teacher’s rooms or hatrooms – with gable roofs. Projecting forward from the centre of the front of the central wing is a three-storey, square tower with pyramidal roof forming the main entrance and attached to it on one side is a round belltower with cupola roof. 

The building comprises two initial sections (1899 and 1900) that have been modified and extended (1939). Fabric dating after this is not of state level cultural heritage significance.

Features of Block A of state level cultural heritage significance include:

• all original fabric (1899 and 1900) and all fabric from its 1939 extension/remodelling; and
• polychromatic face brick construction featuring decorative detailing including shaped corner bricks, corbelling, arches, and round bricks.

Understorey

• open understorey play area;
• face brick piers and their metal ant caps;
• central hall to first floor comprising face brick walls plastered on the interior, timber-framed windows with concrete sills, timber panelled doors with glazing, and stair;
• face brick and concrete stairs (1939) to first floor;
• enclosures (1899/1900) under the two western (former) teacher’s rooms originally for lavatories (excludes all internal fitout, doors, and windows)
• storeroom enclosure under western stairs (1939) and its timber board double doors; and
• evidence of original/early whitewashing of piers.

Verandahs

• timber floor framing; timber posts and ceiling joists/rafters with stop chamfering; timber balustrades (two-rail, dowel, with handrail); timber board-lined floors; and panelled timber valances (1939) of first floor central wing;  
• western verandahs (1939) concrete floors and face brick piers;
• verandah ceiling linings – v-joint (VJ) boards, and ripple-iron sheets of first floor verandah central wing (1939) and its folded metal sheet verandah edge gutter (note excludes similar but different profile modern replacement for half of central wing); and
• face brick verandah hatroom ‘enclosures’ (1939) at verandah ends/corners, their wall-mounted timber rails with metal hooks, and original window openings (second floor).

Teacher’s Rooms (1899, 1900, and 1939)

• face brick walls and cement rendered window sills;
• gable roofs clad with corrugated metal sheets and battened timber gable ends;
• timber-framed floors lined with timber boards;
• plaster internal wall lining with scribed skirting line (1900 teacher’s rooms) or face brick walls (1899 teacher’s room); timber door and window architraves, moulded timber picture rails, cover timber cornice, and VJ ceiling linings, including evidence of removed 1899 wall in ceiling of 1899 teacher’s room, 
• timber-framed double-hung windows (1899 teacher’s room); timber-framed centre-pivot windows (1900 teacher’s room, have been converted to casement); timber-framed fanlights; and stop-chamfered timber-framed window hoods (1899 and 1900) with battened cheeks, beaded board timber linings, and metal pan and rib roof sheeting; and
• original brass door, window, and fanlight hardware (and evidence of missing original hardware).

Central Tower

• face brick tower;
• face brick, concrete, and cement render front entrance stair;
• cement rendered name plate ‘EAST ~ BRISBANE STATE SCHOOL.’;
• shaped timber eaves rafters;
• corrugated metal sheet-clad pyramid roof with metal ogee profile gutters;
• attached round belltower, its small timber-framed window, raw-finish timber spiral stair, early metal grate doors, timber-framed bell cupola with round columns, VJ timber board-lined ceiling and eaves, metal ogee profile gutters, and metal bell-shaped roof with metal and timber finial;
• school bell and brass plaque wall-mounted on the tower at first floor level reading: BELL [S.S. “CITY OF MELBOURNE”] Presented by A.U.S.N. Co. L.T.D. 1910);
• second floor – timber-framed centre-pivot windows (1900) and their moulded timber architraves; short, raw-finished timber stair to tower and its timber balustrade; plaster wall finish; VJ ceiling; and
• timber-framed windows of third floor (added into original openings, 1939) (third floor interior not inspected).

Main Hall

• timber-framed arched entrance glazing with moulded panelling;
• concrete floors;
• plaster wall linings;
• unpainted concrete stair to second floor, and its moulded clear-finished handrail and iron balustrade;
• flat sheet and timber batten ceiling lining;
• timber-framed windows; and
• historical school memorabilia in Main Hall, including framed photographs, honour boards (1905, 1914 extended 1939, 2000), Roll of Honour (1915), and timber cabinets and their historical contents including trophies, books, certificates, etc. 

Classroom Wings

• face brick rectangular wings;
• gable and hip roofs and their corrugated metal sheet cladding;
• timber-framed floors lined with timber boards;
• interior walls lined with plaster with scribed skirting line and moulded timber picture rails and cornices;
• diagonally-laid ceiling boards (1899 and 1900) and original roof ventilator ducts if they survive in ceiling space; and flat sheet and timber batten ceiling linings (1939);
• iron ceiling framing and their moulded wall corbels;
• timber-framed windows (centre-pivot and casement), fanlights (centre-pivot), and doors (1899, 1900, and 1939), concrete sills and headers, original hardware (typically brass) (and evidence of missing original hardware), and no architraves; and
• timber-framed partitions added between classrooms (1939) and their VJ board linings; and concrete and steel header beams to support the partitions (and any evidence of lost folding partitions retained in later walls replacing the folding partitions).

Features of Block A not of state level cultural heritage significance include:

• all modern (post-1939) fabric including all modern services, fixtures, and fittings unless otherwise mentioned.

Understorey

• all understorey enclosures not otherwise mentioned (including timber slat batten perimeter screens and tuckshop); concrete floor; internal fitout of toilets under western teacher’s rooms (including doors and windows); bubblers troughs; seats; paint (excluding early whitewashes); and all other structures, fixtures, and services not otherwise mentioned.

Verandahs

• all non-original enclosures (excluding original fabric incorporated into modern enclosures); non-original window openings inserted into western verandah end (hatroom) enclosures; modern crimped metal sheet ceiling lining (first floor, central wing); modern fire stairs; and all fixtures and services not otherwise mentioned.  

Teacher’s Rooms

• flat sheet eaves linings; non-original gutters, rainheads, and PVC downpipes; non-original windows, window security, and doors, and non-original window, door, and fanlight hardware (typically chrome); closing over of original door in 1899 teacher’s room; and modern electrical fixtures/services including lights.

Main Hall

• modern doors and non-original door, window, and fanlight hardware; modern floor linings; and modern fixtures and fittings.

Classroom Wings

• all post-1939 alterations including: partitions and closing off of original doors and windows; suspended ceilings; modern windows (some are inserted within original window frames or openings) and security grilles; modern doors; non-original window, door, and fanlight hardware; modern floor linings; all furniture; and modern fixtures, fittings, and services. 

Former Parade Ground (1900)

The Former Parade Ground is an open, flat forecourt east of Block A. It forms the main entrance to the school. It has been re-landscaped with modern materials but retains its original size and remains an open outdoor space.

Features of the Former Parade Ground of state level cultural heritage significance include its:

• size/extent;
• direct, unobstructed visual relationship with Block A; and
• open, uncluttered, and unroofed/outdoor character.

Features of the Former Parade Ground not of state level cultural heritage significance include:

• modern landscaping and surfaces including: pavers; fake grass; garden beds; flagpole; all vegetation otherwise not mentioned; fences; curved brick memorial wall (1999) and its plaque; small war memorial pedestal and plaque (2003); signs; electrical services; and all underground features.

Views to Block A from along Stanley Street and Wellington Road

Views of state level cultural heritage significance at the place include:

• the views from along Stanley Street and Wellington Road looking to the belltower of Block A; and
• the view from Wellington Road across the Former Parade Ground to Block A, which includes the building’s three wings, their verandahs, stairs, and its roofs and central tower against the sky. This view is particularly impressive along the axis of Block A’s main entrance under the tower.

Former Gymnasium (1907, and alterations for woodworking classrooms 1951)

The Former Gymnasium is a small, rectangular, timber-framed building. Purpose-built as a school gymnasium, it is highly intact, retaining a substantial amount of 1907 fabric, as well as minor window additions from its 1951 conversion to woodworking classrooms.

In 2023 it comprises a single large room used as an assembly hall with a raised stage at one end.

Features of the Former Gymnasium of state level cultural heritage significance include:

1907 Fabric

• location and orientation;
• lowset form, open understorey, and original brick understorey piers;
• timber-framed construction – floor, walls (including diagonal timber bracing), and roof with exposed trusses – and original exposed large metal bolt fixings;
• timber board linings – floors, single-skin, VJ timber board walls (vertical), and VJ ceilings;
• roof – broad unlined eaves, hip roof and its glazed lantern, corrugated metal roof sheets,
• single room space;
• ventilation frieze around room of round perforations in board between top plate and ceiling;
• original/early evidence of removed gymnasium equipment, including heavy timber member supported by roof trusses near eastern wall; metal hooks and equipment pulleys; and
• original (1907) timber-framed windows (centre-pivot sashes, two above two), and their original/early brass hardware.

Early alterations for improved lighting and ventilation

• addition of pair of two timber-framed casement windows to centre of southern wall (by 1942);
• 1951 addition of timber-framed windows in western wall beside and below 1907 windows (side windows match 1907 windows but with centre-pivot upper sash and casement lower sash; below windows are a row of three small fixed windows);
• 1951 addition of timber-framed casement windows and top-hung fanlights in eastern and southern walls, and their original brass hardware; and
• early overhead lights, evenly-spaced across former woodworking classrooms: metal shades, metal pipe mounts, and timber joist supports mounted within trusses (excludes later electrical cabling/additions).

Features of the Gymnasium not of state level cultural heritage significance include:

• all post-1951 fabric including: non-original understorey stumps/posts and perimeter enclosure; non-original verandah on north and east sides (roof, posts, balustrades, fascia mouldings, and raised concrete floor and ramp); non-original watergoods; non-original French doors and flat sheet infill above; non-original louvre windows in lantern; stage, stage stair, wing rooms, stage ceiling and proscenium, curtains, and modern lighting and services); non-original door at southwestern corner (later sheeted over and spandrel added); and modern services.

Trees within Grounds

Trees within the Grounds of state level cultural heritage significance include:

• six mature fig trees (Ficus sp. likely F. microcarpa) (planted prior to 1946) – three are evenly-spaced along the Stanley Street boundary, one is near the boundary corner of Stanley Street and Wellington Road, and two are along the Wellington Road boundary east of the Former Parade Ground.

Features of the Grounds not of state level cultural heritage significance include:

• all features not otherwise mentioned, including: structures; buildings; paths; shelters; vegetation; playing field; services; and all underground features.

References

[1] Department of Education and Training, ‘Opening and Closing Dates of Queensland Schools’, < education.qld.gov.au/about-us/history/school-anniversaries/opening-closing-dates>, accessed 1 July 2021; Queensland State Archives (QSA), Agency ID A5014 (accessed 1 July 2021). The official opening ceremony was on Saturday 8 July, with the first school day being Monday 10 July 1899.
[2] Public Map, Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, culturalheritage.datsip.qld.gov.au/achris/public/public-registry/home (accessed 1 July 2021).
[3] These were 'Shafston House' (QHR 600241, 1851-52); ‘Riversdale’ (c1851); and ‘Eskgrove’ (1853, QHR600187) (‘Mowbray Park and East Brisbane War Memorial’, QHR600189; ‘Eskgrove’, QHR600187; ‘Classic Cinema’ QHR 602214; Queensland Places: 'East Brisbane', queenslandplaces.com.au/east-brisbane, (accessed 8 Mar 2021)).
[4] ‘The first electric car’, Brisbane Courier, 22 June 1897, p.7; ‘Brisbane’s suburban beauties, a world of fair scenes described with pen and camera, No.XI – East Brisbane’, Brisbane Courier, 1 September 1906, p.12). From 1901 the tramway was extended through East Brisbane, to Lytton Road and Norman Creek (‘Tramway Extension Fiveways to Norman Creek’, The Telegraph, 12 March 1901, p.5; ‘Tramway extension. Open to Norman Creek’, The Telegraph, 21 January 1903, p.2). The increase in houses near the school due to the tramway extension was noted in August 1901 (QSA, Item 13955, ‘Brisbane East No.877 State School’, Administration File 1899-1900).
[5]  Department of Resources, Survey Plan B3144, 1880; Queensland Government Gazette 1885, Vol. 2, p.1940 (26 November 1885, drill shed reserve); Resources, Survey Plan B3250, 1894 (gazettal of 1895 school reserve, and cricket and sports reserve, annotated on plan); Queensland Government Gazette 1895, Volume 1, p.195 (school reserve); Documents in QSA Item 13955, ‘Brisbane East No.877 State School’, Administration File 1899-1900; East Brisbane State School Centenary 1899-1999, East Brisbane, East Brisbane SS, 1999, p.6; ‘East Brisbane State School’, The Telegraph, 13 May 1897, p.5; ‘East Brisbane State School, foundation stone laid’, Telegraph, 28 November 1898, p.3 (the foundation stone was laid 26 November 1898, by the Hon. DH Dalrymple, Minister for Education); ‘East Brisbane School officially opened, overflow of scholars’, Telegraph, 10 July 1899, p.3 (cost of whole building £1810, with another £100 for extras still needed). The 1895 school reserve replaced a larger school reserve of 2.2ha, gazetted in 1892 on Vulture Street, to the west of the 0.8ha drill shed reserve (Resources, Survey Plan B3200, 1886 (shows the 1892 school reserve); Queensland Government Gazette, 1892, Volume 3, p.343).
[6] ‘East Brisbane State School, foundation stone laid’, Telegraph, 28 November 1898, p.3 (claims main rooms 50ft by 20ft); ‘New School at East Brisbane, laying the foundation stone’, Brisbane Courier, 28 November 1898, p.5 (claimed main rooms 50ft by 25ft); ‘East Brisbane School officially opened, overflow of scholars’, Telegraph, 10 July 1899, p.3; ‘Annual report of the Department of Public Works for the year 1900-1901’, p.4. In its 28 November 1898 article the Telegraph stated that the height of the school above the ground was 7ft (2.1m); but the 10 July 1899 Telegraph article states 10ft (3m). Early drawings show that a third wing with another large classroom was initially planned, which would have made the building a symmetrical U-shape (DPW plan dated 17 September 1898, in QSA Item 13955, ‘Brisbane East No.877 State School’, Administration File 1899-1900).
[7] Department of Public Works Plan 101-11-7/4, ‘Additions to State School East Brisbane’, 27 January 1900 (toilets shown as existing buildings).
[8] ‘East Brisbane School officially opened, overflow of scholars’, Telegraph, 10 July 1899, p.3 (580 names by 8 July ceremony); ‘825 booked this morning’, The Telegraph, 12 July 1899, p.7; ‘East Brisbane State School, state school overcrowding’, Telegraph, 22 July 1899, p.9 (now 840 enrolled); East Brisbane State School Centenary 1899-1999, p.7 (799 by end of day, 10 July 1899). An October 1912 memo notes that enrolment for 1899 was 1008, with an average attendance of 711 (QSA Item 13956, ‘Brisbane East No.877 State School’, Administration File, 1901-1930). Students were drawn from other schools at Kangaroo Point, Coorparoo, Woolloongabba, Junction Park, South Brisbane, and private schools.
[9] QSA Item 13955, ‘Brisbane East No.877 State School’, Administration File 1899-1900; East Brisbane State School Centenary 1899-1999, p.6.
[10] ‘Annual report of the Department of Public Works for the year 1900-1901’, p.4.
[11] ‘East Brisbane State school additions’, Brisbane Courier, 15 October 1900, p.4 (opening); ‘East Brisbane School’, The Telegraph, 15 October 1900, p.4 (total cost; the community had already paid £500 of its £700 one-sixth share of the total); ‘Annual report of the Department of Public Works for the year 1900-1901’, p.4 (This report put the cost of the extensions as £2323. The capacity of 730 included the 4 main classrooms, plus three ‘small classrooms’ (location of latter unknown)); Memo, 4 October 1912, in QSA Item 13956, ‘Brisbane East No.877 State School’, Administration File, 1901-1930 (enrolments in 1900). A parade ground was a flat outdoor area for student assembly and address, usually by the head teacher (principal), and an important element in the operation of early Queensland schools. Contemporary photographs of the school show the building standing in flat, tree-less grounds surrounded by a white picket fence, with a tall flagpole standing near the front entrance from Wellington Road (‘Annual report of the Department of Public Works for the year 1900-1901’, photograph ‘Plate No. 10’ at end of the year’s report).
[12] After East Brisbane, more Urban Brick Schools were built, including Norman Park State School (1900, QHR 650042), New Farm State School (1901, QHR 650043), Toowoomba South Girls and Infants State School (1906, demolished c2005), and Hamilton State School (1907, QHR 650088). Compared to standard state school buildings of the time, Urban Brick Schools had a grander character and greater landmark attributes.
[13] The Department of Public Instruction had handled school design and construction between 1879 and 1893, following which responsibility was returned to the Government Architect's office in the Department of Public Works. During the 30 years they worked together in the DPW, Alfred Barton Brady (Government Architect, 1892-1922) and his Senior Assistant, Thomas Pye, assembled a talented group of architects and draftsmen.
[14] Paul Burmester, Margaret Pullar and Michael Kennedy, ‘Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, a report for the Department of Education’, 1996, pp.19, 103; QSA, Item ID 13693, Deputy Govt Architect, ‘Preliminary Estimate of Modified Plan – New State School Ascot’, 9 May 1919. By the later years of the 1900s, window sizes increased, and sill heights were lowered, to provide even greater natural lighting and ventilation (Burmester et al, ‘Queensland Schools: A Heritage Conservation Study’, p.19; New Farm State School extension in 1909 shows the larger windows with lower sills had been introduced to the type in ‘Annual report of the Department of Public Works for the year 1909-1910’).
[15] “East Brisbane State School’, The Brisbane Courier, 8 December 1905, p.3. This honour board was a large, clear-finished board with a lower panel of plaster relief showing an agrarian scene of labour.
[16] Resources, Survey Plan B3364, 1903 (School Reserve R.715 (allotment 2), plus R.910 School Reserve extension (allotment 3)); Queensland Government Gazette 1904, Vol 1, p.1628; QSA Item 13955, ‘Brisbane East No.877 State School’, Administration File 1899-1900. The drill shed and its cottage were moved further north within their remaining reserve, from allotment 3, to the southwest edge of allotment 4 (plan of school grounds, no date, c1900-1906 (pre-playsheds), in Site File, QHR 601476 (1994).
[17] QSA Item 13956, ‘Brisbane East No.877 State School’, Administration File, 1901-1930. In 1911 it was noted that trees had been planted at the school, and a brick wall had been constructed, in the previous three years (‘East Brisbane State School’, Brisbane Courier 28 January 1911, p.15). There were mature trees along Stanley Street, southeast of the gymnasium, and on Wellington Road in Front of Block A, by 1946, and some of these trees are still extant in 2023 (Resources, aerial photograph BCC000234686, 31 May 1946).
[18] Burmester et al, ‘Queensland Schools: A Heritage Conservation Study’, p.79 (gymnasiums requested at Queensland State high schools after World War II). Numerous newspaper articles of the late 19th and early 20th century refer to fundraising efforts by schools to provide gymnasiums, swimming pools, or tennis courts, amongst other facilities. Other than the gymnasium at East Brisbane, a 1930s gymnasium, originally partially-enclosed but since enclosed, survives at Gympie State High School [QHR 650064]. Early gymnasium buildings (non-state school) also survive at The Southport School (1931, later converted to a café), and at Maryborough State High School (1880s. When it was built, the school was Maryborough Boys' Grammar School, QHR 600697, not a state school).
[19] In September 1905 the DPI forwarded plans (signed by Thomas Pye) to the committee for a gymnasium, 60ft by 30ft (18.3m by 9.1m) with an asphalt floor, partial height timber walls and a hipped roof with a lantern. However, the committee was not willing to pay half the estimated cost of £240. Tenders were instead called in March 1906 for an open playshed, which was built for £166. By 16 November 1906 it was decided that ‘school discipline demands that present shed be used only by the girls’ – therefore another playshed was required for the boys. As a result, new plans, for a fully enclosed gymnasium, were drawn in July 1907. A tender from W Reid for £397 was accepted in October 1907, the same month the school held two concerts at the South Brisbane Technical College Hall [QHR 600302] to raise funds for the gymnasium. (QSA Item 13956, ‘Brisbane East No.877 State School’, Administration File, 1901-1930; East Brisbane State School Centenary 1899-1999, p.24 (fund raising 1907); ‘New playshed [the gymnasium], East Brisbane State school’, The Telegraph, 21 October 1907, p.11; ‘Annual report of the Department of Public Works for the year 1906-1907’, p.19 (expenditure on (girl’s) ‘playshed and furniture’ £250/16/3); ‘Annual report of the Department of Public Works for the year 1907-1908’, pp.11, 20 (expenditure on playshed [gymnasium] and furniture £419/17/0) ‘East Brisbane State School’, The Telegraph, 14 February 1908, p.7 (playshed and gymnasium have been erected, cost of each). A photograph of ‘the playshed for girls’ is shown in the Department of Public Works report for the year 1907-08, even though this playshed was built in the 1906-07 year – the photo shows a hipped-roofed shed, part-enclosed with iron sheets on its south side, with a timber bench seat along its south, west, and north sides.
[20] DPW plan ‘East Brisbane State School plan of proposed playshed’, 10 July 1907 (signed by Thomas Pye), in QSA Item 13956, ‘Brisbane East No.877 State School’, Administration File, 1901-1930; DPW Plan 101-11-7/18 ‘Plans of new playshed at the East Brisbane State School’, 1907, in Peter Marquis-Kyle, ‘East Brisbane State School Conservation Study, a report prepared for Project Services on behalf of Education Queensland’. 1998, p.9 (appears to show rows of desks in the southern half of the building); ‘East Brisbane State School’, The Brisbane Courier, 24 June 1909, p.3 (limelight lecture given in gymnasium by Captain [Moreton Regiment] CES Fryer); ‘Social’, The Brisbane Courier, 30 September 1912, p.9 (meeting of Garden Fete Committee of the East Brisbane State School, in gymnasium); ‘East Brisbane State School’, The Brisbane Courier, 13 March 1926, p.22 (Meeting of parents and guardians in gymnasium). According to one former student of the school, the gymnasium had [in 1999] evidence of ‘Roman rings’ on its ceiling (East Brisbane State School Centenary 1899-1999, p.72).
[21] Each year at the school’s breakup day during the war, head teacher Colonel WH Halstead would state to the very large audiences of parents and students, that there had been a ‘hearty response of the parents to appeals for funds for patriotic and charitable purposes’. In 1918, Col. Halstead announced ‘200 lads belonging to the school [old boys] had volunteered [to fight at the Front] during the war’ (‘Prize Distributions’, Daily Standard, 14 December 1914, p.3; ‘East Brisbane State School’, The Brisbane Courier, 14 December 1914, p.9; ‘Midsummer Vacation’, The Brisbane Courier, 14 December 1915, p.9; ‘East Brisbane State School’, The Brisbane Courier, 17 December 1917, p.4; ‘East Brisbane State School’, The Brisbane Courier, 13 December 1918, p.10).
[22] QSA Item 13956, ‘Brisbane East No.877 State School’, Administration File, 1901-1930. A July 1910 letter from the Secretary of the School Committee to the Under Secretary of the DPI noted that the gymnasium was recently fitted with gymnastic apparatus. In 1910, the Australasian United Steam Navigation Co. Pty Ltd gave the school the bell of the SS Melbourne. This still hangs in the bell tower but is no longer used to summon pupils to class (‘School steeped in historical richness’, South East Advertiser, 12 June 1991. Article in file notes from Education History Unit, for East Brisbane State School; recorded in Site File, QHR601476 (1994)).
[23] Photograph viewed at http://kangaroopointhistory.com.au/photo-gallery/schools/east-brisbane-state-school/, accessed 05 June 2023. The photograph dates to between 1910 and 1921.
[24] Photograph viewed at http://kangaroopointhistory.com.au/photo-gallery/schools/east-brisbane-state-school/, accessed 05 June 2023.
[25] QSA Item 13955, ‘Brisbane East No.877 State School’, Administration File 1899-1900.
[26] ‘East Brisbane School’, The Week, 22 December 1922, p.6.
[27] In May 1934, six classes were being taught on the verandahs, with three scholarship classes in the gymnasium; and in June 1934 the enrolment was 948, with an average attendance of 801 students (QSA Item 13957, ‘Brisbane East No.877 State School’, Administration File, 1929-54).
[28] Burmester et al, ‘Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, a report for the Department of Education’, pp.21, 43.
[29] The original 1899-1900 iron-framed roof of the singe-storey central wing was raised and re-used for its roof in its two-storey form (DPW Plan barcode 15485943, ‘East Brisbane State School Additional Storey to Entrance Block’, 1938). The rooftop ventilators on all wings were removed at this time.  
[30] DPW Plan, barcode 15485910, ‘East Brisbane State School remodelling & lav. blocks & sewerage install.’1927; QSA Item 13957, ‘Brisbane East No.877 State School’, Administration File, 1929-54 (16 December 1937 correspondence); ‘Report of the Department of Public Works for the year ended 30th June 1938’, p.6; ‘Report of the Department of Public Works for the year ended 30th June 1939’, p.12; ‘Opening school additions, East Brisbane Block’, Courier Mail, 26 September 1939, p.2.
[31] DPW Plan barcode 15485932, ‘East Brisbane State School additional storey central block’, (Basement plan) June 1938; DPW Plan barcode 15485943, ‘East Brisbane State School additional storey to central block’, (‘First floor’, actually second floor) June 1938; The Telegraph, 27 September 1939, p.8 (photograph shows new teachers’ rooms, and stairs, on west side of central block); QSA Item 1140004, photograph ‘East Brisbane State School, additional story [sic] to central block’, Agriculture and Stock Department, Publicity Branch, June 1940 (new concrete stairs from wings to quadrangle); East Brisbane State School Centenary 1899-1999, p.48 (before and after photographs of Block A).
[32] ‘Opening school additions, East Brisbane Block’, Courier Mail, 26 September 1939, p.2 (claimed a cost of nearly £15,000); ‘Joy Thompson – “Queen of the school”’, Western Star and Roma Advertiser, 4 October 1939, p.4 (claimed a cost of £13,000).
[33] QSA Item 1140004, photograph ‘East Brisbane State School, additional story [sic] to central block’, Agriculture and Stock Department, Publicity Branch, June 1940. It is unclear if the area in front of the school building was still used as a parade ground at this time.
[34] R Wood, 'Civil Defence in Queensland During World War II', Brisbane, Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, Vol. 15, Issue 2, 1993, p.79; ‘All coastal schools shut until change seen in war’, Courier Mail, 28 January 1942, p.3; ‘Schools reopen; some await shelter survey’, The Courier Mail, 2 March 1942, p.3.
[35] East Brisbane State School Centenary 1899-1999, pp.78, 79, 87 (‘application for gas supply to gymnasium made available for the use of military trainees army division – armoured division’, ‘army clerks moved gymnasium occupied by carpentry course’, and army clerks also required ‘lights to be added to Rooms 15 & 16’ which were probably in Block A). An August 1942 DPW plan of the gymnasium shows alterations to accommodate typists by changing some southern window sashes to casements and dividing the large space into three rooms with two part-height partitions, but it is unknown whether these alterations occurred as later plans do not show these changes and still show the perimeter gymnasium seat (DPW Plan 93-3-3 ‘East Brisbane State School, alterations to playshed to accommodate typists’, 10 August 1942; Marquis-Kyle, ‘East Brisbane State School Conservation Study’, p.9).
[36] East Brisbane State School Centenary 1899-1999, pp.57, 59 (unused rooms); ‘Buranda State School’, QHR650045 (suburbanisation trend).
[37] Resources, aerial photographs BCC000234686, 31 May 1946, and SVY05725045 28 June 1949.
[38] East Brisbane State School Centenary 1899-1999, p.57, 61; Queensland Government Gazette 3 September 1949, p.992 (school obtains remaining drill shed reserve: 1 acre, 1 rood and 33p (0.6ha), Allotment 4 (R.1587, in Survey Plan B3364)); National Archives of Australia item 3280720, ‘East Brisbane - Drill Hall [plan number 1/W/49]’,1945 (additional military buildings were added to the drill hall reserve during WWII); Resources, aerial photographs BCC000539368, 23 August 1951 (the WWII buildings had been removed, but the older drill shed and cottage were still present), and QAP1074033, 9 October 1960 (drill shed and cottage removed).
[39] East Brisbane State School Centenary 1899-1999, p.101. The Infants School building and girls playshed are no longer present in a site plan within DPW Plan barcode 15485899, ‘East Brisbane State School remodelling gymnasium for woodwork classes’, October 1950. The Infant’s school building was sent to the Mount Gravatt State School.
[40] ‘£8685 School Improvements’, Brisbane Telegraph, 21 September 1950, p.12; ‘New School Buildings’, (with photograph) Brisbane Telegraph, 5 Oct 1951, p.8; ‘Report of the Department of Public Works for the year ended 30th June 1951, p.14. For a list of the primary schools which contributed both manual training and domestic science students, see East Brisbane State School Centenary 1899-1999, p.66.
[41] DPW Plan barcode 15485899, ‘East Brisbane State School remodelling gymnasium for woodwork classes’, October 1950; Marquis-Kyle, East Brisbane State School Conservation Study’ p.10. As early as 1936, the school had applied to establish manual training classes, and had suggested conversion of the gymnasium for that purpose, noting ‘the school is situated in the centre of an industrial area and classes in manual training would be of great benefit’ (QSA Item 13956, ‘Brisbane East No.877 State School’, Administration File, 1901-1930). The gymnasium was noted as accommodating a ‘carpentry course’ by 1942 (East Brisbane State School Centenary 1899-1999, p.87).
[42] DPW plan barcode 15485921, ‘East Brisbane SS addtns, storm water drainage’, January 1955; Resources, aerials QAP1074033, 9 October 1960 (swimming pool under construction; young trees on former drill shed reserve), QAP1535147, 8 May 1966 (pool seating and dressing shed present), and QAP1880101, 16 April 1969 (high-set ‘Block C’ present); DPW Plan barcode 15485888, ‘East Brisbane SS additions’, March 1968 (‘Block C’); DPW Plan barcode 11828091, ‘East Brisbane State School new toilet Block’, 1972; Marquis-Kyle, ‘East Brisbane State School Conservation Study’, pp.11 (Block B; a type F/T4 variant), and p.12 (high-set Block C; adapted in the mid-1970s to have a library underneath); East Brisbane State School Centenary 1899-1999, pp.80 (tender accepted for pool, November 1959) and p.91 (tender for new toilet block accepted January 1973).
[43] The light tower, completed by September 1995, was located behind the highset timber classroom building (letter from the Minister of Education to the Queensland Heritage Council, received 13 September 1995, Heritage Unit, hardcopy file for 601476, Part 1 (completion); Resources, aerial photograph QAP5487249, 4 September 1997). Plans existed in 1992 to turn Block A into a sports museum and the sports oval into a parking area (East Brisbane State School Centenary 1899-1999, p.100). In exchange for the lease, the school received a number of Moreton Bay fig trees relocated from the cricket grounds into the school grounds to make room to construct the eastern stand. The fig trees were relocated to north of the 1973 toilet block by 1994 (DPW Plan ‘East Brisbane State school landscape treatment below relocated fig trees’, Plan barcode 10615726, 1993; Resources, aerial photographs QAP4951022, 14 June 1991, QAP5334027, 7 November 1994, and QAP5487249, 4 September 1997). However, they were removed by 2001 to make room for construction of the overhanging eastern stand extension (Resources, aerial photograph QAP5919039, 16 June 2001).
[44] ‘School celebrates ‘huge win’ against Gabba Trust’, South East Advertiser, 17 December 1997 (in Site File 601476); East Brisbane State School Centenary 1899-1999, p.100.
[45] DPW Plan barcode 11426272, ‘East Brisbane State School cricket ground extension contour & detail survey’, September 1997; DPW Plan barcode 19121014, ‘East Brisbane State School redevelopment Project Site plan Ground Zone A Southern’, December 1998; Resources, aerial photographs QAP5487249, 4 September 1997 (old buildings and tennis courts still present), and QAP5919039, 16 June 2001 (new eastern stand and school buildings); DPW Plan ‘East Brisbane State School Building the Education Revolution’, 2010. An area at the northwest corner of the school grounds has also been excised from the grounds for use by the Gabba, but not re-subdivided (DPW Drawing 20877/A01.1A_12_20, ‘Easy Brisbane State school architectural record site plan’, September 2020).
[46] DPW Plan barcode 11828124, ‘East Brisbane State school fire escape stairs’, April 1961; DPW Plan barcode 11828762, ‘East Brisbane S.S. new administration Block A’ March 1974; DPW Plan barcode 11828157, ‘East Brisbane SS improved administration’, October 1975; DPW Plan Barcode 11828135, ‘East Brisbane State School improvements to covered play area’, 1975; DPW Plan Barcode 10593264, ‘East Brisbane S.S. staged redevelopment plan, August 1981 (still six classrooms, on first and second floors of central block); East Brisbane State School Centenary 1899-1999, p.89 (tuckshop by 1960).
[47] DPW Plan barcode 11524590, ‘East Brisbane State School, school grounds improvements and stormwater drainage plan and sections’, 16 October 1972 (notes the courtyard had a bitumen surface and also that the area behind (west of) Block A and north of Block C (then called Block D) had a bitumen surface and was the school’s parade ground);  DPW Plan barcode 10593209, ‘East Brisbane State School upgrading of existing classrooms’, November 1984 (verandah enclosures; no steel fire stairs present, west elevation); DPW Plan, drawing 877/2063A-1, ‘East Brisbane State School upgrading of existing classrooms’, November 1984, in Site File 601476 (first floor plan, 1939 partitions removed); DPW Plan barcode 11320265, ‘East Brisbane State School remodel for new remedial room, Block A’, January 1986 (steel fire stairs present); East Brisbane State School Centenary 1899-1999, p.101 (forecourt redesign). Enclosures of Block A’s verandahs occurred as early as the 1930s, were removed in the 1939 remodelling, and were gradually enclosed again over time. Most occurred in the 1980s. The c1999 memorial plaque on the curved entrance wall stated the work was ‘presented to the school by the Hon. the Minister for Education [Dean Wells, MP] to commemorate its centenary of service to the community’.
[48] DPW Plan barcode 10593264, ‘East Brisbane S. S. Staged Re-development Scheme’, August 1981 (‘Activity Hall’ labelled); DPW Plan barcode 11426272, ‘East Brisbane State School cricket ground extension contour & detail survey’, September 1997 (northern verandah present).
[49] P&C activity information from https://eastbrisbaness.eq.edu.au/OurCommunity/Pandc accessed 6 June 2023; 1960s establishment date for P&C East Brisbane State School Centenary 1899-1999, p.89.
[50] ‘School Fete at East Brisbane’, Daily Standard, 5 Dec 1927, p.2; ‘Breaking up ball’, The Courier Mail, 14 December 1934, p.23; ‘All Nations Fair’, The Courier-Mail, 9 Dec 1935, p.20; ‘Joy Thompson – “Queen of the School”’, Western Star and Roma Advertiser, 4 Oct 1939, p.4; ‘Truth to Tell’, Truth, 2 Oct 1949, p.9 (50th anniversary); ‘Woman’s interest’, Brisbane Telegraph, 25 October 1950, p.25 (400 students to attend fancy dress ball at City Hall); ME Deere, 1998, A broken arc: recollections of East Brisbane and East Brisbane State School from the 'twenties', Redcliffe, Qld, ME Deere; East Brisbane State School Centenary 1899-1999, pp.72, 74 (SS Koopa).
[51] ‘What will happen with the Gabba's sporting events and East Brisbane State School during Olympics redevelopment?’, ABC News, 17 February 2023, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-17/gabba-rebuild-east-brisbane-school-cricket-lions-olympics/101989796 (accessed 22 June 2023).
[52] In 2023, the school retains seven mature fig trees on the school boundaries. Of these, six were planted by 1946 (Resources, aerial photograph BCC000234686, 31 May 1946), and the remaining one tree near the corner of Wellington Road and Vulture Street was planted between 1951 and 1960 (Resources, aerial photographs BCC000539368, 23 August 1951, and QAP1074033, 9 October 1960).

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