Redland Bay State School

Within the campus of the Redland Bay State School in Gordon Road, is the original 1885 timber school residence. The contractor was Patrick Horisk, a member of Cleveland Divisional Board, who was also responsible for the erection of the playshed at Cleveland State School in 1883, and other buildings in the district, including ‘Whepstead’ at Wellington Point in 1889. The first Redland Bay School was established at Point Halloran in 1877 and was run jointly with the Mount Cotton School to service the entire district. In 1881 a school operated from William Dart’s house in Redland Bay. Dart had just arrived from Brisbane, where he had a sugar mill on the river at St Lucia located where the University boat sheds now stand. He purchased Richard Newton’s Redland Bay sugar mill, and sold some of his land for the school. At that time, apart from sugar production, Redland Bay produced fruit crops, particularly bananas, oranges and other citrus and pineapples. A number of small alterations were undertaken to the schoolhouse over time. The building ceased to be used as a residence in 1993, subsequently used by the school for storage and teaching areas.