Rainworth State School is a heritage-listed state school at 185 Boundary Road, Bardon, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1929 to 1930. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 August 2019.
History
Rainworth State School, which opened in July 1928, is located in the residential suburb of Bardon, approximately 4.2 km west of Brisbane's central business district. The school demonstrates the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. It retains the first stage of a Depression-era brick school building (1934) and a retaining wall with stairs (1933), set in landscaped grounds with play areas and sporting facilities. The school has a strong and ongoing association with the past and present community of Rainworth (a neighbourhood within the suburb of Bardon) and its surrounding suburbs.
The school site is located within the traditional lands of the Turrbal people. Originally called Upper Paddington, Bardon was surveyed in 1862, sold as country lots in the same year, and became gentlemen's estates and farms. The future school site was purchased by Brisbane merchant, George Harris, in 1862 as part of an almost 54-acre (21.9ha) landholding. Residential subdivision of the Bardon area began during the 1880s, but progressed slowly until after World War I. The Rainworth Estate, part of Sir Augustus Charles Gregory's former "Rainworth" property, from which the locality of Rainworth derives its name, was subdivided and quickly sold in 1925.
With residential development came the need for a school. The Department of Public Instruction purchased two adjacent, elevated, well-drained allotments, comprising seven acres and 33 perches (2.868ha), for a school site in December 1925, at a cost of £1008 17s 6d. In July 1926, it was agreed that a school would be established. Prior to the school's opening, local residents began clearing the school grounds.
Rainworth State School opened on 2 July 1928, with 253 students and five teachers. The new school was intended to relieve overcrowding at schools in surrounding areas and to serve the Rainworth, Rosehill and Soudan suburban estates, and parts of Birdwood Terrace, Upper Paddington, and Bardon. It comprised two high-set timber sectional buildings (now called Blocks A and B) connected by a northern verandah. The buildings, of the most commonly constructed standard type at this time, comprised eight classrooms, each accommodating 40 students. The building cost about £5374. By December 1928, 317 children were enrolled.
Easier access to the school for pupils and those attending functions, resulted from the opening of an extension of the tram line from Rosalie to the Rainworth Estate on 11 October 1930, terminating on Boundary Road near the western boundary of the school. Enrolments at Rainworth State School reached 415 pupils in October 1931.
The Great Depression, commencing in 1929 and extending well into the 1930s, caused a dramatic reduction of public building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. In response, the Queensland Government provided relief work for unemployed Queenslanders, and also embarked on an ambitious and important building program to provide impetus to the economy.
Even before the October 1929 stock market crash, the Queensland Government initiated an Unemployment Relief Scheme, through a work program administered by the Department of Public Works (DPW). This included painting and repairs to school buildings. Extensive funding was given for improvements to school grounds, including fencing and levelling ground for play areas, involving terracing and retaining walls. This work created many large school playing fields, which, prior to this period, were mostly cleared of trees but not landscaped. These play areas became a standard inclusion within Queensland state schools and a characteristic element. Under this scheme, men were undertaking grounds improvement works to 20 schools in the metropolitan area, including Rainworth State School, in the 1929-30 financial year.
In June 1932, the Forgan Smith Labor Government came to power from a campaign advocating increased government spending to counter the effects of the Depression. The government embarked on a large public building program designed to promote the employment of local skilled workers, the purchase of local building materials and the production of commodious, low maintenance buildings which would be a long-term asset to the state. The construction of substantial brick school buildings in prosperous or growing suburban areas and regional centres during the 1930s provided tangible proof of the government's commitment to remedy the unemployment situation.