Baroona Special School is a heritage-listed state school at 1 Hale Street, Petrie Terrace, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1868 to 1921. It is also known as Baroona Opportunity School, Petrie Terrace Opportunity School, and Petrie Terrace School. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
History
The Baroona Special School comprises a number of buildings, including two brick buildings, one of which was opened in March 1868 as the Petrie Terrace School, whilst the second building was erected in 1874 as the new Petrie Terrace Girls and Infants School.
Petrie Terrace developed as a working class suburb of Brisbane during the 1860s. Brisbane Gaol was built on the main road into town in 1860, and military barracks were erected in 1864. This site on which the school is located was reserved for educational purposes in the early 1860s.
The Education Act of 1860 established a Board of General Education and provided for a system of government-subsidised primary school, similar to the system then operating in New South Wales. Under the Queensland Act, communities were required to contribute one-third of the cost of construction of new school buildings. Pupils at schools were also subject to payment of fees. At its commencement in 1860, the Board acquired four schools; 73 schools had been opened by 1868, and by 1874, 203 schools were open.
State primary school
By the mid 1860s a school was needed in the rapidly growing Petrie Terrace area, and efforts commenced to raise the necessary funds. The long rectangular classroom with end porches and teachers room was erected in 1867 at a cost of around . The classroom was designed to accommodate 150 pupils, with separate "departments" for male and female students. Just over 300 students were enrolled at Petrie Terrace School by the end of 1868, although the average attendance for that year was 157 pupils.
The building was designed by architect Richard George Suter, who was working in Brisbane by 1865 when he was employed by Benjamin Backhouse. In 1864 Backhouse had prepared a model plan for the Queensland Board of Education, to be used for country schools. Whilst employed in Backhouse's office Suter prepared designs for school buildings, which later lead to the Board commissioning Suter for the design of timber schools and teacher's residences. From the end of 1868 until 1875, Suter undertook almost all of the Board's work which involved approximately 30 National Schools including schools in centres such as Toowoomba, Warwick, Gympie, Rockhampton, Townsville, Roma and Bundaberg as well as the Brisbane area.
An inspection of the school in November 1873 reported that the school was crowded, and that as the district continued to increase in population at least double the classroom accommodation would be required. It is also likely that the introduction in 1870 of free education in Queensland stimulated the growth of the school. The report further noted that it was really a very fine school.
Drawings for a new building were prepared by Suter by January 1874. The tender price for the new building was , and included separate rooms for the female students and the "infants". Although officially opened in January 1875, the new building was occupied from late 1874, and known as the Petrie Terrace Girls and Infants School.
Suter designed the new building to be somewhat in character with the present school. A feature of Suter's work was his utilisation of the materials, as used in construction, to provide ornamentation of the building, whilst working within the strict budget set by the Board. The 1867 and 1875 buildings demonstrated Suter's characteristic use of the Gothic Revival Style and showed a progression in the design of window openings and the use of corbel ornamentation of the walls and gables in an attempt to surmount the innate vulgarity of bricks and hardwood.
The headmaster of the Petrie Terrace School (Boys and Girls/Infants) from 1868 to 1898 was John Bowden Fewings, a gentleman and scholar. In 1892 Fewings wrote a collection of letters, (published in 1990 as JB Fewings Memoirs of Toowong) which provide a useful source of information on the development of Toowong and its inhabitants. Petrie Terrace School became well known for its many scholarship successes with many students becoming prominent Brisbane identities.