Maryborough Central State School is a heritage-listed state school at 471 Kent Street, Maryborough, Fraser Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1875 to 1953. It is also known as Central State School for Boys, Central State School for Girls, and Central State School for Infants. It was the first state school in Maryborough and was established with separate girls and boys departments. It is the oldest public school in Queensland. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 31 October 1994.
History
The first state school at Maryborough was established in 1862 in a small building at the northeast corner of Kent and Lennox Streets (on the site that is now known as the Maryborough School of Arts building). In the first week, 35 scholars attended the primary school on Tuesday morning when the school first opened. The number was growing quickly, and by then a good school was rapidly being established.
In 1865 the school shifted to a purpose-built schoolhouse at the corner of Alice and Lennox Streets. Despite an additional wing being erected in 1872, the Alice Street premises proved too small to cater for Maryborough's burgeoning population, and the school was moved yet again to the present Kent Street premises in 1877.
Maryborough Central State School has a number of historically significant buildings. Block C, a two-storeyed masonry building, was erected in 1875-1876, initially as an immigration depot, and was converted for school use in mid-1877. The adjacent single-storeyed timber infants' school (Block A) was erected in 1881-1882, as was the teacher's residence on the far side of the school reserve, fronting Sussex Street. Two of the three timber-framed playsheds were erected in 1879, the other in 1909, and the two-storeyed masonry building (Block B) behind the infants' school, was erected in 1923-24 as a technical college workshop.
Block C
The Maryborough Central State School site initially was acquired by the colonial government as a reserve for immigration purposes, and the first building on the site (now Block C) was erected as an immigration depot. In 1874 the Queensland Colonial Architect's office, headed by FDG Stanley, prepared plans for a new immigration building at Maryborough, in response to increased direct immigration to the Port of Maryborough. The building was to accommodate on the ground floor, wards for single men, 2 storerooms, a visitors' room and warders' quarters, and on the first floor, wards for married couples and single women. To each ward was attached a kitchen, lavatory, bath room and earth closets. Tenders were called in December 1874, and the contract was let in early March 1875 to Maryborough builder John T Annear, who tendered with a price of , and a time of 10 months.
The immigration building had been completed by early April 1876, and the colonial architect recommended that a wardsman occupy the building at once. This action was approved, but it is not clear whether immigrants were ever housed at the new barracks. The principal obstacle to occupation was the lack of water storage. The Maryborough Chronicle of 4 April 1876, in describing the new immigration building, commented:Now that the buildings are completed they are perfectly useless until supplied with tanks for water. For this purpose there is no money available, and the building must remain untenanted until the necessary money is granted by the Government.Whilst funding was made available for fencing and gates in 1876, a contract for two large brick underground tanks, each deep by in diameter, was not let until March 1877. In the meantime, the colonial secretary had been approached with an alternative proposal for the use of the site.
By December 1876, the Department of Public Instruction was investigating the possibility of exchanging the Maryborough primary school premises in Alice Street for the new immigration building, proposing to convert the immigration barracks into state schools (boys and combined girls and infants), and to convert the former school buildings, which comprised a two-storeyed brick building, a single-storeyed timber building and two playsheds, into an immigration depot. Although a new school reserve had been gazetted in October 1876 - bounded by Kent, Sussex, Ferry and Fort Streets and adjacent to the new immigration reserve - acute overcrowding, particularly in the infant classes, at the Alice Street school prompted more direct action. In February 1877, Executive Council passed the proposal to exchange the existing school buildings for the new immigration premises, with the cost of fitting up the school buildings as an immigration depot to be met by the Department of Public Instruction.