Camp Hill Fair 2.79

The Camp Hill State School History

The Mt Bruce State School (now Camp Hill State & Infants School) was completed on 23rd June 1926 at a cost of 2 023 pounds. It contained three classrooms (each 21 feet by 18 feet), a verandah and a teachers’ room. Two 1 000 gallon tanks were situated one either end of the building with hat and cloak rooms located under the school. Toilets (thunder boxes/outdoor dunnies) were also provided at a distance from the school buildings as photographs show. There was a short delay waiting for desks and forms (the long stools that children sat on) so the school did not actually open until Thursday, 1st July.

At 9.30am on that day the first school bell was rung. By this time eleven pupils had been enrolled. During the day more pupils arrived so that by the end of the first day fifty pupils were now on the roll. Four more desks and forms as well as another blackboard were needed to cater for extra enrollments by July 23rd. The first day teaching staff consisted of Mr Robert L Morrison (Head Teacher), and two assistant teachers – Miss Margaret Smith and Miss Evelyn Harvey. Another teacher, Miss Eva French, was appointed on 16th August with this class being taught in the teachers’ room as enrolments had reached 130 by 15th July.

One of the first working bees at the school cleared the school grounds of stumps and saved the $40 (twenty pounds) raised for this purpose. This paved the way for the future development of our sports grounds. By December 14th 1926 fencing around the school grounds was completed as swagmen had been taking advantage of the ease of access to the school, using the conveniences and camping on the school verandah.

It is interesting to note some of the recollections from those early pupils. Girls remember having their plaits tied to the slate racks by the boys and both boys and girls receiving ‘the cuts’ (a hit from a bamboo cane onto the hands) from some teachers.

Apparently Thomson’s Shop (Kid’s Corner) was a favourite place for buying broken biscuits and a large quantity could be purchased for threepence (about 2cents). For the school fete one of the parents would take a horse and sulky to South Brisbane to cadge a bag (quite large) of flour and anything else she could obtain from the retailers on the way. Miss Smith, the teacher, would help make sweets at the house of one of the parent’s. The daughter of the house (a school student) would take the sugar home in a hand cart but was never allowed to take the sweets back to school!

The fetes themselves were something to remember with the usual cake and sweet stalls but also the hand-made arts and crafts with goods like fancy work and aprons. The favourite item though was The Greasy Pig Event where a pig that had been oiled or greased all over was let loose and had to be caught.

In June 1930 the Camp Hill Progress Association who held their meetings at the school wrote to the School Committee suggesting a name change for the school from Mt Bruce to the more popular Camp Hill. They claimed the name, Mt Bruce, was misleading as the local post office, churches, police station and even the trams carried the name, Camp Hill – the name commonly given to the area. The Progress Association itself had recently changed its name from Mt Bruce to Camp Hill for the above reasons. There were no objections and on May 6th 1931 the Director of Education approved the name change to Camp Hill.

This same Progress Association had the School of Arts established. It was opened on Saturday, 9th March 1940 on a half acre of the school grounds and doubled as school rooms for two infants classes when overcrowding again became a problem in 1946.

Past pupils who attended our school in the 1930s recall riding to and from school on horses which were tied up behind the then tennis courts - now the Ferguson Road car park. Later still, during the war years, other past pupils recall wearing identification tags around their necks and practising air-raid drills. The boys had dug the trenches on the oval (an unenviable task knowing the nature of the ground). A ‘captain’ aged about ten years or so was appointed to be in charge of a particular trench. He had the responsibility of leading 6 -8 smaller children to the trench and making them crouch in it for some time. Despite the seriousness behind these activities the children thought the air-raid drills rather fun.

By 24th September 1945 the school consisted of two wings of three classrooms and one wing of five rooms. The grounds had been levelled for an oval approximately 180 yards by 180 yards and top dressed. A basketball (netball) court had been formed. The tennis court had been reformed with drainage added and lights were included in the school buildings.

In February the following year another wing with three classrooms was approved but by March severe overcrowding meant there were four classes without rooms. One class was taught on a verandah and the other three had lessons under the buildings. Army huts were brought in to ease the overcrowding and three western verandahs were weather-proofed against severe draughts. By December 1949 four more classrooms were added.A separate Infants’ School was opened in 1951 (just across the oval) but it did little to put a dent in the growing number of enrolments and the need for more classrooms. By December 1952 three more classrooms were added and by 1957 another twelve temporary and nine permanent classrooms were needed to house the 1 753 pupils now attending Camp Hill.

The school’s frontage to Old Cleveland Road was levelled in 1960 and a concrete wall topped by a chain wire fence was constructed by the Works Department. May 1960 also saw the official establishment of the Swimming Pool Fund with a donation of $1 000 from the P&C Association. The ultimate goal was to raise $18 000 in three years. As far back as 1934 enquiries had been made into the feasibility of building a swimming pool. Envelopes had been sent home with the eldest asking for donations even during World War II while past pupils recalled erratic and not too frequent visits to the Coorparoo State School swimming pool.

The following two and a half years saw a period of intense fund raising activities which included raffles, bottle drives, Operation Door Knock (September 1960), Carols by Candlelight (December 1960), two fetes (May ’61 and October ’62), a Miss Sports Girl Quest (November 1961) and, of course, $10 donations from parents. The result being that $18,112 was raised. A grandstand to seat 500 people, floodlighting, turfing, tiling and concrete works to the value of $5 506 were authorised.

However, nine days before the official handover date of 18th February 1963, a disastrous fire destroyed all the central classrooms.

Saturday 9th February 1963 saw at least 13 rooms destroyed. These included the Head Teacher’s office, staff room, stockroom, storerooms, library and health room. Other sections were considerably damaged with heavy loss of school equipment such as the school records and musical instruments.

It took twenty firemen to control the blaze which they had under control in less than an hour but by then about £20 000 ($40 000) damage had been sustained. The thirty plus metre flames attracted around 2000 spectators who hampered firemen and police but many of the people pitched in to help save a refrigerator from a downstairs room and to empty classrooms of furniture and fittings. The blaze was attributed to an electrical fault.

On resuming school the next week, Year 3 children were accommodated in four rooms used for dancing and similar activities in the Infant School while the other children went to eight rooms in the Primary School. Apparently while the rooms were being furnished by workmen a Telegraph (newspaper) reporter came across a class being taught in the shade of a Poinciana tree near the oval (Behind where the girls’ toilets have since been built.) and dubbed it “ the Tree of Wisdom”. Sadly, our “Tree” was given the ‘chop’ later when it was found its roots were interfering with the plumbing for the toilets.

After the fire the new classrooms were ready for occupancy by 22nd July. Although the children had already been using the pool since 18th February, the Official Opening was not conducted until later in the year on 19th October. The pool was not heated at this time. (Heating of the school swimming pool did not occur until 1996.)

Almost a year later on 26th September 1964 the new Administration Block was opened by the Hon. T.A. Hiley. This area has now been remodelled several times over but still houses the main reception facilities and the front door of the school off Old Cleveland Road.

In 1981 on 13th October the Camp Hill-Belmont R.S.L. completed construction of their Memorial dedicating our Native Tree Plot near the parade ground. Since then A.N.Z.A.C. day marches from the Camp Hill Pub conclude at the Memorial. The children are encouraged to march and participate in the ceremony including the laying of wreaths.

1992 saw the establishment of the Outside School Hours Care programme with the facility being set up in Room 26. This was later extended to Room 25. The facility now occupies the School of Arts Hall as well as those two rooms.

1993 saw the school uniform changed to include culottes for girls though still in the blue, brown gold, white check. Our new school uniform did not come into being till much later with the amalgamation of the two campuses. (www.camphillipss.eq.edu.au/Ourschool/History/Pages/History.aspx)