KYNETON SECONDARY COLLEGE (FORMER HIGH SCHOOL)
1-9 EPPING STREET KYNETON, MACEDON RANGES SHIRE
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The main building of the Kyneton Secondary College (Former High School) was constructed in 1927 to a design by the Chief Architect of the Public Works Department E Evan Smith. The building consists of a symmetrical single storey rendered brick building with a neo-Classical portico. It includes a centrally placed assembly hall added in 1928, jointly funded by the government and the local community, which was used as a cinema, performance space and school and community hall.
The school garden appears to have been laid out around the school shortly after construction and was planted and maintained by the students as part of the Victorian School Gardens Scheme. The scheme had been recommended by the Royal Commission into Technical Education in their report of 1900. It was taken up enthusiastically by the new Director of Education in Victoria from 1902, Frank Tate, who fostered a new system of education based on 'learning through experience' in the early years of the twentieth century. Gardening by the students achieved more than the beautification of school grounds; it allowed the students to learn first-hand about nature, science, mathematics, geography, horticulture and botany. The garden scheme was part of a wider educational movement promoted by Tate to expand the curriculum beyond the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic.
The garden at the front of the school has had few changes, but the side gardens have been built on. The garden at the rear of the school building retains many original features such as the plantings, pergolas, seats, edgings and paths.
How is it significant?
The Kyneton Secondary College (Former High School) is historically and architecturally important to the State of Victoria.
Why is it significant?
Kyneton Secondary College (Former High School) is historically significant as a representative example of a high school established in the early twentieth century to provide government funded secondary education to country students. Its joint school/community hall designed for performance, assembly and film projection, was constructed partly as a response to the popularity of the cinema in the 1920s.
Kyneton Secondary College (Former High School) garden is historically significant as a representative example of a school garden established in the 1920s. The school garden demonstrates an educational movement in the early twentieth century to teach students through the experience of gardening about nature, science, mathematics, geography, horticulture and botany. The survival of the designed garden form at the rear with plantings, pergolas, seats, edgings and paths is unusual in a school setting.
Kyneton Secondary College (Former High School) is architecturally significant as an intact representative example of an early country high school constructed in 1927-28 to a design in the Interwar Free Classical style by the Chief Architect of the Public Works Department, E Evan Smith. The hall is an interesting example of a 1920s design geared to film projection for school and community as well as performance and assembly uses.
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KYNETON SECONDARY COLLEGE (FORMER HIGH SCHOOL) - History
CONTEXTUAL HISTORY:
The history of secondary education in Victoria is largely a development of the twentieth century.Primary education for all was the first aim of the Victorian government education system. From the passing of the Education Act of 1872, the provision of 'free, compulsory and secular' education for Victorian children took precedence over higher levels of study. By the early years of the twentieth century, however, the Victorian government was preparing to extend education to students past the primary years.
Their objective was not at first to provide secondary education for all. The two areas of post-primary education at first considered were technical and teacher training.
The opening of the Melbourne Continuation School in the old Model School building in Spring Street in 1905 marked the beginning of state secondary education in Victoria. It was designed as a training college for pupil-teachers, but also accepted a small number of scholarship holders who were prepared for university entrance.
DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOLS
The curriculum of the district high schools were at first limited to the training of teachers, the study of agriculture and the bridging of the gap between the primary school and the technical college.
The Education Act of 1910 authorised the Governor in -Council to establish higher elementary schools and district high schools; continuation classes; and preparatory trade classes, trade schools and technical schools.
Continuation Schools were intended to bridge the gap between primary schools and technical schools for those pupils who were being prepared for work in the manual trades.
The first junior technical schools began in 1913 (V &R. p. 474)
Higher Elementary schools took in students whose parents desired a higher level of education than the completion of Grade 6. Higher elementary classes were added to existing primary schools and were the forerunners of high schools.
High schools charged fees and students were required to pay additional sums for uniforms and books. Scholarships were available to the most brilliant of the working class but the fees excluded most working class children. The working classes were not given access to secondary education, but encouraged to participate in technical education. (B.Bessant. 'The Education Policy of Labor during the Depression in Victoria, 1929-1935'. Educational Magazine, v.14, 1970, pp. 168-77In Victoria, the independent schools who prepared students for the public examinations were the main providers of secondary education. The expansion of the public sector into secondary education was seen as a threat to private enterprise and was strongly resisted.
Once high schools became more accessible, many middle class families used a combination of state and private education, moving their children to the private school system for the final two or four years of secondary schooling. More affluent families continued to use private schools for the whole of their children's education. (Janet McCalman. Journeyings. the biography of a middle-class education, 1920-1930 pp.114-116)
In the absence of a high school, particularly in country areas, non-Catholic children were frequently sent to the local Catholic school. The Catholic schools did charge fees but these were generally very low compared with other independent schools.
It was not until the middle of the twentieth century that the state began to provide secondary education across the state. At first the Director of Education Frank Tate appeared to aim at filling the gaps in secondary school provision left by the independent school system. As Janet McCalman points out, it was assumed that the poor and clever could win scholarships to government or private schools. The government itself offered some scholarships which could be taken up at registered i.e. independent schools or at a few high schools. The two secondary schools in Melbourne, the Melbourne High School and the University High School, initially set up to train teachers, expanded to prepare students for entrance to the University of Melbourne. District high schools were set up in Melbourne and the larger country towns. Some country high schools were opened first of all as agricultural high schools to provide education for children in farming communities.
Anecdotal evidence of the difficulties in obtaining a secondary education in the early years of this century is given in When It's All Boiled Down, an account of the life of Victor Dunin, a clever country boy from the remote town of Cassilis, East Gippsland, who won a scholarship to Melbourne High School in the 1920s and was obliged from the age of fourteen to live alone in seedy East Melbourne boarding houses while he attended school.. (Vic Dunin. When It's All Boiled Down. Melbourne, The Author, 1994.)
Agricultural High Schools
The establishment of agricultural high schools was an initiative of the Director of Education, Frank Tate. The first of these at Warrnambool and Sale were opened in April 1907. (Vision and Realisation v.1.. p.446) The syllabus directed that students spend one third of their time on cultural subjects, one third on the study of science and mathematics and one third on the school farm. However, by 1912 it was recognised that there was no public demand for agricultural education and no schools other than the ten already established were to be set up. The ten were Sale (1907), Warrnambool (1907), Ballarat (1910), Colac (1911), Mildura (1912), Shepparton (1909), Wangaratta (1909) , Warragul (1911), Mansfield (1911) and Leongatha (1912). These gradually became standard district high schools.
Country High Schools
In 1912 twenty five high schools or higher elementary schools were established, all in country Victoria. One of these was Kyneton High School.
Metropolitan High Schools
Although one- half of the population of Victoria was concentrated in Melbourne, the establishment of high schools in the metropolitan area was slow. Only five high schools existed in Melbourne by 1921, compared with twenty-six in country areas. These were all north of the Yarra and reflected the proliferation of private schools south of the river. It was considered necessary first to fill the gaps by providing schools in the poorer metropolitan suburbs.
Domestic Arts Schools
The first Domestic Arts School for girls was established at Bendigo in 1916. Others followed in Collingwood and South Melbourne in 1917. The latter school located in Montague Street was known as the Montague Domestic Arts School and in 1930 its name was changed to the J.H. Boyd Domestic Arts School. By the end of the 1920s seven others had been set up in Melbourne and one in Ballarat.
School Garden Scheme
The school garden appears to have been laid out around the school shortly after construction and was planted and maintained by the students as part of the Victorian School Gardens Scheme. The scheme had been recommended by the Royal Commission into Technical Education in their report of 1900. It was enthusiastically taken up by the new Director of Education in Victoria from 1902, Frank Tate, who fostered a new system of education based on “learning through experience” in the early years of the twentieth century. Gardening by the students achieved more than the beautification of school grounds; it allowed the students to learn first-hand about nature, science, mathematics, geography, horticulture and botany. The garden scheme was part of a wider movement promoted by Tate to expand the curriculum beyond the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic.
Smith, E. Evan (1870-1965)
Edwin Evan Smith was born in Montrose, Scotland on 4 October 1870 and was articled to an architect in Scotland. (P.I. Reynolds. The Evolution of the Government Architects Branch of the N.S.W. Department of Public Works, 1788-1911. Ph.D Thesis, University of New South Wales, 1972. p.117) He migrated to Australia in August 1889. He was employed as a draftsman in the Department of Public Works, Queensland from 1898 to 1912. He was subsequently employed in the Commonwealth Department of Works in Queensland until his appointment as Chief Architect, Public Works Department Victoria in 1922. (Victorian Blue Books 1922-1928.) During his leadership, new court houses were built by the Public Works Department at Northcote, St Kilda and Coburg as well as new police buildings at Malvern. His design for the Emily McPherson College of Domestic Economy, on the corner of Russell and Victoria Streets was awarded the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects Street Architecture Medal for 1930. (Who’s Who in Australia. 1935) Smith was appointed Government Architect of New South Wales in December 1929 and retired in October 1935. He was a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He died in August 1965. (Reynolds, p. 117)
HISTORY OF PLACE
Kyneton High School opened on 26 February 1912 in temporary premises in the former market building in Piper Street. The first purpose-built High School was constructed on a new site in Epping Street in 1927 to a design by the Chief Architect of the Public Works Department E. Evan Smith. The foundation stone was laid by the Hon. J. Lemmon, Minister for Public Instruction on 19 August 1927.
An assembly hall/community hall was added in 1928 at a cost of £4446.0. This was partly funded by local contributions, as a joint project by the Department of Education and the local residents, who were to contribute £200 a year for five years. The assembly hall was equipped with a bio-box for cinematic projection, and was an early example of a combined use community centre to be used as a community cinema, a performance space and an assembly hall for the school. The hall was designed so that light could be excluded for film projection with holland blinds within a timber frame over the windows.
A bike and pony shed were located to the rear of the school building. The stables were necessary because in the 1930s children were still riding or driving to school by horse and jinker. (Bremner, p. 47)
The new school included a number of war memorials within the building and grounds. A war memorial rose garden established on 11 July 1918 at the Piper Street site was transferred to the new school’s front garden. The area has continued to be planted with the same type of rose. A glass-fronted timber bookcase with a central inset bronze panel commemorates those former students and teachers who served during World War I. This has been moved from the original library to a corridor.
The establishment of a school garden was one of the first tasks Arnold Briggs, headmaster from 1930 to 1936, faced when he moved to the new school. The layout and execution of the work were done to his design. The paths, kerbing and drainage works were carried out by contractors. (Public Works Department Block Plan. c. 1930. School Plan no. 7070.64) Mr Briggs devised a scheme whereby the rear gardens would be laid out by the students on a house basis. Every week the work would be judged and the House flag of the winners would be flown from the school flagpole. The students, assisted by the housemasters, did the work. A series of garden areas were laid out, the beds bordered by the most appropriate types of stones from the building excavations. By the end of the first spring, the back portion rivalled the front garden established by the headmaster, who mowed the lawns himself. A lily pond and rose covered pergolas were features of the design. The lily pond has been filled in but its concrete edging survives, as do the pergolas with their seating for the students and the rock borders to the beds.
One past student recalled that the Blue House had the lily pond area to care for, Purple and Gold Houses the centre section and Red house looked after the area between the boys’ locker rooms.
The school was re-roofed in 1971 when the cement tiles were replaced by Marseilles terra cotta tiles.
The garden on either side of the main building has subsequently been built on. The garden at the front has had few changes. The survival of the landscaped garden form at the rear with pergolas, seats, edgings and paths is unusual in a school setting. In 1931 the garden was judged by the Education Department Inspectors as the best school garden in the State. ( G.A. Bremner, Onward and Upward: Kyneton High School, 1912-72p. 47)
After World War II, a number of temporary and permanent buildings were added to the site. In 1957 a Domestic Arts Classroom and a Manual Arts Classroom were put up in Bristol buildings. In 1960 six prefabricated Light Timber Construction classrooms were erected.
The Kyneton Technical School operated on the Market site from 1888 but was absorbed into the High School in 1917. From 1966 the school offered technical subjects from Form 1 in a joint High School-Technical School cooperative programme. Trade school buildings were added to the west in 1969 at a cost of $106,238. A Commonwealth Science block was opened in 1969. A Community Leisure Centre funded jointly with Kyneton Shire Council was opened in 1977 and a new library occupied in 1978. Extensive new buildings were opened in 1991.
KYNETON SECONDARY COLLEGE (FORMER HIGH SCHOOL) - Permit Exemptions
General Exemptions:General exemptions apply to all places and objects included in the Victorian Heritage Register (VHR). General exemptions have been designed to allow everyday activities, maintenance and changes to your property, which don’t harm its cultural heritage significance, to proceed without the need to obtain approvals under the Heritage Act 2017.Places of worship: In some circumstances, you can alter a place of worship to accommodate religious practices without a permit, but you must notify the Executive Director of Heritage Victoria before you start the works or activities at least 20 business days before the works or activities are to commence.Subdivision/consolidation: Permit exemptions exist for some subdivisions and consolidations. If the subdivision or consolidation is in accordance with a planning permit granted under Part 4 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 and the application for the planning permit was referred to the Executive Director of Heritage Victoria as a determining referral authority, a permit is not required.Specific exemptions may also apply to your registered place or object. If applicable, these are listed below. Specific exemptions are tailored to the conservation and management needs of an individual registered place or object and set out works and activities that are exempt from the requirements of a permit. Specific exemptions prevail if they conflict with general exemptions. Find out more about heritage permit exemptions here.Specific Exemptions:General Conditions: 1. All exempted alterations are to be planned and carried out in a manner which prevents damage to the fabric of the registered place or object. General Conditions: 2. Should it become apparent during further inspection or the carrying out of alterations that original or previously hidden or inaccessible details of the place or object are revealed which relate to the significance of the place or object, then the exemption covering such alteration shall cease and the Executive Director shall be notified as soon as possible. General Conditions: 3. If there is a conservation policy and plan approved by the Executive Director, all works shall be in accordance with it. General Conditions: 4. Nothing in this declaration prevents the Executive Director from amending or rescinding all or any of the permit exemptions. General Conditions: 5. Nothing in this declaration exempts owners or their agents from the responsibility to seek relevant planning or building permits from the responsible authority where applicable. Landscape:
* The process of gardening, mowing, removal of dead plants, disease and weed control, emergency and safety works.
* The replanting of plant species to conserve the landscape character.
* Management of trees in accordance with Australian Standard; Pruning of amenity trees AS 4373.
* Repairs, conservation and maintenance to hard landscape elements, memorial plaques, asphalt and gravel paths and roadways, stone and concrete edging, fences and gates.
* Installation, removal or replacement of garden watering and drainage systems beyond the canopy edge of listed trees.
* Road maintenance and safety works within the site.
Building Exterior:
* Minor repairs and maintenance which replace like with like.
* Painting of previously painted surfaces (but not signs), walls, posts, and roofing in the same colour.
* Treatments to stabilise and protect timber, masonry and metal structures.
* Removal of extraneous items such as air conditioners, pipework, ducting, wiring, antennae, aerials etc, and making good.
* Installation or repair of damp proofing by either injection method or grouted pocket method.
* Repair or replacement of fences and gates.
Building Interior:
* Painting of previously painted walls and ceilings provided that preparation or painting does not remove evidence of the original paint or other decorative scheme.
* Removal of paint from originally unpainted masonry.
* Refurbishment of toilets including removal, installation or replacement of fixtures and piping
* Installation, removal or replacement of curtain track, rods, blinds and other window dressings.
* Installation, removal or replacement of hooks, nails and other devices for the hanging of mirrors, paintings and other wall mounted artworks.
* Removal of paint from originally unpainted or oiled joinery, doors, architraves and skirtings.
* Painting of previously painted walls and ceiling provided that preparation or painting does not remove evidence of the original painting or other decorative scheme.
* Installation, removal or replacement of carpets and flexible floor coverings.
* Installation, removal or replacement of ducted, hydronic or concealed radiant type heating provided that the installation does not damage existing skirtings and architraves and provided that the location of the heating unit is concealed from view.
* Installation, removal or replacement of kitchen benches, cupboards and fixtures including sinks, stoves, ovens refrigerators, dishwashers etc and associated plumbing and wiring, provided that the existing masonry structure of the building core remains in place.
* Refurbishment of existing bathrooms, toilets and or en suites including removal, installation or replacement of sanitary fixtures and associated piping, mirrors, wall and floor coverings.
* Installation, removal and replacement of electrical wiring provided that all new wiring is fully concealed.
* Installation, removal and replacement of bulk insulation in the roof space.
* Installation, removal and replacement of smoke detectors
KYNETON SECONDARY COLLEGE (FORMER HIGH SCHOOL) - Permit Exemption Policy
The purpose of the exemptions is to allow works that do not affect the cultural heritage significance of the place.
Internal works to non-registered buildings are exempt from permit requirements. Additions and demolitions to non-registered buildings and addition of new buildings to the site may impact upon the cultural heritage significance of the place. Non-registered buildings remain part of the heritage place and permit applications will be required for additions and demolitions. The purpose of this requirement is not to prevent any further development on this site, but to enable control of possible adverse impacts on heritage significance during that process.
The main building (B1) has some permit exemptions for changes ot spaces such as bathrooms and kitchens, for provision of fire and access requirements as well as for repainting and repairs which replace like with like.
The registered land is taken to include all of the extant landscape features. Maintenance of the existing garden and replanting to conserve the landscape character over the whole site is exempt from permit requirements. Permit applications will be required for more substantial changes to the garden generally. Landscape elements considered particularly significant on this site include:
* the mature trees on the site* the pergolas, garden seats, drinking fountain, paths, stone walls, borders, steps.
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