GRITJURK SCHOOL (FORMER)
Cavendish-Coleraine Road, GRITJURK VIC 3315 - Property No 1487
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Statement of Significance
The former Gritjurk School is located on the north side of the Cavendish-Coleraine Road, about fifteen kilometers east of Coleraine. The former school is a single storey red brick building in two joined parts, the earlier main school room and second room and the later attached teacher's residence. A mature Peppercorn Tree (Schinus molle) is located adjacent to the school, and dates from about 1880. The Gritjurk common school opened in 1872, in response to the increase in population associated with closer settlement and the Land Selection Acts of the 1860s and 1870s. The following year it became State School 1060, with Job Francis as head teacher. The school closed in 1899 when the larger Gritjurk South School opened. There has been no architect or builder associated with the design. The building is in very poor condition, and retains a fair degree of integrity.
How is it significant?
The former Gritjurk School is of historical and social significance to the community of Coleraine and to the Southern Grampians Shire.
Why is it significant?
The former Gritjurk school is historically significant as a rare surviving example of a rural school with an attached residence. The school provides a tangible link to the Closer Settlement and Land Selection Acts, a particular phase in the long history of the pastoral industry in the area. The school is a physical expression of the population boom which resulted from Closer Settlement, and which created social prosperity hitherto unknown in the area.
The school has social significance as an expression of the collective aspirations and dedication of the selection families.
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GRITJURK SCHOOL (FORMER) - Physical Conditions
The school building, especially around the entrance and western end of the building, is in very poor condition with substantial and serious cracking.
GRITJURK SCHOOL (FORMER) - Physical Description 1
The single storey red brick building is in two joined parts, the earlier main school room and second room and the later teacher's residence. The roofs are simple gables perpendicular to each other and clad in corrugated iron. The school room is entered through an off-centre brick porch with a side door and a small window at the front. The roof of the porch copies the main roof. The main room is presently sub-divided by light-weight timber and sheeting subdivisions. There is an open fireplace with a simple but conventional timber mantel in the centre of the north wall and a side door. There are three 12 pane double-hung sash windows in the south elevation, two for the school room and one for a smaller room behind the main room. These rooms are finished with white limewash on the face brickwork and have timber floors. A passage beside the smaller room leads to the extension used as the teacher's residence. This comprises a living room with a ledge and brace door opening to the rear and a 12 pane double hung sash window, and a passage leading to the kitchen and the bedroom. The latter also have 12 pane double-hung sash windows on the south elevation. These rooms have walls clad with later plywood sheeting (partly removed) over limewashed brick and pine lining board ceilings. The floors are timber. The tapestry brick mantel surviving in the living room confirms a mid-twentieth century renovation, just before or, possibly, just after WW2. A new small detached residence has been built to the east of the school building and a modern garden established around both buildings. The Peppercorn tree, Schinus molle, located immediately to the south-west of the entrance of the building almost certainly dates from its time as a school.
GRITJURK SCHOOL (FORMER) - Historical Australian Themes
Theme 6 Educating
6.2 Establishing schools
6.5 Educating people in remote placesGRITJURK SCHOOL (FORMER) - Usage/Former Usage
storage
GRITJURK SCHOOL (FORMER) - Integrity
Fair degree of intactness
GRITJURK SCHOOL (FORMER) - Physical Description 2
Job Francis, first head teacher 1873-1885
Heritage Study and Grading
Southern Grampians - Southern Grampians Shire Heritage Study
Author: Timothy Hubbard P/L, Annabel Neylon
Year: 2002
Grading:
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GRITJURK SCHOOL (FORMER)Southern Grampians Shire
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