FORMER SUNSHINE TECHNICAL COLLEGE

The Former Sunshine Technical School, at 111 & 129-133 Derby Road, Sunshine, including the Nash Block (former Sunshine Technical Girls’ School) designed by Percy Everett and constructed in 1938 and the Henty Wing (the Technical School) designed by Percy Everett and constructed in two stages between 1941 and 1947.

The Former Sunshine Technical College is of historical and representative significance to the State of Victoria. It satisfies the following criterion for inclusion in the Victorian Heritage Register:

Criterion A
Importance to the course, or pattern, of Victoria’s cultural history

Criterion D
Importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural places and objects

The Former Sunshine Technical College is historically significant as one of the first three secondary technical schools established in Victoria following the introduction of the Education Act 1910 and – operating from 1913 to 1991 – as the longest running of the three. The introduction of the 1910 Act and the subsequent development and expansion of secondary technical schooling represented a significant shift in technical education in the State, with government-funded secondary technical schools filling the ‘gap’ between primary school education and tertiary or adult technical training. Located in the key manufacturing centre of Sunshine – and supported initially through a land grant and funding from prominent industrialist, HV McKay and in 1941 through funding from the Department of Defence for the first phase of the Henty Wing – the Former Sunshine Technical School played a key role in providing technical skills to secondary school children to enable entry into professional or semi-professional trades. The Nash Block and Henty Wing remain to illustrate the growth and expansion of technical school facilities in the interwar to the early post-World War II period, as technical training became a key educational priority to support the war effort and wartime labour shortages (Criterion A).

The Former Sunshine Technical College is historically significant for its capacity to demonstrate the provision technical education to women and girls. In 1921, it was the first school in the State to open a dedicated Girls’ Technical School, with its own female headmistress, Winifred Nash, which followed the admission of female students in 1915. The school operated as a ‘feeder school’ to Emily McPherson College when it opened in 1927, allowing girls to continue their training. Constructed in 1938-1940 as a purpose-built school building for teaching girls’ technical education, the Nash Block remains as evidence of the growing importance of technical education for girls in the interwar to the early post-World War II period. The Former Sunshine Technical School, and the Nash Block in particular, is illustrative of the increase in educational opportunities in the early-mid twentieth century which enabled girls and young women to enter the professional workforce. (Criterion A).
 
The Nash Block and Henty Wing of the Former Sunshine Technical College are of representative significance as highly intact Moderne-style (Interwar Functionalist) technical educational buildings. Designed by leading proponent of the style and Chief Architect of the Public Works Department, Percy Everett, these accomplished examples illustrate Everett’s sculptural approach to the style at an intimate scale, employing contrasting geometric masses and horizontal, vertical and cylindrical elements. The buildings retain highly intact interiors – including evidence of technical education such as blackboards, technical equipment and plant in workshops and teaching spaces – to clearly illustrate this place type (Criterion D).