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GRITJURK SCHOOL (FORMER)

Location Cavendish-Coleraine Road, GRITJURK VIC 3315 - Property No 1487 File Number 1675 Level Stage 2 study complete

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Statement of Significance

What is significant?
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.