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STATE SCHOOL NO. 971 (FORMER)

Location 538 WINNAP-NELSON ROAD, DRIK DRIK, GLENELG SHIRE Level Recommended for Heritage Overlay

[1/1] 52668 SS 971 Drik Drik 079

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
The Former State School 971 and its associated shelter shed are located on the Winnap-Nelson Road, 5.5km south-south-west of its intersection with the Princes Highway. It was built of local bluestone and limestone by Owen Jones, a local Welshman, with help from the community. It comprised a single room with a timber porch being added later. The school started in 1873 and continued until 1903 when it went part time. The first head teacher was Charles Stewart Dunbar who was also the post master. (His wife taught at Dartmoor, walking the eight miles each day.) A small timber residence was provided adjacent to the school but this was removed in the 1930s. In the 1920s the head teacher was Wallace Malseed who is amongst those listed on the memorial gates. Two notable pupils were the Rev. Graham Bucknall, a Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria and J. L. Holmes, an Inspector of Schools. The complex includes a traditional octagonal timber shelter shed, later decorated with naïve murals painted by the pupils. The school has closed and is now owned privately. The complex retains a very high degree of integrity and is in good condition.

How is it Significant?
The Former State School and its associated shelter shed including its murals are of historical and architectural significance to the Glenelg Shire.

Why is it Significant?
The former State School 971 is of historical significance as the physical remnant of the facility built at Drik Drik after the introduction of free, secular and compulsory education in Victoria in the 1860s. Its construction, decline and eventual abandonment reflect the changing needs and demographic of the district's families and their lives and of government policy. It is of architectural interest for its standard form, its use of local materials and for the traditional octagonal shelter shed which survives. The murals in the shelter shed are an important example of folk art.