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BALMORAL CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL

Other Names

BALMORAL NATIONAL SCHOOL , BALMORAL PRIMARY SCHOOL

Location

Coleraine Road and Simson Street BALMORAL, Southern Grampians Shire

File Number

131

Level

Stage 2 study complete

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Statement of Significance

3/11/08 - C6 Amendment: site withdrawn from reccommendation for inclusion under the HO (AW 3/11/08)

What is Significant?
Balmoral Consolidated School is a State Primary School located on the south west corner of the intersection of Simson Street and the Coleraine - Balmoral Road in the township of Balmoral. The school is made up of several smaller school buildings which have been relocated from surrounding areas, as the move to consolidate state schools occurred. The school is a complex of mainly timber buildings. The construction of the first school was as early as 1856, when local pastoralists lobbied the Department of Education for a school at Balmoral to serve the growing township and the number of large pastoral holdings surrounding the town. A number of smaller 'satellite' schools were constructed in the early and mid ninetieth century at locations such as Gringegalgona, Gritjurk, Brit Brit, Vasey, Telangatuk East, Kanagulk, Gringegalgona and Pigeon Ponds. This was triggered by the increase in population in the district following the subdivision of many of the area's great pastoral estates for Soldier Settlement after the First and Second World Wars. These buildings have gradually been re-located to the current school site, and incorporated as classrooms.

How is it significant?
Balmoral Consolidated School is of historical to township of Balmoral the Southern Grampians Shire.

Why is it significant?
The complex located at Balmoral Consolidated School is historically significant as an example of the way in which smaller 'satellite' schools were consolidated with larger schools in towns as closer settlement failed and rural populations moved to townships after the 1960s. The school complex provides a tangible link to the Soldier Settlement era, a particular phase in the long history of the pastoral industry in the area. The subsequent subdivision of the land at various times culminated in the creation of small landholdings acquired by returned servicemen following the First and Second World War. The school is a physical expression of the population boom which resulted from Soldier Settlement, and subsequent demise of small rural landholders as soldier settlement failed.

Group

Education