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SOUTH MORANG PRIMARY SCHOOL NO. 1975

Location

879 PLENTY ROAD SOUTH MORANG, WHITTLESEA CITY

File Number

607136

Level

Registered

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PRIMARY SCHOOL NO. 1975 SOHE
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PRIMARY SCHOOL NO. 1975 SOHE
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PRIMARY SCHOOL NO. 1975 SOHE
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south morang ps no 1975 plan

Statement of Significance

STATEMENT OF CULTURAL HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE:

South Morang Primary School No. 1975 consists of a bluestone schoolroom with entry porch and a four roomed residence in the same material. It was constructed in 1877 by contractor Richard Davies to the design of Victorian Education Department architect HR Bastow. A kitchen and verandah were added at the rear in 1902; the gallery was removed in 1915 and a verandah at the front was added in the 1950s. The building no longer operates as a school.

South Morang Primary School No. 1975 is of architectural and historical significance to the State of Victoria.

South Morang Primary School No. 1975 is architecturally significant as a rare and relatively intact example of a bluestone '60' type Education Department single room school with attached four roomed residence. The school building is the only known bluestone example of this type surviving. The building is a representative example of the work of the work of prolific and important Education Department architect Henry Robert Bastow. Bastow later became a member of the Public Works Department staff and was responsible for the design of many schools, police and court buildings throughout Victoria. Schools attributed to Bastow number more than 100 and were designed between 1873 and 1894 after which time he was retrenched from the department as a result of the 1890s depression. South Morang Primary School is an early and modest example of his work and the only one of its type with surviving architectural drawings signed by him. The school is also unusual in that most of Bastow's works were large and located in urban settings.

South Morang Primary School No. 1975 is historically significant for its ability to demonstrate the provision of education to Victorian children in the nineteenth century. It is important as an example of a small rural school built in the years following the Education Act of 1872 which established a free, compulsory and secular education system in Victoria. South Morang Primary School is also historically important as a combined school and residence illustrative of its rural nature.

Group