FORMER COMMON SCHOOL NO. 1124

Common School No. 1124 was built in Muckleford South in 1871, one of the last of the Common schools built before the 1872 Education Act. The school was built of local sandstone rubble with brick quoins and reveals to openings, with a small gabled front porch and steeply pitched corrugated iron gable roof. The plan, fenestration and classroom layout, were all typical of Common schools, and the fit out was simple and modest in line with the resources available to the local community. A large new window has been added to the south wall, and stepped platforms removed, but the building is otherwise unchanged. The school was closed in 1941 and became a public hall. The building is in very good condition.

The Former Common School No 1124 is of historical and architectural importance to the State of Victoria

The Former Common School 1124 is important for its outstanding ability to exemplify the principle characteristics of the many single classroom rural Common Schools built in the period from 1862-1872, when denser settlement was occurring in rural areas of Victoria. These features include the steep gable roof, offset porch and externally protruding chimney; the use of local materials and austere finishes; and placement of windows in a long wall behind the pupils. The school was an influential model for later single classroom school designs in the years following the 1872 Education Act. The school is historically representative in its demonstration of educational models of the period and of the workings of the Common school system in rural communities. The school is representative of rural school buildings in a period of expansion of rural communities following the goldrushes and the Selection Acts.

Group

Education

Category

School - State (public)