Expansion after compulsory education (1873 onwards)
Compulsory, secular, free education was introduced in Victoria in 1873 with the new Education Act. With it came increased student enrolment and a need for schools.
At the start of 1873 the newly formed Education Department controlled 453 State schools, being those previously run by the Board of Education. There were another 590 others, either privately owned or church controlled.
In 1873, 250 sites were identified for new schools and a further 265 were announced in the Government Gazette in 1874.
As parents no longer paid fees nor contributed to the cost of buildings, attendance figures soared from an average of 66,000 in December 1872 to 100,000 in March 1873. By the end of the year the gross enrolment figure was over 200,000.
By 1874, the Department had taken over and reported ownership of 531 buildings; the Department had another 457 leased and 125 specially funded schools on its list.
Henry Bastow and early school design
To meet the rising demand for schools, the Department employed its own staff of architects and building inspectors.
Henry Robert Bastow was appointed as Departmental Architect and Surveyor in 1873. Bastow designed and constructed 615 schools across Victoria in five years. He achieved this by creating templates for various sized buildings that could then be adapted for particular schools.
Most of these designs were influenced by the Gothic style of architecture.
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School building under the Public Works Department
In 1882, the Department's Architects Branch transferred to the Public Works Department (PWD).
Bastow remained in charge of education buildings but now worked for the Public Works Department.
During this period, the Education Department’s Buildings Branch combined with the Public Works Department to provide and maintain school buildings. Departmental decisions as to the location, size and type of building were transmitted to the PWD which arranged for tenders and undertook supervision and payments to contractors.
The situation remained unchanged until 1987 when the Public Works Department was abolished.
Post-war pressure on schools
The end of World War 2 brought a combination of events that put immense pressure on the need for and availability of schools in Victoria. There was a:
- ‘baby boom’
- large increase in immigration
- start of children enrolling at primary school at 5 years of age
- large increase of children continuing on into high schools and technical schools
- shortage of building materials.
The rise of standard school buildings
Light Timber Construction schools
In the early 1950s, the Director of Education, Sir Alan Hollick Ramsay, proposed that a standard template for all schools be adopted. The Chief Architect of the Public Works Department took this brief and developed the Light Timber Construction (often abbreviated to LTC) design for schools.
The LTCs were built with timber frames and usually clad with concrete blocks. Later versions were clad in brick. The buildings had long central corridors with classrooms on either side. The lack of insulation meant the buildings were hot in summer and cold in winter.
Despite their defects, the LTC design provided a cheap and efficient method for fast construction of schools. Hundreds of these schools were built between 1954 and 1977.
There are still many left in Victoria despite gradual demolition and upgrades.
Portable and prefabricated schools
The shortage of buildings after World War 2 led many to see prefabricated buildings as part of the solution. Prefabricated and ready to assemble buildings had been around since the early days of the colony and, especially, during the gold rush. Many early rural schools were very basic structures that were moved between sites when no longer needed at a particular location.
But the post war period saw large scale use of such buildings. The Bristol aircraft company in England used left-over aluminium from war-plane production to build relocatable Bristol Buildings. Hundreds of these were imported to Victoria from around 1948 to the mid-1950s.
The use of portables started again in 1960 with portable buildings built by local companies. One company, AV Jennings, built 929 of these from 1960 to 1970.
LTCs, Bristol buildings and other portables can still be found in Victorian schools today.
School buildings and land today
The Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) manages government school land in Victoria. It purchases land to meet changing educational needs and demand for government schools across the state.
Find out more about how government school land and buildings are managed today on the VSBA website.
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