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A
Brief History Of Katoomba Public School
By Colin Semmler
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History
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Back in the 1870's Katoomba had a small population of coal and shale miners as well as timber cutters. The mines were scattered about
the valleys, mainly in the vicinity of the present Scenic Railway.
Then the rail service opened and people from Sydney started to travel
through the mountains to Bathurst, and a few more houses began to
spring up in the area.
Because there was a small number of children in the area, a group
of parents got together and asked the government to establish a
school, but the government kept refusing them by saying there were
too many transient families (families who were here for a very short
time and then moved on). |
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Old Public School Parke St 1887
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Eventually on 11th December, 1881, a tent school with twenty eight
students was opened.The tent school was on land donated by Mr North
(he owned a coal mine) and was near the corner of the highway where
the State  Emergency
Services Headquarters is now. The tent school was a bit airy in
the winter so the school soon moved into a small wooden building
nearby. The parents soon pushed for a bigger school to be built,
and so a new school was opened in Parke Street in about 1885. Another
building and a headmaster's house were added about two years later.
The buildings are still there and it is now all part of Blue Mountains
College of Technical and Further Education. |
| Katoomba
Public School opened in Parke Street about 1885 |
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The parents always had to fight for improvements
to the school and school grounds. The P&C was formed in 1907 and
immediately asked the Department of Education to enlarge the playground.
In 1912 they campaigned for a cookery classroom and teacher, but
the request was refused, because once again there were too many
transient families. The P&C then applied in 1928 for permission
to open a canteen. The parents wanted to feed their children and
to raise funds to buy a typewriter for the school. However, that
request was also refused. In the early years Aboriginal children
did not attend the Public School. There was a separate school for
them, run by church missions. Eventually the Mission School closed
and the children attended the Public School. As the school grew
in size, it was decided that there should be a separate Infants
Department and High School. The High School at the Parke Street
site was opened in 1918 but went only to Fourth Year (Year 10) until
1942. The Parke Street site soon became too small so the new High
School was opened in Martin Street in 1961. |
The school in Parke Street was very run down and overcrowded by the
late 1960's. The P&C pushed for several years to have a new school
built. They really had to fight hard for it by constantly writing
to Members of Parliament and inviting them to see the school in
its dilapidated state.There is a series of photos in the school archives showing all the worst parts of the school. The photos were given to the newspapers in
an attempt to shame the Department of Education into building a
new one. Eventually there was such support from the whole of the
Katoomba community that the Department of Education agreed to build
a new school in Merriwa Street. They
had already established Merriwa Street "Special School" at what was St Bernard's College. St Bernard's College had been a Catholic
boys boarding school that was officially opened on 7th December,
1941. Before the college was established the whole area had been
a large park-like garden that belonged to a house in Ada Street.
The big trees in the nature area were part of that garden.
One of our past teachers, Mrs Jones, was the teacher librarian for
a time at Merriwa Street Special School. Our cleaner, Mrs Stanger,
worked there as well. |
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the Department of Education closed Merriwa Street Special School,
they constructed new classrooms, the library and the hall, and incorporated
the Special School buildings into the new Public School. The Primary
age children from Merriwa Street Special School remained at the
new school and the older children were moved to Katoomba High School.
The main building was refurbished inside to make classrooms and
offices instead of dormitories, but a few days before the children
were due to move in, (January 1982) someone set fire to it and it
all had to be rebuilt internally. The fire caused great heartache
in the community because the teachers and children were all excited
about moving into their new rooms after the dreadful old rooms at
Parke Street. Mrs Stanger says that she can remember parents and
children standing on Merriwa Street and crying as they watched the
fire destroying the building. So the Infants children had to return
to the old school until repairs were completed. The new school was
officially opened on 29th April 1983, several months after all the
students had been moved in. One of the men who worked on the rebuilding
of the school was "Digger" Thomson. He then became the General Assistant
at the school until he died in 1991. There is a tree to his memory
in the courtyard.
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One
of our present teachers, Mrs FulIer was a teacher at Parke Street.
Some children will remember Mrs Gordon and Mrs Pearson, who also
taught there. Mrs Dyer taught at Parke Street but had left by the
time the school moved to Merriwa Street. The Principal of the school
in Parke Street, Mr Alan Davidson, remained on at the new school.
Every Year on a Saturday in November the ex-students from St Bernard's
College return to took at their old school and talk about old times.
Although it is hard to imagine it now, no doubt one day many of
the present Year 6 students will do the same thing! |
| Street
Procession for KPS Centenary 1981 |
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Colin Semmler
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