THEN: This photograph (Courtesy G. and L. Barry.) was taken in 1884 after the present day building was completed in 1875.This structure replaced the earlier National School building that had operated on site since 1855. In the foreground a large number of young men or students, many with rifles, are lined up in some sort of colonial military parade. Until the early 1860s, this area in the foreground had a path running diagonally across the scene and was lined with many small dwellings, and was the site of one of the Chinese settlements in the town. The large building on the left was on the corner of Mostyn and Urquhart streets and during the 1860s it housed the O’Hara Burke Hotel, named after the ex resident of town who perished in 1861 on his expedition to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
NOW: Fast forward to the present day and we find little has changed and the fabric of the building remains the same as it did in 1875, except the windows no longer have an arch over them and have been reshaped. In the foreground the area once referred to by the students as ‘the biggies’ yard’ has been modernised with the installation of a basketball/netball court next to the fence, while the rest of the area has an artificial surface with a running track marked out on it. In the left background the former double storey build-ings have been demolished and have been replaced by a weatherboard house. Now image and historical details courtesy Ken McKimmie.
