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Principal's Welcome • Enrolling • School Tour • Staff • Features • Photogallery • Our School • Parent Information • School Song • School History
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Murrumburrah Public School has a rich history
that has mirrored the development of the local region. It has a proud
tradition of strong teacher commitment and parental involvement, with an
emphasis on quality education for the whole community.
The seeds for the school began when an application for school was made
in 1861. The first teacher set up in a rented house, where the school
room had a fireplace, a dirt floor and a bark roof. The room, around 11
metres by 5 metres housed 10 boys and 15 girls. At this stage, the
community centred around the township of Murrimboola, later changed to
Murrumburrah.
These were the days of the horse and cart, when the bushranger Johnny
Gilbert was operating in the district. Gold was discovered at McMahons
Reef in the 1870s, so when the precious metal was discovered in the
school playground, miners began staking out claims. The headmaster was
forced to instruct miners not to interfere with school grounds.
The school closed and re-opened a number of times in various locations
in the late 1870s, due to the changing number of enrolments at a time
when school was not compulsory. School fees were raised from parents to
pay the salary of the teacher. If the parents could not pay, the teacher
was forced to leave. The breakthrough came when Harden, or Murrumburrah
North as it was known, was chosen as a railway site and the population
stablised. In 1881, a permanent site was granted and the school house
was built.
By 1902, enrolments reached 285 and the school started providing
post-primary education. Conditions were extremely overcrowded, with one
class of 60 taught in a classroom seven by five metres. The Parents
Association was formed in 1908, which was one of the earliest parent
bodies formed in the state, and it immediately began campaigning for
larger facilities. The Association began a long tradition of organised
parent involvement in the school.
The school was extended and an Intermediate Certificate course began in
1919, with a curriculum of English, History, Geography, Art and Maths. A
more advanced Maths was offered for boys and Music was offered for
girls. In the same year, the school became a temporary hospital to cope
with the flu epidemic.
Electricity and a telephone were installed in the 1920s and the school
was pronounced an Intermediate High School in 1928.
During the war, students at Murrumburrah organised to send "comfort"
packages to former M.H.S. pupils, serving in the Middle East and Malaya.
Seventy one soldiers opened packages containing soap, cakes, toothpaste
and razor blades.
The Infants Department was built in 1965 and by 1972, there were 162
Infant students and 198 in the Primary Department. Pressure began to
build to split the High School students to a separate site. This was
granted and the senior students and teachers moved to their new site in
Smith St in 1977. |
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