First location Previously known as Lismore High School (LHS), the school's first site was on Lake Street, North Lismore (the present
Richmond River High Campus site). On 23 November 1918, the foundation stone was laid for the new high school building by the Member for
Lismore,
George Nesbitt. At the time of its establishment in January 1920, it was one of only five high schools outside the Sydney metropolitan area. The school served the Richmond River area and until 1929 with the opening of
Murwillumbah High School, was the only high school between and the Queensland border. The Chinese-Australian journalist
Vivian Chow Yung attended LHS in its beginning years. Told in 1923 by an Irish-Australian schoolteacher at LHS, "You are Australian now. Why worry so much about China? What does China mean to you?", Chow responded "Sir, you were born in Australia, but you are always telling us about Home Rule for Ireland. What does Ireland mean to you?"
Second location The second site of LHS was on Magellan Street in the city precinct. By 1957 LHS was one of the largest secondary schools in the state, with an enrolment of 1,438 students and a staff of 67 teachers.
Third location By the late 1960s, the Magellan Street site of the school was proving to be too small for its requirements and in May 1969 LHS moved to its third site, a new complex in East Lismore. LHS, once the only high school in the district, is now one of three state, two Catholic and two Independent High Schools in Lismore. Enrolments are now relaxed at around 400 students. Not long afterwards, most of the remaining 1885 building was demolished. The Boys' Department of the Lismore District School was housed in a temporary wooden building until December 1911, when it moved into a two-storey brick extension at the Keen and Magellan Streets corner. During the 1920s and 1930s allotments were acquired progressively until the whole area bounded by Keen, Magellan and Dawson Streets was available for school purposes, now home to Lismore Public School and Lismore High School. == Notable alumni ==