The Rockhampton Girls Grammar School opened on 19 April 1892. There was no ceremony to mark the occasion due to the serious illness of George Barnsley Shaw, who had been very active in the establishment of the school; Shaw died on 20 April 1892. The first headmistress was Helen Downs. It was the ninth of the grammar schools to be established in Queensland and the third grammar school for girls. As with the other grammar schools, it was constituted under the
Grammar Schools Act of 1860, one of the first pieces of legislation passed by the
Queensland Parliament, which encouraged by way of grants of land and subsidies, the establishment of non government secular schools for secondary education within the colony. As Queensland was not establishing state high schools until the 1910s, nor the principal of universal secondary education until the 1960s, the state-assisted (albeit independent) grammar schools represented the de facto state secondary school system. From its establishment in 1881, the
Rockhampton Grammar School (located nearby on the
Athelstane Range overlooking Rockhampton) had included both a boys and a (smaller) girls department. The Government, however, refused to recognise the separate departments as entitled to separate subsidies under the Act, and as a consequence the Trustees soon insisted on a separate grammar school for girls. In 1886 the Girls Department was closed. The issue of education for women continued to be raised in the press, although, it was not until 1890 that sufficient funds were raised (via private and government subsidies) to proceed with the founding of the new school. In that year, competitive designs were called for a building suitable for a Girls Grammar School, providing residence accommodation for Headmistress and Staff, 20 Boarders, also School accommodation for 50 Scholars, with necessary classrooms etc. The building was to be of brick with the total cost not to exceed £4,000. Thirty-two entries were received with first prize awarded to
Edwin Morton Hockings of
Brisbane and second to
James Flint of Rockhampton. Brisbane architect,
Richard Gailey, objected however to the awarding of the prize to Hockings on the grounds that the plans were prepared while Hockings was articled to Gailey as his pupil. At Gailey's request, the first prize was recorded as his, with Hockings appointed clerk of works. Edwin Morton Hockings (1870–1942) was to have a long association with the school. In addition to his responsibility for the main school building, he was architect for the two major additions to it undertaken in 1897 and 1899, as well as a long serving member of the Board of Trustees (1908–1926), serving as Board Chairman in 1911 and from 1917–19. In 1895, Hockings became an Associate to the
Queensland Institute of Architects, and from that year is recorded as practicing as an architect in Rockhampton. He was to practice in partnership with AM Hutton (1899–1907), LT Palmer (1916–1938), and for a short time, with his son, Thomas. In 1890, the tender for the erection of the new school of £3,890 by Moir Cousins and Co was accepted. Prior to construction, the plan of the building was reversed, apparently as the extent of levelling to Denham Street was not sufficient to allow for the positioning according to the original plans. Delays in completion were apparently caused by repeated alterations to the building specification, including increased ventilation and the fitting of forty-four cedar venetian shutters. The new two-storeyed brick building (known since 1971 as Paterson House, after Chairman of Trustees 1920–52, AH Paterson) was described by the local press as late nineteenth century, in keeping with the usual Australian Architect's interpretation of
Gothic. On the ground floor were an assembly hall, two classrooms, drawing room, dining room, mistress's dining room and kitchen. The upper floor (accessed by three staircases, one each for pupils, mistresses and servants) housed two music rooms, two dormitories, three bedrooms for mistresses, servant's bedrooms, and bathrooms. The total cost was £5,666.5.3. The grounds were rough with only the school area and tennis court levelled. In 1892, a timber caretaker's cottage (£180) and playshed (£162), designed and supervised by Rockhampton architect and competition runner up, James Flint, were erected. In the following year, the playshed was fitted as a gymnasium. On
Arbor Day, soon after the school's opening, forty-six trees, one for each pupil, mistress and Trustee present, were planted. These included, on advice from the Curator of the Rockhampton Botanic Gardens (JS Edgar), 12 mango trees planted on the town edge of the lawn tennis court, silky oaks, jacarandas, and bunya pines. In 1894 the orange trees planted above the tennis court were replaced by
Araucaria cunninghamii (hoop pine). By the end of 1894 planting was curtailed. In the next decade, as the school expanded, three major additions were made to the school building. In 1897, a new single storeyed wing, designed by EM Hockings and built by
R Cousins & Co, was added to the southern side of the building. The work costing £1,392.3.7. included a new Assembly Hall, two classrooms, and an office for the Headmistress. As a result, the old assembly hall was formed into two classrooms (one being for cookery and chemistry). The excavated material from the site of the additions was used to form "the Terrace" in front of the school. Further additions, again undertaken by Hockings (now Hutton and Hockings) and R Cousins and Co, were carried out in 1899. The two storeyed wing to the south east of the building included new dormitories and bathrooms to accommodate eighteen boarders, two new classrooms, and music rooms. The work completed in 1900 at a total cost of £2,019.10.0. also included extensions to the Assembly Hall and two of the existing classrooms, the demolition of the headmistress's office, and the excavation and completion of two new tennis courts. The third stage costing £978 was undertaken in 1901. It included the incorporation of a classroom with the dining room, construction of two new upstairs classrooms, new staircase to the southwest, new laundry, housemaid's pantry, storeroom, bathroom, and servants bedroom. Other improvements undertaken by this time included fencing, excavation, erection of parapet retaining wall, terracing, driveway and asphalting, gates, window shutters, a 2,000 gallon water tank, and painting of brickwork with red-oxide paint (apparently in the hope of combating the effect of rising damp). In 1898, Miss Downs established the kindergarten for younger students. This was housed in the school room at the rear of main building, and from 1908 in the "detached residence" (erected 1899 as an isolation room for sick students). This was finally closed during
World War II. The initial "boom" period of the school could not however be sustained. For example, the establishment in 1919 of a state high school as part of the
Rockhampton Technical School and later the depression (and a decrease in government endowments) saw a decrease in enrolments. In 1945 additions were made by school architect
Arthur Edward Hegvold to the upper storey of Paterson House. These included a staffroom, bathrooms, sickbay, and glassed in verandah. About this time the gymnasium was converted into a music building containing five practice rooms (later increased to eight), but it was not until the 1960s that further major development was to occur. The opening of Luck House (containing boarding accommodation and classrooms) in 1962 was the first major building to be erected on the site after the main school building. It signalled the beginning of a substantial building program, as the school sought to deal with increasing enrolments and changing educational requirements. Later buildings include the Science Laboratory and Clarice McKeague Hall (1968), Principal's residence (1971), Colin H Grant Library and Resources Centre (1972), Millicent Jackson House (1977), Music Centre (1986), Primmer House (1987) – located on the terrace on the site of one of the original tennis courts, and Centenary Arts Building (1991). Works were also carried out to Paterson House as it too adapted to changing requirements with teaching removed to other parts of the school. Work included the removal of cubicles in the dormitories (1978); alterations to dining room, kitchen, and laundry, renovation of a dormitory and a new sick bay (1983). In 1987, the Trustees instituted a long range project for the continuing refurbishment of Paterson House including work to dormitories and the balcony facing Denham St. The building currently houses facilities for boarding and administration. From 1978, a program of landscaping the grounds was instigated, including the paving and planting by senior students of trees on the north terrace called "The Mall"; students' mural of Jackson House courtyard; planting of "Gallipoli Pines" near the swimming pool; planting of the Bicentennial Grove on land adjacent to the school boundary on the north and east. == Description ==