South Warrandyte School

For many years only occasional herds of grazing cattle roamed through the virgin bushland south of Warrandyte. The first land in the area was sold in 1852 when Thomas Stinton purchased one square mile north of the present Park Orchards, four years later a land sale was held east of this land and within ten years a community of ten farmers were living in the Ringwood Road area. 

At the beginning of the century Tom Petty and W. S. Williams Junior planted large orchards in Park Orchards. Tom Petty's orchard was the largest and Tom ran it on a share farming basis. There were then a number of children living in Park Orchards and South Warrandyte who had a long walk to Warrandyte school. 

In 1902 Mrs Agnes Holloway drew up and presented to the Education Department, a petition signed by nineteen residents of the area, asking for a school in South Warrandyte. Two years later Miss Ada Hill opened Parsons Gully school, in the two front rooms of Colman's house. 

In 1906 the Education Department moved a building from Little Yarra Junction near Warburton and placed it on a two acre block purchased with funds raised by local residents. It was on the main coach road between Ringwood and Warrandyte but later a new main road was built to avoid the steep hill. The name of the school, with thirty children, was then changed to South Warrandyte. When enrolment increased, another classroom was added and the school also used the South Warrandyte Hall. 

Thick bushland separated the families at Park Orchards from the school. Harry Brown, one of the orchardists on the estate, took his axe and blazed a trail through the bush. His children, Ellie, Ethel, and Harry with the other children from Petty's orchard were able the follow the blaze marks to school; here they met the Tortice, Colman, Mitchell and Zoch children. The younger children only attended school on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 

During the bushfires of 1939, the school burnt down so the Education Department supplied a large tent that the parents erected in the school grounds. During the hot days of February the children endured heat, dust and flies also in the cold days of winter icy drafts blew through the tent. At the end of each lesson the children broke off to run around the school grounds to get warm. There was plenty of fresh air! 

After the second World War enrolments increased to 126 pupils by 1969. There were then four classrooms, two storerooms and a combined office and staffroom. The school became a focus for the close knit local community. The football and cricket teams used the school grounds until Coleman Park was formed. The parents ran successful fund raising program with dinners, fetes and barbeques raising enough money to purchase a portable building for a library. Then in 1980 the Education Department supplied a new modular building for the library and the old portable became a music room. The 1980s became an exciting time for the school.

The parents formed a Friday afternoon club with children's classes for such activities as pottery, knitting, soap carving. Rangers from the State Park gave talks to the children who then visited the Warrandyte gold mining sites. The teachers introduced innovative education programs with language, environment, composition, literacy and numeracy skills. 

Enrolment continued to grow making the school overcrowded.  During the 80s more classrooms were placed in its rural grounds to shelter among the many gum trees and, when the residence was no longer needed, it became a centre for community education and music. 

The small Parsons Gully School of a few children in the front room of a private house had grown to a crowded school of over 350 children. The classrooms needed repairs and were overcrowded so the Education Department built an entirely new school in Warranwood. Last month, after ninety years, South Warrandyte School has moved and is now the Warranwood Primary School. 

Source: Irvine Green writing in 1996 06 DTHS Newsletter