Hope, Wood, Watkins and Montreal Streets, White Gum Valley
The 1926 entrance to the school
The White Gum Valley Primary School was opened 15 April 1901, and celebrated its 120th anniversary with a Fete on Saturday 13 November 2021.
Early history of the school, provided by Ann Klemm and published in FSN:
From Heritage - An Educational Bulletin:
WHITE GUM VALLEY SCHOOL - A BRIEF HISTORY
1900. On 27 March the Education Department applied for the present site bounded by Hope, Wood, Watkins and Montreal Streets. A contract for the erection of a two room wood and iron school was let at a cost of £546.
1901. The school was opened 15 April by Mr. K. Thomas and within a week the enrolment had reached 117 pupils.
1902. Two classrooms were removed from Plympton School and re-erected at White Gum Valley, coming into use on 29th April. School Teachers Quarters were completed in July.
1903. By January the school, with an average attendance of 230, again required increased accommodation. On 31 December, a contract was let for the erection of a classroom to cost £250.5.11 and which was completed by 24 February, 1904.
The Montreal Street side of the school.
1906. The increased enrolment (348) necessitated the provision of still another room making a total of six rooms in all.
1917. Additions were made to school quarters.
1922. Plans were drawn up for the erection of a ten classroom school, with six classrooms, an office, two shelter areas and two hat and cloak rooms to comprise the first stage.
1925. On 15 June a contract was let to Mr. G. Lithgo for the erection of the White Gum Valley School to cost £4,445. The foundation stone of the new school was laid by Mr. A. McCallum (Minister for Works) 12 December.
1926. On 17 April the school was officially opened by the Hon. J. W. Hickey, M.L.C. Portion of the old building comprising the Infants room and the room adjoining it was converted into a hall. ... [incomplete]
References and Links
Fremantle Shipping News article, from which the brief history above has come.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 13 November, 2021 and hosted at freotopia.org/schools/wgv.html (it was last updated on 30 April, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.