The School Endowment Plantation Scheme was established in 1922 as a joint venture between the Education Department and the FCV. It was administered by the Education Department with technical supervision by the Commission. While some plantations were established on private land donated or leased for the purpose, most were established on Crown Lands or Reserved Forest made available, without cost, by the State. (https://www.victoriasforestryheritage.org.au/community/schools.html, accessed 26 September 2020) Throughout the Nerrina district numerous areas of public land were set aside as school endowment plantations as part of various schools’ educational resources. The plantations were initially established to instil through community involvement a love of forests and an appreciation of their value, and in fact many of them are well suited for regular use as a teaching resource of this nature. It was expected that this use will increase as courses embracing various aspects of environmental science are developed. Many school plantations have been planted to radiata pine, and revenue from the sale of produce used to provide amenities required by the schools. In some cases, however, these plantations have not been very successful in providing revenue, as the sites are unsuitable for economic growth or the plantations are too small or the location too far from processing centres to allow economic harvesting. In some instances, radiata pine plantations have failed due to poor management. In 1982 the Land Conservation Council believed that all the existing plantations should be assessed in order to establish their value as a teaching resource. Those not needed or that are unsuitable for teaching purposes for some reason, such as their location, should be terminated. Those planted to radiata pine that have limited value as a teaching resource although satisfactory for wood production may continue to be used for such production, but should be reviewed when the pines are harvested. (http://www.veac.vic.gov.au/reports/354-Ballarat-Study-Area.pdf, acccessed 30/03/2017)Covenant in the matter of the School Endowment Plantation of the Ballarat Junior Technical School Old Boys Association Endowment Plantation.pine plantation, alfred k. mcbain, g.w.e. pearson, i.c. garner, a.m. robinson, h.j. hassell, ballarat junior technical school old boys association endowment plantation, ballarat junior technical school, alumni

Throughout the Nerrina district numerous areas of public land were set aside as school endowment plantations as part of various schools’ educational resources. The plantations were initially established to instil through community involvement a love of forests and an appreciation of their value, and in fact many of them are well suited for regular use as a teaching resource of this nature. It was expected that this use will increase as courses embracing various aspects of environmental science are developed. Many school plantations have been planted to radiata pine, and revenue from the sale of produce used to provide amenities required by the schools. In some cases, however, these plantations have not been very successful in providing revenue, as the sites are unsuitable for economic growth or the plantations are too small or the location too far from processing centres to allow economic harvesting. In some instances, radiata pine plantations have failed due to poor management. In 1982 the Land Conservation Council believed that all the existing plantations should be assessed in order to establish their value as a teaching resource. Those not needed or that are unsuitable for teaching purposes for some reason, such as their location, should be terminated. Those planted to radiata pine that have limited value as a teaching resource although satisfactory for wood production may continue to be used for such production, but should be reviewed when the pines are harvested. (http://www.veac.vic.gov.au/reports/354-Ballarat-Study-Area.pdf, acccessed 30/03/2017) The School Endowment Plantation Scheme was established in 1922 as a joint venture between the Education Department and the FCV. It was administered by the Education Department with technical supervision by the Commission. While some plantations were established on private land donated or leased for the purpose, most were established on Crown Lands or Reserved Forest made available, without cost, by the State. (https://www.victoriasforestryheritage.org.au/community/schools.html, accessed 26 September 2020)Covenant in the matter of the School Endowment Plantation of the School of Mines Ballarat School Community.nerrina pine plantation, ballarat school of mines endowment plantation, nerrina, pine plantation, nerrina, john r. lyall, richard w. richards, dick richards, edgar j. tippett, charles h. clamp, alfred k. mcbain, endowment plantation

This item holds social significance. It records the inauguration of the school plantation which was expected to be harvested to bring in money for the school. The certificate was signed be every pupil at the scool at the time, so is an important record of Yendon families. Cardboard framed (uncovered), water-stained, dirty, torn and faded.Certificate 1 YENDON SCHOOL ENDOWMENT PLANTATION / Trustees E.G. Pearson District Inspector / A.J. McLachlan Head Teacher / A.J. Harbour Chairman of school Committee / R.W. Harrison / H.G. Bowers Certificate 2 signed by 19 students Certificate 3 (dated) 29th April 1957 / (signed by) A.J. Harbour / H.G. Bowers and 2 others.certificate, yendon state school, yendon public school, endowment plantation

The Victoria Education Gazette and Teachers' Aid was published for Victoria's teachers and was sent to all school on the state. In 1920 The Ballarat School of Mines had donated 136 pounds 14 shillings and 10 pence to the Victorian Education Department's War Relief Account, and the Ballarat Junior Technical School had donated 10 pounds 6 shillings and 10 pence.Ten black hard covered volumes with red tape spine, covering 1921 to 1930. The gazettes include Education Department appointments, transfers, resignations and retirements, vacancies, notices, queries, notices of books, examination papers, original articles, lesson plans, suggestions for lessons, drawing, obituaries, notes on nature study, mathematics, music, sloyd woodwork, English grammar, Victorian State School Swimming Clubs, Geography, penmanship, science, History, Latin, Geography, The School Garden, horticulture, singing, World War One; ANZAC Day, lifesaving, Astronomy, Empire Day, ANZAC Buffet London, Victorian Education Department's War Relief Fund .1) 1928. Articles include: New Caledonia, Swimming and Lifesaving, School forestry, a visit to the pyramids, Exploration of Gippsland, paul de Strezelecki, Angus McMillan, Villers Bretonneux Memorial School, American Black Walnut, Red Gum, Messmate Stringybark, The Great Barrier Reef, retirement of Frank Tate, Stawell High School, Report on Some Aspects of Education in the United States, Jubilee Education Exhibition , New School Readers; measured Drawing Images include: Macarthur Street School's Plantation, Maryborough School Plantation, Pinus Insignis (Radiata) ready for Milling, Creswick State Forest, Metalwork, Daylesford Pine Plantation four years old, Henry Harvey (art Inspector); Omeo School Endowment Plantation; Frank Tate; Stawell High School Drawings From Casts; Lake Tyers School Endowment Plantation, measured drawing, Thomas H. Stuart, GEorge Swinburne. J.R. Tantham-Fryer, Cookery Class, John Edward Thomas. .3) War Savings Stampsm Swimming and Life-saving, Teh Rural School System of Victoria, Imaginative Composition, ANZAC Day, Retardation, Teh Bright Child Hudson Hard Obituary, Leeches, Relief for Distress in Europe, Dental, Teachers' Library, History of Portarlington, J.E. Stevens Obituary, Victorian Teachers in England Images: Swimming and Life-Saving Medallion .3) Swimming and Lifesaving, Bronze medallion, Victoria Leage of Victori, War Savings Stamps, Rural School Sytem of Victoria, .4) War Relief, Talbot Colony for Epileptics Masonmeadows, Discipline New and Old (Percy Samson), Soldier teachers, Preservation of Australian Birds, Arbor Day, Jubilee of Free Education, Teaching Geography, Poery in Schools, School Committees, Shelter Pavilion, Mysia Memorial School, Clovers, Jubilee Exhibition, Domestic Arts, Louis Pasteur, .5) Victoria League of Victoria, An Endowment Scheme (Pine Plantations), School Endowment Plantations, Protecting our trees by Owen Jones,. Victorian State Schools Horticultural Society, Sloyd Woodwork, School Forestry, Thomas Brodribb Obituary and portrait, Imperial Education Conference London, school Management and Method, School plantations, Eucalypt plantations in the Bendix and Heathcote District, Junior Red Cross, Jubilee Education Exhibition, Gould League Competitions, handwriting, The School Magazine, Frank Tate in London, Victorian beetles, Council of Public Education, Villers Bretonneux and its new School, Death of Samuel Summons, Woodwork Summer School, Swimming, Japanese Relief Fund, Retirement of John Cross, reminiscences of the Late Mr Albert Mattingley .6) Thomas H. Trengrove and the Villers Bretonneux School hall and pilaster carvings, forestry, visit of Maryborough teachers to Ballarat Water Reserves, noxious weeds, relief for Distressed Europe, The Dalton Plan, Empire Day, Retirement of Mr Fussell, Centenary of Hume and Hovell Expedition, League of Kindness, Effective Nature Study in a Rural School, Some Facts About Paper and their Bearing Upon School Plantations, Council of the Working Men's College Melbourne, Maria Montessori, University Vacation School, Horticulture in State Schools, An Informal Chat About French Schools (C.R. McRae), The Vacation School, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Inspector's Report on a 5th-class School, Can Children Write Verse, John Adams, Victoria League of Victoria, R.F. Toutcher, Sir James Barbie's Address to High-School Girls, Impressions of a High School Teacher Abroad (R.D. Collman), The Spirit of the School Plantation Scheme, Monument of the Late Mr and Mrs A.T. Sharp at Box Hill Cemetery, The Teaching of Geography, The Treatment of Poetry in Class, Two Difficult Arithmetic Lessons, Location of Principal Australian Timbers, Dr John Smyth, Stammering and its Influence on Education, Wireless Broadcasting as an Educational Medium, Boys School at Villers Brettonneux, The New School at Villers Brettonneux, Bird Day, Messmate or Stringybark, What Every Woman Knows, Director's Report on Denmark .7)1925 . Includes: School Forestry, horticulture, J.H. Betheras retirement, Ivanhoe School, Coburg School, Moorabool Junior Technical School, Villers Bretonneux School hall and pilaster carvings, Francis Ormond, William Charles Kernot, Corsican Pnes at Creswick, Ballarat High School Plantation, Workin Men's College, RMIT, Naorrow LEafed Peppermint, Education and World Peace, Eucalypts of Victoria, John C. Eccles, Blue Gum. Manners, Giving the Poorly Nourished Boy A Chance, Native Ferns, Marybourough Technical School, Memorial School at Villers-Brettonneux .8) Experimental Plots in Country Schools (W.W. Gay), Villers Bretonneaux and its Memorial School. nominated classes for Art Teachers, The Teachers Act 1925, Horsham High School, Richmond Technical School, Farewell to Messrs C.R. Long and Ponsonby Carew-Smyth, Frank Tate, Phyiscal Training, Arbor Day, ANZAC Day, Shakespeare Day,Bendigo Junior Techncial School, Musical Appreciation, Motor Dental Unit, School Camps, Education Act of 1872: Mr Angus McKay's Part (George Mackay), A Bush Fire Experience (Irene Stable), Black Sunday, Californian Red Pine, Women's Education in America, Farewell to Lord and Lady Stradbroke, Grevilia Robusta, Silky Oak, Redwood, John E. Grant, The Need for Research (Donald Clark), Junior Drama, Ida D. Marshall, John Pounds, Australian Books, Fish Creek School, State Boundaries, History in the Curriculum, Ceramic Art in Australia (Percy E. Everett), Choice of School Songs, Tasmanian Beech, Should History be Taught on a National or an International Basis, Hydatid Disease, James Holland Obituary, Florrie Hodges, Queensland Maple, Post Bushfire Ruins at Fumina, Arbor Day at Fumina, Queensland Rosewood, Omeo Endowment Plantation, Bird Day, Junior Red Cross, Pioneers' Day, Edward Henty, Junior Technical Schools, Yellow Pine, History and Progress of Needlework, A.B.C. of Astronomy, Northumberland Mental tests, Queensland Red Cedar, Teh Globe Theatre, .9) 1927 includes The ABC of Astronomy, Atr Theatre, English Beech, Angus McMillan Art Pottery, School Singing, State Schools' Nursery, School endowment plantations, Making a Man, experimental proof of Charles's Law, John Smyth obituary and portrait, Linton Pine Planation, motivation of arithmetic, Women's Classes at Dookie, Swimming and Lifesaving, Pioneers Day, Drawing, Ballarat High School planation, biting fly, Tir-Na-N'og, John Byatt retirement and portrait, Technical Schools Conference at Daylesford, Ethel Osborne and portrait, library. Francis Thompson portrait, Adam Lindsay Gordon, Solar movement, motor transport, Liverpool Cathedral, Teh Story of the Cathedral, Bendigo School of Mines, Omeo School pine plantation, Egypt and the Nile, Self-Criticism Images include Ballarat High School Pine Plantation, Vale Park, Francis Ormond, Woking Men's College (RMIT), W.N. Kernot, A Stand of Corsican Pines at Creswick, Victoria .10) Some Remarks on the Relationship of the technical Schools to the University (Donald Clark) , Present Day Education in England , Memorial to Joseph Cornwall, Spelling, motivation, Singing, State Scholarships, Agriculture, T.W. Bothroyd, The Swimmer - A Summer School Sketch (H.H. Croll), Swimming woodwork, Farewell to Dr Sutton. ,Drowning, War Savings Movement, White Beech. George S. Browne , Example of School Honor Book, Blackwood, Optimistic teacher, Soldier settlement around Shapparton, Oral Hygiene, Cinema Machines, Basketball, Wakter M. Camble obituary, ANZAC day Pilgrimage in England, Froebel's System, Montessori Method, War Relief Fund, New Zealand Kauri Tree, Bat Tenis at a Bush School., Advice to Australian Girls, Chrysanthemums, Royal Visit, National Parks of Victoria, Maurice Copland Obituary, total eclipse of the Moon, School libraries, The teacher and the COmmunity (A.M. Barry), The Reading Lesson, Swimming and Life-saving, MElbourne Teachers' College War Memorial Windows Old Trainees War Memorial, Cultivating a Natinoal Art education gazette, school, education, teaching, teacher, world war one, school plantations, macarthur street pine plantation, school forestry, creswick state forest, anzac day, armistance celebrations, frank tate, frank tate retirement, drawing from cast, education department school readers, lake tyers pine plantation, w.n. kernot, rmit, working men's college, francis ormond, pine plantations, calenbeem park, creswick, villers-brettonneux school hall and carvings, thomas trengrove, corsican pines, creswick, pine endowment plantations, mccarthur st primary school pine plantation, ballarat high school pine plantation, vale park, mount pleasant primary school pine plantation, golden point pine plantation, angus macmillan, paul de strzelecki, gippsland, villers-bretonneaux memorial school, francis thompson, english ash, pestalozzi centenary, shakespeare day, swimming classes, clear pine, cinema in education, american black walnut, red gum, thomas wolliam bothroyd obituary, and portrait, physical training displays, teaching of spelling, ohm's law, blue gum

On 17th May 1858 a State subsidised, combined Denominational School was opened by HT Stokes, with an attendance of about 30 children. This school was conducted in the wooden Melton Combined Protestant Church, situated on ‘a creek flat’ thought to be on the north side of Sherwin Street between Pyke and Byran Streets. It is likely that the Church had been established by 1855 and that the first minister was the Rev. Hampshire, who lived in Cambridge House on the Exford Estate. Ministers of the Protestant denominations were invited to hold services there. As there was only one resident Minister in the town (Presbyterian Mr J Lambie), laymen of the various denominations often spoke on Sundays. In 1863 this building was declared a Common School with the number 430. One of its first and most prominent headmasters was John Corr, who served from 1860 to 1864. Most of Mr Corr’s children also became teachers, including Joseph Corr, at the Rockbank school, and J Reford Corr and WS Corr, headmasters and teachers at numerous prestigious private secondary schools around Australia. John Corr purchased land alongside the school and elsewhere in and near Melton, became secretary and treasurer of the new Cemetery Trust, and by July 1861 was deputy registrar of births, deaths and marriages. He walked three miles every Sunday to teach at the Weslyan Sunday School he had established. Despite good reports from the Education Department Inspector, and burgeoning enrolments, the local school committee recommended the dismissal of, firstly, his wife (from the work mistress position), and then him from the headmaster position. Corr saw his dismissal as an attempt to redirect state aid for education from the Combined Protestant school to the support of the Free Presbyterian Minister Rev James Lambie (by one account the owner of the land on which the Common School was erected), whose son-in-law James Scott subsequently assumed responsibility for the school. Rev Lambie failed in his efforts to keep the existing school, which the Education Department Inspector and the majority of Melton citizens regarded as badly situated and badly built. Following a conditional promise of state aid, local contributors in 1868-69 raised ₤72.10.6 towards the cost of an iron-roofed bluestone rubble building 43 ft x 12 ft. This was erected on a new site of 1.5 acres (the present site). The State contributed ₤120 to the new school, which opened in 1870. A very early (c.1874) photograph of the school shows its headmaster and work mistress / assistant teacher (probably James Scott and his wife Jessie) and its (very young) scholars. Similar photos show pupils in front of the school in c.1903, and 1933. In 1877 a second bluestone room costing ₤297 was added and further land acquired from the Agricultural Society (who only needed it two days a year) to enlarge the schoolground to 3 acres. In the early 1880s an underground tank augmented the school water supply and in 1919 a five-roomed wooden residence was added. During this period the school correspondents often compained that the walls of the bluestone buildings were damp, affecting the plaster. In 1923 a brick room 26 ft 6 in by 24 ft with a fireplace and four rooms facing south, was added, and a corridor built to link the three buildings. This served adequately for the next 40 years. The school bell probably dates to 1883. The school also has a memorial gate (1951) to World War One ex-students, and an honour board to the 64 ex-students who served in the First World War. The school roll fell to 42 in the early post war-years, but was boosted by an influx of migrants, mainly from the UK, from the late 1960s. This presaged the boom in Melton’s development, and the corresponding growth of the school, with timber and temporary classrooms added to the previous masonry ones. An endowment pine plantation established in 1930 augmented the school’s fundraising activities when it was harvested in 1968. Part of the site was planted with eucalyptus trees in 1959. Famous ex-students of the early twentieth century included Hector Fraser (internationally successful shooter) and cyclist Sir Hubert Opperman. Pen, flag and flyer from the Melton State School Centenary celebrationseducation, local significant events

"On 17th May 1858 a State subsidised, combined Denominational School was opened by HT Stokes, with an attendance of about 30 children. This school was conducted in the wooden Melton Combined Protestant Church, situated on ‘a creek flat’ thought to be on the north side of Sherwin Street between Pyke and Byran Streets. It is likely that the Church had been established by 1855 and that the first minister was the Rev. Hampshire, who lived in Cambridge House on the Exford Estate. Ministers of the Protestant denominations were invited to hold services there. As there was only one resident Minister in the town (Presbyterian Mr J Lambie), laymen of the various denominations often spoke on Sundays. In 1863 this building was declared a Common School with the number 430. One of its first and most prominent headmasters was John Corr, who served from 1860 to 1864. Most of Mr Corr’s children also became teachers, including Joseph Corr, at the Rockbank school, and J Reford Corr and WS Corr, headmasters and teachers at numerous prestigious private secondary schools around Australia. John Corr purchased land alongside the school and elsewhere in and near Melton, became secretary and treasurer of the new Cemetery Trust, and by July 1861 was deputy registrar of births, deaths and marriages. He walked three miles every Sunday to teach at the Weslyan Sunday School he had established. Despite good reports from the Education Department Inspector, and burgeoning enrolments, the local school committee recommended the dismissal of, firstly, his wife (from the work mistress position), and then him from the headmaster position. Corr saw his dismissal as an attempt to redirect state aid for education from the Combined Protestant school to the support of the Free Presbyterian Minister Rev James Lambie (by one account the owner of the land on which the Common School was erected), whose son-in-law James Scott subsequently assumed responsibility for the school. Rev Lambie failed in his efforts to keep the existing school, which the Education Department Inspector and the majority of Melton citizens regarded as badly situated and badly built. Following a conditional promise of state aid, local contributors in 1868-69 raised ₤72.10.6 towards the cost of an iron-roofed bluestone rubble building 43 ft x 12 ft. This was erected on a new site of 1.5 acres (the present site). The State contributed ₤120 to the new school, which opened in 1870. A very early (c.1874) photograph of the school shows its headmaster and work mistress / assistant teacher (probably James Scott and his wife Jessie) and its (very young) scholars. Similar photos show pupils in front of the school in c.1903, and 1933. In 1877 a second bluestone room costing ₤297 was added and further land acquired from the Agricultural Society (who only needed it two days a year) to enlarge the schoolground to 3 acres. In the early 1880s an underground tank augmented the school water supply and in 1919 a five-roomed wooden residence was added. During this period the school correspondents often compained that the walls of the bluestone buildings were damp, affecting the plaster. In 1923 a brick room 26 ft 6 in by 24 ft with a fireplace and four rooms facing south, was added, and a corridor built to link the three buildings. This served adequately for the next 40 years. The school bell probably dates to 1883. The school also has a memorial gate (1951) to World War One ex-students, and an honour board to the 64 ex-students who served in the First World War. The school roll fell to 42 in the early post war-years, but was boosted by an influx of migrants, mainly from the UK, from the late 1960s. This presaged the boom in Melton’s development, and the corresponding growth of the school, with timber and temporary classrooms added to the previous masonry ones. An endowment pine plantation established in 1930 augmented the school’s fundraising activities when it was harvested in 1968. Part of the site was planted with eucalyptus trees in 1959. Famous ex-students of the early twentieth century included Hector Fraser (internationally successful shooter) and cyclist Sir Hubert Opperman". Photo of Edna and Margaret Barrie with Miles Baunders taken for the Telegrapheducation, local identities

History of the Place "On 17th May 1858 a State subsidised, combined Denominational School was opened by HT Stokes, with an attendance of about 30 children. This school was conducted in the wooden Melton Combined Protestant Church, situated on ‘a creek flat’ thought to be on the north side of Sherwin Street between Pyke and Byran Streets. It is likely that the Church had been established by 1855 and that the first minister was the Rev. Hampshire, who lived in Cambridge House on the Exford Estate. Ministers of the Protestant denominations were invited to hold services there. As there was only one resident Minister in the town (Presbyterian Mr J Lambie), laymen of the various denominations often spoke on Sundays. In 1863 this building was declared a Common School with the number 430. One of its first and most prominent headmasters was John Corr, who served from 1860 to 1864. Most of Mr Corr’s children also became teachers, including Joseph Corr, at the Rockbank school, and J Reford Corr and WS Corr, headmasters and teachers at numerous prestigious private secondary schools around Australia. John Corr purchased land alongside the school and elsewhere in and near Melton, became secretary and treasurer of the new Cemetery Trust, and by July 1861 was deputy registrar of births, deaths and marriages. He walked three miles every Sunday to teach at the Weslyan Sunday School he had established. Despite good reports from the Education Department Inspector, and burgeoning enrolments, the local school committee recommended the dismissal of, firstly, his wife (from the work mistress position), and then him from the headmaster position. Corr saw his dismissal as an attempt to redirect state aid for education from the Combined Protestant school to the support of the Free Presbyterian Minister Rev James Lambie (by one account the owner of the land on which the Common School was erected), whose son-in-law James Scott subsequently assumed responsibility for the school. Rev Lambie failed in his efforts to keep the existing school, which the Education Department Inspector and the majority of Melton citizens regarded as badly situated and badly built. Following a conditional promise of state aid, local contributors in 1868-69 raised ₤72.10.6 towards the cost of an iron-roofed bluestone rubble building 43 ft x 12 ft. This was erected on a new site of 1.5 acres (the present site). The State contributed ₤120 to the new school, which opened in 1870. A very early (c.1874) photograph of the school shows its headmaster and work mistress / assistant teacher (probably James Scott and his wife Jessie) and its (very young) scholars. Similar photos show pupils in front of the school in c.1903, and 1933. In 1877 a second bluestone room costing ₤297 was added and further land acquired from the Agricultural Society (who only needed it two days a year) to enlarge the schoolground to 3 acres. In the early 1880s an underground tank augmented the school water supply and in 1919 a five-roomed wooden residence was added. During this period the school correspondents often compained that the walls of the bluestone buildings were damp, affecting the plaster. In 1923 a brick room 26 ft 6 in by 24 ft with a fireplace and four rooms facing south, was added, and a corridor built to link the three buildings. This served adequately for the next 40 years. The school bell probably dates to 1883. The school also has a memorial gate (1951) to World War One ex-students, and an honour board to the 64 ex-students who served in the First World War. The school roll fell to 42 in the early post war-years, but was boosted by an influx of migrants, mainly from the UK, from the late 1960s. This presaged the boom in Melton’s development, and the corresponding growth of the school, with timber and temporary classrooms added to the previous masonry ones. An endowment pine plantation established in 1930 augmented the school’s fundraising activities when it was harvested in 1968. Part of the site was planted with eucalyptus trees in 1959. Famous ex-students of the early twentieth century included Hector Fraser (internationally successful shooter) and cyclist Sir Hubert Opperman". Ticket for the Grand Centenary Ball at Melton State School 430education, local significant events

Melton South "The establishment of a settlement of Melton South was induced by the opening of the railway in 1884. This subsequently prompted a number of industries, initially sawmills, and in the early twentieth century, chaff mills. This development coincided with the Exford ‘Closer Settlement’ estate at the beginning of the new century, boosting local population and produce, and the development of the chaff industry which employed many people in the Melton area. (Around 1912 the government had brought out English migrants to settle the Exford estate.) By c.1912 the small Melton Railway Station settlement had a boarding house (probably for chaff or sawmill employees), store, a small church and a hall. The Melton Valley Golf Club originated near the railway station in 1927 (in 1931 it moved to the present Melton links). In 1910 the community had built the large timber ‘Victoria Hall’, which became the focus of community life for several generations. In August of that same year AR Robertson MP and D McDonald applied for the establishment of a school on land set aside for that purpose by the Closer Settlement Board, near the Melton Railway Station settlement. District Inspector McRae recommended that a school for classes up to Grade 3 be established as an adjunct to the Melton State School. And so SS3717, ‘Melton Railway School’, was established in the leased Victoria Hall on 1st December 1911. Thomas Lang, head master at Melton since 1896, was in charge of both schools. As a ‘prep’ school only, it was necessary that the older Melton Railway Station settlement students travel to Melton SS430 at Unitt Street. Since 1912 local residents had been petitioning for the establishment of a separate school at Melton Railway Station on the grounds that it would be better if all children from the one home could attend the same school, and that the Victoria Hall was unsuitable as a school building. As a result an area of 2 acres - Allotment 8, Parish of Djerriwarrh, Exford Estate - was reserved for a State School on 4th March 1914. However the Department wrote that a school would not be established there in the near future, as ‘there is no likelihood in sight that the Railway Station settlement will increase in importance’. Parents persisted with their petitions to the Education Department, claiming that the Victoria Hall was too large, had no fireplace, that teachers were unable to use the wall for teaching aids, and that, being less than 20 metres away from a chaff mill employing 30 men, was too noisy. The turning point came when in 1920 the Hall Committee decided to increase its rent for the hall. In 1920 Head Teacher Lang advised the Education Department to discontinue SS3717 as an adjunct. The District Inspector supported this recommendation, and the schools separated in 1923. In April of that year 41 children, comprising Grades 1-8, moved into an almost completed brick building on the present site. On the 6th July 1923 the official opening of the school took place; after a ceremonial journey from the Hall to the school, speeches were given by the Hon AR Robertson and the Chief Inspector of Education. Everyone then journeyed back to Victoria Hall for a ‘bountiful repast’. (These dates are at odds with the date of 5th March 1925 given in Blake as the date the children occupied the new SS3717 brick school building. ) A teacher’s residence had been purchased for ₤500 in 1923, and the school’s name was changed to ‘Melton South’ in the same year. Even though the older Melton South pupils would no longer have to travel to the Unitt Street school, an additional brick room was still required at the Melton SS430 in that same year. In 1961 a new room was added to the school. In 1972, at the beginning of Melton’s boom as a satellite town, the number of enrolments was 224. The school has since shared in the exponential growth of the town of Melton, and at the time of its jubilee celebration (1983), 524 pupils were enrolled. Victoria Hall, neglected and vandalised, was demolished in 1992. It had been handed back to the Council on condition that it be replaced by a new hall, with the same name, and was commemorated by a plaque. Apart from the 1923 brick school building, and the railway station, none of the principal early Melton South public sites survive. Few early residential sites remain. (Further research will establish whether the house on the corner of Station Street and the railway line was the original teacher’s residence.)" Melton State School "On 17th May 1858 a State subsidised, combined Denominational School was opened by HT Stokes, with an attendance of about 30 children. This school was conducted in the wooden Melton Combined Protestant Church, situated on ‘a creek flat’ thought to be on the north side of Sherwin Street between Pyke and Byran Streets. It is likely that the Church had been established by 1855 and that the first minister was the Rev. Hampshire, who lived in Cambridge House on the Exford Estate. Ministers of the Protestant denominations were invited to hold services there. As there was only one resident Minister in the town (Presbyterian Mr J Lambie), laymen of the various denominations often spoke on Sundays. In 1863 this building was declared a Common School with the number 430. One of its first and most prominent headmasters was John Corr, who served from 1860 to 1864. Most of Mr Corr’s children also became teachers, including Joseph Corr, at the Rockbank school, and J Reford Corr and WS Corr, headmasters and teachers at numerous prestigious private secondary schools around Australia. John Corr purchased land alongside the school and elsewhere in and near Melton, became secretary and treasurer of the new Cemetery Trust, and by July 1861 was deputy registrar of births, deaths and marriages. He walked three miles every Sunday to teach at the Weslyan Sunday School he had established. Despite good reports from the Education Department Inspector, and burgeoning enrolments, the local school committee recommended the dismissal of, firstly, his wife (from the work mistress position), and then him from the headmaster position. Corr saw his dismissal as an attempt to redirect state aid for education from the Combined Protestant school to the support of the Free Presbyterian Minister Rev James Lambie (by one account the owner of the land on which the Common School was erected), whose son-in-law James Scott subsequently assumed responsibility for the school. Rev Lambie failed in his efforts to keep the existing school, which the Education Department Inspector and the majority of Melton citizens regarded as badly situated and badly built. Following a conditional promise of state aid, local contributors in 1868-69 raised ₤72.10.6 towards the cost of an iron-roofed bluestone rubble building 43 ft x 12 ft. This was erected on a new site of 1.5 acres (the present site). The State contributed ₤120 to the new school, which opened in 1870. A very early (c.1874) photograph of the school shows its headmaster and work mistress / assistant teacher (probably James Scott and his wife Jessie) and its (very young) scholars. Similar photos show pupils in front of the school in c.1903, and 1933. In 1877 a second bluestone room costing ₤297 was added and further land acquired from the Agricultural Society (who only needed it two days a year) to enlarge the schoolground to 3 acres. In the early 1880s an underground tank augmented the school water supply and in 1919 a five-roomed wooden residence was added. During this period the school correspondents often compained that the walls of the bluestone buildings were damp, affecting the plaster. In 1923 a brick room 26 ft 6 in by 24 ft with a fireplace and four rooms facing south, was added, and a corridor built to link the three buildings. This served adequately for the next 40 years. The school bell probably dates to 1883. The school also has a memorial gate (1951) to World War One ex-students, and an honour board to the 64 ex-students who served in the First World War. The school roll fell to 42 in the early post war-years, but was boosted by an influx of migrants, mainly from the UK, from the late 1960s. This presaged the boom in Melton’s development, and the corresponding growth of the school, with timber and temporary classrooms added to the previous masonry ones. An endowment pine plantation established in 1930 augmented the school’s fundraising activities when it was harvested in 1968. Part of the site was planted with eucalyptus trees in 1959. Famous ex-students of the early twentieth century included Hector Fraser (internationally successful shooter) and cyclist Sir Hubert Opperman". The Express Telegraph articles about the history of Melton South and Melton State Schoolseducation

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