Not always known as Maryborough Central State School our changes in name and school location are among many of the interesting stories that history has to tell.
Location 1: School of Arts 1862-1865
The Maryborough Primary School opened on the corner of Kent Street in the original school of the arts building on 10 March 1862 and maintained its location until 1865. On day one, a recorded 35 students attended school with many more joining in the weeks following. Numbers grew to 57 students with plans already under way for a bigger purpose-built building to accommodate more students.
Location 2: Alice and Lennox Streets (site of the current fire station) 1866- July 1877
This who story location saw the boys occupy the lower level and the girls the upper. As the migrant ships continued up the Mary River unloading human cargo the only school in Maryborough was soon flooded with children and in 1875 two new schools were to be opened. This is when 'Central' was first included in the school's name.
Migrants were housed in the barracks at the current site of the Maryborough Court House. With many migrants, plans were underway build a new immigration barracks (completed in April 1876).
Location 3: Kent Street - July 1877 to Current Day
With a lack of water at the new immigration barracks it is unknown if people ever occupied the location. Acute overcrowding of the Alice Street location saw the need to swap the use of the barracks and current schoolhouse. The Maryborough Central School began occupancy of the current site and school began on 23, July of 1977. Again, boys were accommodated on the lower floor and girls and infants on the top. From January 1977, Maryborough Central School operated as three separate schools: Boys, Girls and Infants with close to 800 enrolments.
A separate infants building was completed in August 1882 and is still in use today (A Block). The teacher's residence was built next in 1882 on Sussex Street. Play sheds were added in 1908 and the Technical College (Learning Hub).
Location 4: Temporary – The Showgrounds 1933-1934
When the time came for an overhaul of the old immigration barracks the school was shifted for a short time to the showgrounds (Site of Chelsea Retirement Village). In 1935, students and staff returned to their Kent Street Location where they have been for the last 90 years.