education

The school was also located in a place of prominence, at the top of the second hill in Mount Shamrock. The selection of this position by residents can be considered deliberate as adequate flat land was available behind the residential and business area. Churches and administrative buildings such as courthouses in nineteenth-century Queensland settlements often occupied a hilltop position but there were no municipal or administrative buildings in Mount Shamrock. Instead, the school building fulfilled these roles, being the venue for public performances, community dances, and other entertainment, the location where visiting clergymen held church services, and the venue for elections, public meetings, and receptions for visiting dignitaries. The location was not selected for practical reasons; there was considerable debate over location between residents when the school building from Paradise was moved to Mount Shamrock (QSA 15567). Despite the identification of more suitable and accessible locations, the school remained in a focal position on the hill, overlooking the town, visible to all. Source: "Streets and stamper batteries – an ‘industrial’ landscape of gold mining townships in nineteenth-century Queensland" by GERALDINE MATE AUSTRALASIAN HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 32, 2014

For Mount Shamrock, a 19th-century gold-mining town outside of Biggenden in Queensland, we get a picture of a mining town where the mine was an important feature in the town, yet also a town where the relationships between the residents are important enough to transcribe onto a map and are features of the everyday social milieu. Government authorities saw it as “a mine of great promise” (Annual Report of the Department of Mines 1896) with the locals promoting a “settled and business-like aspect” (Maryborough Chronicle 1887). Elsie Bilbrough, a young teacher who recently arrived from England, saw wilderness, flooding, and disorder. Source: blog.qm.qld.gov.au/2017/05/16/meaning-in-maps/

Peak Crossing is a rural village 20 km south of central Ipswich. It is west of Flinders Peak (675m) which is in the Scenic Rim, and was named after a crossing point on the Purga Creek. Peak Crossing is nine km west of Flinders Peak. Farm selections in the Peak Crossing district were taken up in the 1860s, and a primary school was opened in 1871. At first named Purga Creek, it was renamed Peak Mountain in about 1875 and Peak Crossing in the early 1920s. By the end of the 1870s Peak Crossing had a Congregational church, two stores and the Peak Mountain Hotel. In 1882 the railway to Harrisville was opened with a stop at Peak Crossing, and a Catholic church was built. There is a record of a Presbyterian church in the 1892 post office directory. The Catholic Church appears to have been the strongest faith in the district, with its adherents forming a Hibernian Society in 1881. Peak Crossing had an active farming community, and it continues in conjunction with rural/residential living and the Peak Views estate west of the village. There are a general store, the Peak Pub and the P-7 school with an enrolment of 209 pupils in 2013. Source: queenslandplaces.com.au/peak-crossing

According to Wikipedia, Purga Creek No 2 School opened on 4 September 1871.[8] It was renamed Peak Mountain State School before 1875. In the late 1920s it was renamed Peak Crossing State School.[

Prior to the 1960s, state governments had sole responsibilities for Aboriginal affairs, thus Aboriginal education policies differed across Australia. There was, however, a perception common to all state policies that Aboriginal people were inherently inferior and should receive minimal schooling. This perception was consistent with the general policy of excluding Aboriginal people from contact with non-Aboriginal people and the specific policies in some states of excluding Aboriginal children from government-run schools which persisted into the 1950s. Indeed, estimates suggest that only a very small proportion of Aboriginal children in Australia in the 1940s were being educated in state schools. In total, only about a quarter were receiving any sort of formal education, mostly in institutions and particularly in Christian missions. It has been well documented that the educational experiences of Aboriginal children in missions were far from ideal. Education often had a greater focus on Christian principles than formal education, with very little attention given to Aboriginal culture and languages. Source: Chapter 2 Educating Aboriginal Children – Issues, Policy and History www.telethonkids.org.au/globalassets/media/documents/abor...