schoolofarts

Charters Towers is arguably the most beautiful inland city in Queensland. It may not have the range of domestic architecture that makes Ipswich so distinctive but in terms of public architecture it is unrivalled. Like Kalgoorlie, Cue and Coolgardie in Western Australia it is a city built from the huge profits of goldmining and, as such, the city fathers (a quixotic band of nouveau riche miners) were determined to flaunt their wealth. Today the city is beautifully preserved and the best of the buildings are concentrated on Mosman Street and Gill Street. No one is certain about the origin of the town's name. One popular explanation is that the gold prospector Hugh Mosman, who is credited with first finding gold in the district, saw three hills and named them Charters Tors after W.S.E.M. Charters, the mining warden at Ravenswood. The town never became Charters Tors because, as early as December, 1871 the local paper, the Ravenswood Miner, was referring to the settlement as Charters Towers. Source: www.aussietowns.com.au/town/charters-towers-qld

In 1878 meetings were held to bring about the construction of the School of Arts which opens in December on Mosman Street conducted at John Gard's Clubhouse Hotel beside. In 1900 the School of Arts commences the Charters Towers Technical College inside the old Clubhouse Hotel. Source: www.charterstowers.qld.gov.au/council/charters-towers-his...

Image used in a postcard for the Franco-British International Exhibition in London in 1908.

The School of Arts Building was erected in 1888 and is situated in the main street of the Bundaberg CBD. This State heritage-listed two stoery building has a curved internal staircase, offering unique photo opportunities for groups and formals. Close to local government offices, post office, cafés and shops, the first floor veranda offers picturesque views of the CBD. The building’s striking pink façade and decorative arches make this venue a distinctive feature of Bundaberg’s main street. There are two rooms, a meeting room with a kitchenette and an exhibition gallery. Source: formstmp.bundaberg.qld.gov.au/MD-7-702.pdf

Bundaberg School of Arts is a heritage-listed former school of arts and now a community center at 184 Bourbong Street, Bundaberg Central, Bundaberg, Bundaberg Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Anton Hettrich and built from 1888 to 1889. From 1889 the School of Arts offered technical classes in a variety of practical subjects including drawing, shorthand, bookkeeping, typing, dressmaking, millinery, chemistry, dairy work, manual training, and carpentry. These were so successful that in 1898 a timber hall designed by Frederick Faircloth was built behind the School of Arts to accommodate them. This had a stage and piano and was hired out when not in use, thus expanding the activities of the institution, and was enlarged soon after it was built. However, in 1908 the Technical Education Act shifted responsibility for the provision of such classes to the government, a factor in the demise of Schools of Arts generally. The interior of the building is intact and well detailed. The ground floor walls are plastered brick and there is a central hall from which the former library and offices are reached. The main staircase at the rear of the hall is semicircular in plan and has two niches and a window in the stairwell and a turned timber balustrade leading to a first-floor landing. This is joined to the former reading room by a short hall which has smaller rooms to the left and right. The partition walls are of narrow tongue and groove vertical boarding and there are timber ceilings and cornices. The doors have fretted transoms with a lyre and acanthus design, a classical reference appropriate to a center dedicated to education and the arts. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundaberg_School_of_Arts