OFFICIAL DEET HISTORY
LOWER HOMEBUSH
STATE SCHOOL #2258
Lower Homebush was a bustling settlement on
an alluvial goldfield about 6 miles to the NE of Avoca. In March 1878 William Campbell and
others urged the establishment of a school for the large number of children. A hardwood
building, 30ft x 13ft, but unlined, unceiled and without a floor, was purchased from
William Burhlert for £30 and moved to a site on crown land that
had been gazetted as a school reserve on Jan. 23, 1880. William Bennett carried out its
removal, re-erection and renovation for £69 16s.
This building was almost immediately overcrowded and a church hall, 44ft x
24ft, was leased from the Union Church in 1881 for £38 p.a.
and used an adjunct. Within months the adjunct too was overcrowded, and children under 6
and over 13 were excluded. In 1882, when the enrollment was 183 and the *a. a. as high as
112, the Department provided a third building- a portable with quarters-which was erected
beside the building purchased from William Burhlert. On the occasion of the
inspector’s visit in 1882 175 children attended.
Residents
thought the makeshift building unworthy of their prosperous township and gained Board of
Advice support when they urged erection of a permanent and substantial building. In 1887 a
handsome new school was erected at an estimated cost of £1,360. It
consisted of two rooms of brick-50ft x 20ft and 20ft x 20ft. The old hardwood building was
left as a shelter-shed and the portable removed elsewhere. As with many goldfields schools
the *a. a. soon fell rapidly: by 1903 there was only 40. The two small classrooms were now
unused and HT J. T. Hynes sought permission to convert them into a residence, at his own
expense. His proposal was approved but the project apparently proved beyond his means. He
appears to have dismantled the galleries and used the timber as partitions in the
classrooms. The name of the school was changed to Homebush in 1919, but the
“Lower” was restored in 1951. This school was unstaffed in 1962 and finally
closed on Aug. 10, 1967.
* a. a. -
stands for average attendence