Slade House Circa 1918
Slade House 1933
Slade House 1918
This photo was given to Ted Ross by the late Frank Keenan who attended Slade in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Apparently the photo was taken from on top of the classroom block.
This photo was included in the February – March 2000 Kinawah.
Frank wrote that at the time the photo was taken the cadet unit was formed up in front of Slade House under the care of Lt. Daintree (a master at that time) in front and AIC W/O Garlick (on right of picture). It’s thought that Garlick was regular army. The NCO’s were Quarter Master Sgt Barry Rowland, Platoon Sgt F Keenan, Corporal Ian Fairbairn and L/Corporal Ted Oerton.
Brief History of Education in Warwick
Alan Cunningham found the Darling Downs in 1827 on his trip to find an inland route to Moreton Bay. It wasn’t for another 13 years before Patrick, George and Walter Leslie settled in the area as squatters, naming their run Canning Downs. In 1847 the NSW government asked Leslie to select a site on his station for a township, which was to be called ‘Cannington,’ although the name ‘Warwick’ was eventually settled on. Land sales were held in 1850, and the first allotment was bought by Leslie.
Warwick East State School opened on 4 November 1850. It was the second school built in what is now Queensland and is the oldest state primary school still operating in Queensland. Drayton State School, built in 1851 is the second oldest school still operating.
The Reverend Benjamin Glennie who commenced his ministry on the Downs in 1848, saw the importance of education for all the children on the Downs not just for the wealthy. He set about purchasing land and building huts that could be used for church services and for classrooms. His saddle bag was full of books he thought would be useful for teaching children to read.
Warwick Central State School opened on 26 July 1865.
Miss O’Mara opened a school on 27 January 1867 in the Oddfellows Hall.
The 1870s were boom years for this new town and in 1871 the Southern railway line reached Warwick. It was also the time that the Education Bill (1875) which foreshadowed the end of state aid to denominational schools, was passed. Funds now needed to be raised for church schools, and we see many generous offers made by squatters and wealthy businessmen to found such schools.
On 29 October 1874, the Sisters of Mercy took over Miss O’Mara’s school at the Oddfellows Hall renaming it St Mary’s School.
In 1893, the Sisters of Mercy relocated their convent and St Mary’s School to the newly constructed Our Lady of the Assumption Convent in Locke Street.
Warwick State High School opened on 1 February 1912. It is one of the oldest state secondary schools in Queensland.
St Mary’s School also expanded, creating a secondary school called Assumption College in 1912, and in 1914 enlarged the convent to accommodate the growing secondary school.
In February 1918, the Church of England High School for Girls opened with over 40 students. In 1937 St Catharine’s School, which had been started in 1909 by the Sisters of the Sacred Advent in Stanthorpe, moved to Warwick amalgamating with CEGS. The school continued to be operated by the Sisters of the Sacred Advent with the first headmistress being Miss Margaret Brown who later became Headmistress of the Glennie School in Toowoomba.
In February 1918, the Presbyterian Girls College (PGC) opened in an existing house “Glenbrae” on over five acres in Locke Street, as a boarding and day school with 53 girls under headmistress Miss Constance Mackness (who retired in 1949, the longest serving headmistress of the school). The school was established by local families who did not want to have to send their daughters to Toowoomba for a Presbyterian education.
In 1918, to meet the need for Presbyterian education for boys, the Scots College opened as a Presbyterian boarding and day for boys in an existing house “Arranmore” on the banks of the Condamine River under headmaster James Logan Briggs.
Slade School opened on 30 January 1926 in the house “Eastmont” (now known as “Slade House”) on the ridge on the northern side of the Condamine River. The Rev C Newton Mell, Slade’s second headmaster, saw the school through the extreme hardship of the Great Depression (1921-1941) . The school was operated by the Bush Brotherhood from 1936 to 1952. In 1977 it merged with St Catharine’s Anglican School but then closed in 1997. In 2000 the site was purchased by the Anglican Church Grammar School (based in Brisbane), becoming their Slade Campus. However they decided to close the campus in 2005 saying it was not economically viable. In 2007 the site was purchased by the local council. In 2013 the site was purchased by the Warwick Christian College which commenced operations in 2014.
Warwick West State School opened on 31 January 1956.
Glennie Heights State School opened on 25 January 1960.
In 2007 the Warwick Christian College, Canningvale Rd, was founded to provide Christian education to Southern Downs’ children.
The East who built Slade House, then called “Eastmont” was my Great Grandfather and the Grandfather of Val Lucas who was my mother Val Gardner. Of course he was also the Great Grandfather of my sister Ann and my cousin Elizabeth Bloomfield(Rowland) who also went to St Catharine”s. I am trying to find some more history about this.
Jill Anthony(Gardner)