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Early Beginnings
In her book, “Cooloola”, Ailsa R. Dawson said, “Nothing portrays a town’s progress more than the provision made for teaching the children, and Tewantin’s growth and progress can be aptly judged by the growth of its school.” Our school had its origins as a temporary bark building by the shores of the Noosa River at Tewantin. In 1875 a provisional school was erected near the corner of Pelican and Doonella Streets. Thick scrub in this area was cleared to enable the school to be erected and a track for the children was made by the local policeman. Enrolment at this time was about 16. The first teacher was Charles Manning who taught from September 1875 to August 1876. Unfortunately teachers came and went regularly causing plenty of unofficial “holidays”. A new building 8m x 5m with full equipment of 4 desks, 5 forms, 1 table, 1 cane chair, 1 bookcase (no doors) and 1 blackboard was erected at the present site with fencing being built and extended to make horse paddocks for the children’s horses. Gradually the grounds were improved and a covered play area was constructed at a cost of $160. The first Arbor Day was held in 1890 using trees from the Department of Agriculture. Freight charges for transport of the trees on the paddle-wheeler, “Culgoa”, was 10c. During these times the Head Teacher was paid $200 per year plus fees of $82 from the 41 children. In the early 1900’s Tewantin’s longest serving Head Teacher was Mr William Hooper, who remained for 31 Years. During his term of office many plots of pine trees were planted in the school grounds.
School Growth
Later, the land on the corner of Cullinane Street and Werin Street was acquired by the Education Department, until today, we have our modern school consisting of eighteen main buildings including library, special education and Pre School. Tewantin State School celebrated its 125th Anniversary in August 2000.
A valuable tradition was first introduced in 1953. This was the Weaver Bursary. A Victorian gentleman, Walter Theo Weaver, visited Tewantin regularly for his winter holidays and after years of getting to know Tewantin School children, he left a large sum of money in his will to be used to institute a bursary scheme for the children of the school. Many children since then and right up to the present time have
benefited from Mr Weaver’s very kind and generous gesture. Few State Schools in Australia have a lucrative bursary scheme such as this, to benefit deserving Year 7 students during their five years study at high school.
Noosa
National Park
Noosa
Everglades
Photographs reproduced on this
page are used with the kind permission of Tony Masche, Sunshine Coast Tourism
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