Ipswich Central State School

Ipswich State School opened in a new brick two storey building on a grant of land bounded by Limestone, Gordon and Brisbane Streets in mid-1861, one of only eleven State Schools in Queensland at the time. In September 1875 the school was divided into two schools - one for boys and one for girls and infants; previously the girls and infants had occupied the lower storey, and the boys the upper storey. At the same time the name of the schools was changed to Ipswich East.

In 1875, the St Paul's School came under Government control, and was named the Ipswich Middle Girls' and Infants State School. This school moved into the converted Harris's Store, on the corner of Bell and Union Streets, in April 1877. The Ipswich East Girl's and Infants Schools amalgamated with this school in July 1878, and the pupils moved into the converted premises to help relieve the overcrowding of the Boys' school at the Gordon Street premises. The Boys' School changed its name to Ipswich Central in 1894.

During the 1893 floods the Boys' School brick building was inundated, and by October 1899 was condemned because of its dangerous condition. Prior to the condemning, the Mayor Ald. R. McLeod had suggested in 1898 that 'three acres in Queens Park, having frontage to two chains to Brisbane Street' should be the site for a new school'. This site was originally part of the Botanical Gardens and Recreation Grounds deeded to private Trustees in 1862 and over which the Council gained control in the 1890s. Tenders were called in 1900 for the erection on this site of a timber building on brick piers, with corrugated iron roof. In the interim the boys used the Queens Park drill shed and site for classes.

The buildings, facing Milford Street, were opened on 3 August 1901, and it was noted that the buildings have been constructed much on the principle of the modern English school, having a large central hall with classroom wings on either side. At its opening the school building was described as being 90ft long and 72ft wide. The central hall was 70ft by 20ft, on the northern side a classroom 50ft x 25ft; on the southern side, two classrooms each 25ft 9ins by 25ft. There were two teacher's rooms each 20ft square and also four hat and cloak rooms 26ft by 10ft. In comparing a 1909 photo of the Boys' school buildings, it appears as if the northerly wing has been demolished, and the southerly wing no longer features a ventilator on its main ridge. The original opportunity school was in the south wing of this building, but a separate modern school has been built to the north, closest to the railway line, on the site of a former tennis court.

In 1913 it was announced that a new Central Girls' School, facing Brisbane Street, would be built next to the Central Boys' School. Classes commenced in March 1915. Changes were made to the grounds, especially between 1928 and 1940 when relief workers were employed by the Council to create jobs during the 1930s Depression.

From time to time repairs and minor alterations were carried out by the Department, but in the mid 1930s both schools required major additions of extra classrooms to cope with the steadily increasing number of pupils. In 1974 the Boys' and Girls' Schools were reunited on a single site, at the present Central School site on the corner of Griffith and Chermside Roads. In 1991, the Central Schools buildings facing Brisbane Street, served as District Offices for the Department of Education.