Blair State School

Blair State School was the first school in Queensland to be named after a person instead of a town or locality. It was named after Sir James Blair who was born in Ipswich and attended Ipswich Grammar School. A school was proposed for West End, Ipswich in 1908. James William Blair was the Member for Ipswich in State Parliament at the time. The committee wanted Reals Park as the site, but this was not approved. In 1914 a school was again requested for West End when Blair was the Minister for Public Instruction. The Ipswich Grammar School sold the Government some land and tenders were called in 1915. The school was erected in 1916. The school was opened 24th March 1917 by the Hon. H.F Hardacre. The Headmaster was Andrew Muir plus a staff of 5 teachers and 4 pupil teachers. 274 pupils enrolled the first day. 1930 – a fierce thunder storm caused the collapse of a wing of 3 rooms, luckily around 4.15pm after the children had left. WWII – the male teachers had to dig air-raid trenches in the playgrounds. The children stayed home until there were enough trenches to take half the school population. Then for some time after that half the children came to school in the morning and the other half in the afternoon. Class sizes averaged 40 or more after the war 1975 – the preschool was built 1990 – fire damaged the wooden buildings from 1917. They were demolished and a two-storey brick building constructed 1992 – the school celebrated its 75th Anniversary