The story of the Gympie School of Arts is told by Raeburn Webb in his book The Gympie School of Arts, Ninety Years of Service, 1905-1995. Gympie sprang to life when gold was discovered in 1867. Three years later a group of citizens met to discuss the formation of a school of arts, and, following a public meeting, a building was purchased for twenty five pounds with a further twenty pounds spent on renovations providing a library and reading room/meeting room. The initial response was slow, with only 84 subscribers and 90 books added in the first five years. The government was actively encouraging mining education in 1885, and classes for miners commenced that year. The government offered a grant of 750 pounds in 1890 towards new buildings, subject to their availability for mining education. The Gympie community rallied to a public meeting and undertook the task of raising 2000 pounds for a new school of arts and mines. Many of the same people served on the separate committees which administered the School of Mines and School of Arts and the technical classes which included shorthand, dressmaking, mathematical drawing, physics, chemistry and botany. Books for the library were purchased from Mudies in Britain and the reading room provided 47 newspapers and magazines. The school of arts and mines flourished during the 1890s with 236 subscribers by 1901. Although new rooms were added to the rear of the building, some mining classes were held in rooms of the old court house.

The mining fraternity lacked confidence in the ability of the school of arts to provide adequate mining education. By contrast the Charters Towers School of Mines was administered by people directly involved in the industry, quite separately from the school of arts and its technical college. The course at Gympie was experiencing difficulties as early as 1903, and the school of mines eventually closed. The school of arts and technical education continued to thrive, however, in a new spacious building opened in 1905. Built for 1400 pounds in brick, with walls 14 inches thick, it accommodated a large hall, library and four classrooms downstairs, and a billiard room and reading room upstairs. The reading room opened on to the wide balconies on three sides of the building.

Forty-eight students from five local primary schools attended classes in cooking, dressmaking, book-keeping, carpentry, and chemistry in 1909, and the following year a new carpentry shop was built. In 2005 this was serving as the Language Development Centre of the TAFE, next door to the municipal library. In response to the Department’s regulations of 1910, the technical classes were separated from the school of arts which could nominate only three members of the management committee. Of the other six members, three were government nominations, and three were nominated by students and parents. When the high school opened in 1912 its students visited for technical classes. Technical education continued to prosper despite the drop in numbers of subscribers to the school of arts. The date at which the technical college closed is unclear. E. Clarke in Technical and Further Education in Queensland gives 1937 as the earliest and 1970 as the latest. Webb dates the opening of TAFE as the early 1970s. The hobby classes which continued in the facility moved to other venues when they became part of the Adult Education program. It was not until 1977 that the municipal council took complete control of the school of arts.

Reference:

Webb, Raeburn, The Gympie School of Arts, Ninety Years of Service, 1905-1995. AEbis Publishing, Brisbane, 1995.