Oakleigh State School

During the 1930s, the Ashgrove area was experiencing a building boom with an accompanying population explosion. This growth was precipitated by the extension of the tramline to Oleander Drive on Waterworks Road in 1924 and the development of Glenlyon Gardens Estate and other residential estates during the mid-1920s. 

Although some areas of Dorrington, including around the site of the proposed school, had been subdivided and offered for sale as early as the 1890s, they were slow to develop. More residential estates including Dorrington Park and Glenlyon Gardens Extension were subdivided in the 1920s, but a substantial amount of the housing in these areas was built after World War II.  The nearby Grove Estate, first offered for sale in the 1870s and 1880s, was well populated by the inter-war period. Children from this area faced a walk of over one mile, sometimes across swollen creeks, to attend the Ashgrove State School at West Ashgrove.

In the early 1930s, the Oakleigh State School Building Committee was formed to lobby the Department of Public Instruction for the construction of a school to accommodate some 170 children from the Grove Estate area. The name Oakleigh was derived from the Oakden family who donated the site for the school. One of the Oakdens married a Miss Leigh and settled in the area. The chairman of the school building committee was Mr. George Oakden Snr.  

In 1932, part of the site was cleared and levelled by relief workers under the government's scheme to provide work for the unemployed. The cost of the first school building, which included three classrooms, 8 ft. verandahs, a teacher's room and fencing was approximately £1,500. This first stage of the school was quite small, being only the western wing of the present building. The school was officially opened on 30 January 1934 with 147 students. The opening was attended by members of the building committee, Mr. F.A. Cooper, the Minister for Public Instruction and local Girl Guides and Scouts.

Extensions to the school, comprised of the centre portion of the building, were approved in July 1934, at a cost of £4,000. The foundation stone was laid on the 29 September by G.C. Taylor, MLA. At the request of Mr. Thomas Kilby, the first headmaster, a balcony was constructed from which he could address the school assembly. The extensions were opened in 1935. An additional wing on the eastern side of the school was later added, completing the symmetry of the building.

Improvements to Oakleigh State School included the installation of a "modern sanitary system" and antbed tennis courts built by relief workers in the late 1930s. The school site was extended by the securement of land on the southern and eastern sides of the school. During World War II, the school was declared a No. 1 Danger Area because of its proximity to the Enoggera Army Camp. Air raid practises, the building of trenches and other precautions were carried out in the effort to ensure the safety of the school's population.

Today, Oakleigh State School is a modern facility which continues to provide a pre-school and primary education for local families.

1. Burmester, Paul, Margaret Pullar and Michael Kennedy. Queensland Schools: A Heritage Conservation Study. November 1996

2. Hayter, Dot, (ed.). The School Bell Retolled: Oakleigh State School Golden Jubilee 1934-84

3. Ashgrove: P & C Association Oakleigh State School, 1984