Carey Park Primary School

Statement of Significance

DEMOLISHED The original Carey Park Primary School has historic value as the school established to service the educational needs of the newly developed suburby of Carey Park in the 1950s. Carey Park was developed by the State Housing Commission to address the housing shortage in the Bunbury area in the post World War II period. [A new school was built on the same site in 2000.]

Physical Description

DEMOLISHED There are no original buildings on the site.

History

The satellite suburb of Carey Park was established by the State and local governments in the Post World War II period to provide low cost housing. The establishment of Carey Park was one of the responses to the population boom following the war. In 1953, a small island site of 2.3 hectares bounded by Frankel, Ecclestone and Woodrow Streets was selected as the school site. The Public Works Department drew up plans for the first stage of the primary school consisting of four classrooms, teachers’ rooms, head teachers’ room, a lobby and detached toilet blocks. Cary Park Infants School commenced in September 1955 and the school was officially opened on 5 June 1956. Two classrooms were added in 1957 and St Elizabeth’s Hall was leased for further classrooms. Plans were drawn up for more classrooms – two were built in 1959 and another four in 1960. Demountable classrooms were added in the 1960s. Carey Park Primary School reached full Primary School status in 1958. In 1974, the school came under the Disadvantaged Schools Program and a new resource centre was opened. Cluster classrooms were completed in 1976. Although the PWD recommended replacement of the school buildings to the Minister for Education in 1979, a major refurbishment program was commenced in the early 1980s. further work was completed in the 1990s. Carey Park Primary School was built as a temporary school to cater for the children in the new suburb and always included a number of Aboriginal students. The school encouraged institutional and community pride, and was a focus of social cohesiveness. Homeswest launched the redevelopment of Carey Park in 1993, and in 1999 the Education Department announced plans to redevelop a new school on the site. Prior to demolition in 2000/01, an extensive oral history and archival project was undertaken. This is now housed at the Bunbury Local Studies Collection. A new, purpose built primary school was built on the same site in 2000/01. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION of site prior to demolition: The primary school was constructed contemporaneously with surrounding development, but without any specific physical relationship with that development. A local centre is located one block west on the opposite side of Frankel Street. Residential development is located directly opposite each streetblock frontage. All buildings on the site were single storeyed. The original buildings were constructed from timber, asbestos and tile, due to the limited resources and supplies of building materials available at the time of the school’s initial construction. Those materials have proved difficult to maintain efficiently. The later buildings were constructed of brick and tile, with the larger structures having a steel frame and using infill brick external walls. The school buildings were formed in a hollow square, located parallel to Frankel Street and close to the southern boundary with Woodrow Street. Each of the three wings of classrooms were similarly configured with a line of classrooms, facing south or west, accessed from wide verandahs, along the north and east facades. The west side of the hollow square was closed by the Library/Resource Centre, constructed c. 1980, and added to in 1985. The original section of the classroom block walls and verandah balustrades were lined with rusticated weatherboards to sill height, timber framed door and window openings, flush panel doors, asbestos lining to the upper wall between openings, asbestos eaves and verandah linings, timber fascias and marseilles patterned terra cotta tiled roof. Gables were lined with rusticated weatherboard. Lower walls were lined with timber battens over stumps, except for cloakroom areas, stairs and ramps, which were constructed of concrete. The additions to the classroom block were undertaken in the same style, in the same materials and with a common floor level throughout. This produced a relatively seamless classroom block through some ten stages of development, and several refurbishment phases. The style of the classroom block was a stripped and rationalised traditional structure which was prevalent in the post war period of development, in suburbs such as Scarborough, and was closest in style to the Post War Melbourne Regional and Post War Brisbane Regional of Identifying Australian Architecture. For a comprehensive description of the original Carey Park Primary School, see the Documentary Evidence in Heritage Council of Western Australia, ‘Register of Heritage Places – Below Threshold: Carey Park Primary School’, 1999.

Integrity/Authenticity

DEMOLISHED

Condition

DEMOLISHED

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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