CARLTON NORTH PRIMARY SCHOOL

60 LEE STREET CARLTON NORTH, YARRA CITY

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Victorian Heritage Register

School entrance

Statement of Significance

• Additional Place Information

  • History

    CARLTON NORTH PRIMARY SCHOOL - History

    Carlton North Primary School (formerly Lee Street State School and Stockade School, and also known as Primary School No. 1252) is built on the site of the former Collingwood Stockade. 

    
    The Collingwood Stockade was established in 1853 to house convicts who worked in nearby bluestone quarries. When the stockade closed in 1866 the site was acquired by the Mental Hygiene Department for use as an asylum. The stockade buildings were used to house mentally ill patients until 1873.
    
    

    A school utilising the existing buildings on site opened on 28 July 1873. This was just months after the Education Act 1872 became operational, making school compulsory and free for children aged 6 to 15. As the area was then known as Carlton, the school was named ‘Carlton Stockade School’, or simply ‘Stockade School’.
    
    

    The stockade buildings were dilapidated and unsuitable for learning. Head teacher Henry Jones complained to the Department of Education about vermin, bugs, and mould. There was also not enough room for the enrolled children. In 1877 most of the stockade buildings were demolished.

    
    A new school building was opened by the Minister for Education on 28 June 1878. It was based on a generic public-school design by the architect William Henry Ellerker. The design had been prepared for a competition held by the new Department of Public Instruction in 1873. The competition produced 13 generic school designs which were adapted for use across the colony. Ellerker's school designs for the Department were very influential, his most important being the design for the school at Buninyong.
    
    

    Constructed in the Gothic Revival style, the 1878 building was designed with a vast slate roof, relatively short walls, Gothic-style windows and buttresses, and huge windowless gabled ends. It was arranged along a central axis with two end wings, which were built at different lengths. When the school was built, it was intended that the wings could be extended later to meet the requirements of a growing population. 
    
    

    It is thought that the bluestone from the Stockade was repurposed for the foundations. The Lee Street frontage of the building features the words ‘Lee Street School No. 1252’. The school was officially renamed to Lee Street State School in 1879.
    
    

    Though most of the Stockade buildings were demolished in 1877, two significant buildings survived into the twentieth century. The Stockade Governor’s House was used as a residence for the school’s headteacher. It was demolished in 1913. A Prisoner’s Mess made of timber and iron was used as a shelter shed and was demolished in the 1920s. 
    
    

    In 1914 the infant school was built, in response to overcrowding and changing ideas about the education of very young children. It is one of twelve infant schools built from 1911 to 1914 which were based on standard plans designed by G. W. Watson. 
    
    

    Today, there is little evidence of the school’s former life as a Stockade and asylum. A stone tablet, believed to be from the Stockade Governor’s House, has been set into the wall of the 1878 building.
    
    References:

    • Barrett P A (2007) ‘Her Majesty’s Collingwood Stockade: A Snapshot of Gold Rush Victoria’, Provenance: The Journal of Public Record Office Victoria, 6.
    • Blake L J (ed) (1973) Vision and Realisation: A Centenary History of State Education in Victoria, The Government Printer, Melbourne.
    • Burchell L (1980) Victorian schools: a study in colonial government architecture, 1837-1900, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
    • Burchell L (1999) Halls for learning: infant school architecture in Victoria 1900-1939, Moreland City Council, Melbourne. 
    • Peterson R (1993) Historic Government Schools: a Comparative Study June 1993, Department of Planning and Development, Melbourne.
    • Pratt V (1981) Passages of time: a history of Lee Street State School and its site from 1853, V Pratt, Melbourne.
    • The Age (Melbourne), 29 June 1878, p. 6.

    Permit Exemptions

    CARLTON NORTH PRIMARY SCHOOL - Permit Exemptions

    General Exemptions:

    General exemptions apply to all places and objects included in the Victorian Heritage Register (VHR). General exemptions have been designed to allow everyday activities, maintenance and changes to your property, which don’t harm its cultural heritage significance, to proceed without the need to obtain approvals under the Heritage Act 2017.

    Places of worship: In some circumstances, you can alter a place of worship to accommodate religious practices without a permit, but you must notify the Executive Director of Heritage Victoria before you start the works or activities at least 20 business days before the works or activities are to commence.

    Subdivision/consolidation: Permit exemptions exist for some subdivisions and consolidations. If the subdivision or consolidation is in accordance with a planning permit granted under Part 4 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 and the application for the planning permit was referred to the Executive Director of Heritage Victoria as a determining referral authority, a permit is not required.

    Specific exemptions may also apply to your registered place or object. If applicable, these are listed below. Specific exemptions are tailored to the conservation and management needs of an individual registered place or object and set out works and activities that are exempt from the requirements of a permit. Specific exemptions prevail if they conflict with general exemptions.

    Find out more about heritage permit exemptions here.

    Specific Exemptions:

    Buildings constructed or moved to the site post 1990 (this exemption does not apply to buildings which link with or abut the 1878 school building or 1914 infant school building) 

    • All internal works
    • Removal or demolition
    • Construction of ramps to facilitate access. 

    Buildings which link with or abut the 1878 school building or 1914 infant school building  

    • Internal works, provided that there is no change to the external building envelope and that no works intersect with the 1878 school building or 1914 infant school building.

    Access

    • Repair of existing ramps and associated decks and platforms and replacement of these elements where form, scale, materials, appearance and method of fixing remain the same.  

    Landscape/ outdoor areas  

    • Installation and replacement of shade sail fabric and supporting structure
    • Replacement of playground equipment and outdoor furniture in the same location
    • Pruning of all trees to ensure safety
    • Removal, replacement and installation of new ground surfacing treatments (for example, asphalt, safety matting) provided it is not within five metres of significant buildings.

    Permit Exemption Policy

    CARLTON NORTH PRIMARY SCHOOL - Permit Exemption Policy

    It is recommended that a Conservation Management Plan is utilised to manage the place in a manner which respects its cultural heritage significance.
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