Pullenvale State School has stood in Brisbane’s western outskirts for 151 years, long enough to watch paddocks become pavements and barefoot students become great-grandparents. It’s a thread in the fabric of the community, woven through with stories of resilience, reinvention and everyday learning.
It was 1874 when the first class gathered in a simple timber building at the corner of Herron and Haven roads. Back then, Pullenvale was a remote stretch of farmland, and the school was built with community hands and funding, with families agreeing to cover part of the costs. Thirty-two children were enrolled that first day, meeting the minimum start requirement. The curriculum was basic: reading, writing and arithmetic. However, education was a commitment worth fighting for for the pioneering families who had cleared land and built homes.
From One Room to Generations
In those early years, school wasn’t always easy to keep running. Attendance dropped during planting seasons, and children often had to leave class to help on the farm. Still, the school survived, sometimes only because parents registered younger siblings to boost the numbers.
By 1906, the original building had seen better days. The Department agreed to move the schoolhouse about a kilometre down to Grandview Road, where it still stands today. Families helped haul it there. The headmaster had to walk in from the old site each morning for a while, until the teacher’s residence joined the classroom two years later.
As the decades passed, Pullenvale’s school changed with the times. In the 1920s, nature study and agriculture joined the lessons. Children raised calves and grew gardens, presenting their projects yearly on Club Day. The school also became a social hub, hosting dances in local packing sheds and tennis matches on makeshift courts.
Longtime residents remember what it was like. In winter, cold air seeped through the floorboards. Students sat shoulder-to-shoulder at long desks, swatting at the occasional possum rustling above. Games like rounders and Red Rover filled lunch breaks, while swimming in the local creek was a favourite pastime.
Changing with the Community
By the 1960s and ’70s, the district began shifting. Farmland slowly gave way to new houses, and student numbers rose again. Parents and principals pushed for better facilities. In 1981, their efforts paid off as a new school building was constructed just down the road, and the old site was transformed into something entirely new.
That same year, the Pullenvale Environmental Education Centre (PEEC) was born. Led by young principal Dr Ron Tooth, PEEC was set up to blend the area’s natural beauty with hands-on environmental learning. What started with one school building soon grew into a site rich with history, as old schoolhouses from around Queensland were brought in, restored and repurposed for outdoor learning.
Today, PEEC hosts thousands of students each year and has earned national recognition for its storytelling-based programs that connect kids to land, history and culture. It also works closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders to ensure Indigenous perspectives are respectfully shared and understood.
A Legacy Still Growing
In March 2024, Pullenvale State School marked its 150th anniversary with a day of community celebrations.
Families past and present came together to remember where it all began. To honour the occasion, a plaque was presented to the school’s principal, Natala Crawley. But even as the speeches wrapped up and the cake was cut, there was a sense that the school’s story was far from over.
Now entering another year, the school continues to serve the children of Brisbane’s outer west, just as it did all those years ago. The desks and uniforms may look different, but the heart of the school, the care, the community, the commitment to learning, remains the same.
Published 26-May-2025
