October 23rd, 2025Trentham Primary School celebrating 150 years

There were a number of settlers with large families who felt a school was needed in the Trentham area and from late 1867, a movement had been afoot seeking aid from the Board of Education by way of a teacher’s salary.

The Board eventually decided to give the salary July 1869, provided the settlers organised the erection of a schoolhouse to approved specifications and also provided the necessary furniture for the school.
The Daylesford-Trentham Road site was decided upon which was close to Enders Steam Saw Mills. Mr Enders gave the timber for the building, Mr Phipps provided the shingles, and the settlers provided the labour to clear the site and fell the timber which was later used for the building.
The Union Steam Saw Mills School No. 1010 was finished on March 15, 1870 and was officially opened on June 27, 1870 by head teacher James Thompson. The school was well attended with 82 on the roll in 1874. Numbers eventually waned and the school closed in the late 1890s.
Trentham School No. 629 was opened on April 1, 1860 and was established by the Presbyterian Church in a rented building on land donated by Isaac Pearson. Ebenezer A. Gilruth was appointed the head teacher. The average attendance in the early years of the school was 25.
The Centenary History of State Education stated the School Committee had made a tentative approach to the Board hoping to have the school vested in 1868 (funded by government) but the proposal did not eventuate. In 1873, the rented building needed a lot of repairs and was deemed not centrally located. The Board suggested a new site for a school and No. 629 was closed on May 31, 1875.
Trentham School No. 1588 was the new suggested site with dual frontages on Victoria and Bridge streets in the heart of Trentham. This site was gazetted on May 22, 1874 and a 30ft x 18ft timber schoolhouse, plus teacher’s quarters of three rooms were erected.
The school was operational from May 10, 1875 but wasn’t officially recognised until June 1, 1875 after No. 629 was closed. Thomas Raw, head teacher at No. 629, transferred to No. 1588. Enrolments were 112 in 1884 and calls for a bigger school were necessary. Another classroom was added in 1885. Five years later enrolments peaked at 170 and more classrooms were needed. Late 1890, another room was added and the school continued to grow. The school grounds were also being cared for by the students.
The Weekly Times of July 9, 1910 reported: “On July 1 (Arbor Day) the correspondent of the local board of advice presented the association’s prize for the best-kept grounds to the Trentham State School. This is the sixth prize which now hangs on the walls of the school, and there are also seven first-class certificates from the Education Department awarded to the school.”
Fast forward 20 years and enrolments are 88 in 1930 and 98 in 1937. Two more classrooms are added and the school remodelled with an official opening for the additions on October 22, 1938. School enrolments stayed steady over the next 20 years with numbers at 90 in 1956.
Another 20 years passed when an invitation appears in the King Island News on October 9, 1974. “A Back to Trentham (incorporating the Centenary of the Trentham Primary School) will be held on March 14-16, 1975 and a warm invitation is extended to all ex-pupils and teachers of the primary school and of St. Mary’s and all ex-residents to return for the celebrations. A ball will be held on the Friday evening and on Saturday at 1.30pm a procession from the post office to the school, then the main gathering and reunion will be at the school.”
The school website shows in 1994 the school merged with Little Hampton Primary School after its closure by the Education Department. The school would now have a bigger capacity and accommodate more local families in readiness for an upcoming celebration. The Weekly Times of April 14, 1999 shows Trentham Primary School No.1588 holding its 125th anniversary in March 2000.
In July 2009, the new main building was completed, and the Minister of Education Bronwyn Pike opened the building on March 26, 2010. The school website states the first stage of the building included an office and reception area, four classrooms, multi-purpose area and library.
In April 2011 the school opened a second building, funded through the ‘Building the Education Revolution’ program, which houses the art program, a commercial kitchen for cooking classes and activities, and two classrooms and was opened by the Federal Ballarat MP Catherine King on December 6, 2011.
Next month, the school celebrates its 150th anniversary on November 23.
Current enrolments are 85.

Words: Historian Natalie Poole | Images: Trentham Historical Society
Next edition: The history of Trentham though the eyes of a young Jack Sleeman.

Random student memories from long ago

I once got the cuts (strap) from Miss Fahey and I didn’t deserve it. All I did was throw a stone up high in the air and this silly girl ran underneath and it hit her on the head. It wasn’t my fault.

One teacher had a car which he kept in a garage in the school yard. As it was on level ground, the car was normally left in neutral. The usual starting procedure was to set the choke, the hand throttle, turn on the key and then turn the motor over with the crank-handle until it started. Unbeknown to him that day, someone had sneaked in and put the car in gear and when the teacher swung the crank-handle, the motor fired, the car moved forward and shoved him up against the end of the garage, bruising his legs. Again, no offender was caught.

There was a rabbit eating things in the school garden and the headmaster Dan McCann asked me to get rid of it. After school I went home and got a trap which I set on the run where the rabbit went under the school. Early next morning I got on my bike and rode to school, but I was too late. There were signs to show that the rabbit had been caught, but the rabbit was gone and so was the trap. One of the kids had beaten me to it.

One teacher who stands out in my mind was Eric Coutts who often read to us poetry like The Man from Snowy River and Where the Pelican Builds her Nest. I never forgot them.

There was once a terrible thing, when the head teacher’s leather strap was chopped into little pieces. Many suspects were questioned but the culprit was never caught.

One year, mumps were very prevalent. Children with mumps in those times had to stay home for some time after recovery so as not to infect other children during the incubation period. Rupe Morris and several others who I have forgotten, used to take great joy during this incubation period in going rabbiting with the ferrets and the dogs past the school ground at play time and laughing at the poor kids at school.