Norman Park State School

Norman Park State School is a heritage-listed state school at 68–88 Agnew Street, Norman Park, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Department of Public Works (Queensland) and built in 1900. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 7 April 2017. History Norman Park State School (SS) opened on its present site in 1900 due to population growth in and near the Brisbane suburb of Norman Park. The school is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. In 2017 Norman Park SS retains its core complex of five buildings: Blocks A and C (urban brick school building, 1900); Block D (open-air annexe, 1915); and Blocks B and E (Depression-era brick additions, 1934). The school grounds also retain brick and concrete retaining walls, stairs and fences (1930s, 1950s); a playing field and mature trees. The school has been in continuous operation since its establishment. The suburb of Norman Park lies adjacent to the Brisbane River and east of Norman Creek, which was first bridged in the late 1850s. Part of the traditional lands of the Jagera and Turrbal peoples, the area was settled for farming from the 1850s, and in the 1870s it was a popular picnic spot. In 1886 the Queensland Deposit Bank and Building Society Limited purchased the land on which Norman Park SS was later built, and subdivided it as part the Norman Park Estate. Although estate subdivisions were sold off from March 1887, the suburb remained sparsely populated until the interwar period, when stormwater drainage of low-lying flood prone areas was commenced. By 1935 about 35% of land blocks were occupied. Development of the Norman Park Estate was assisted by improvements in transport. The Cleveland railway line, opened in 1889, passed through the suburb; while the Belmont tramway, opened in 1912, branched off the Cleveland line north of the Norman Park railway station. In 1903 a replacement bridge over Norman Creek allowed a new tramline to run along Wynnum Road (then called New Cleveland Road) to a terminus east of Norman Creek. This tramline was extended towards Morningside in 1924.