Kent Street Senior High School

Statement of Significance

Kent Street Senior High School, a complex of Inter-War Free Classical style brick and tile buildings and grounds, has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons:

• The place was constructed in response to the increasing demand for post-primary facilities in metropolitan Perth in the 1930s. It was only the third secondary school facility in the State, and the first south of the Swan River in metropolitan Perth, to be built independent of an existing primary school;

• The place, is a modest representative example of the design of government high schools by the Western Australian Public Works Department in the late inter-war period. The mature trees and expansive grassed playing fields around the site combine with the buildings to create pleasing environs that contribute to the streetscape;

• The place is valued by the local community, and by the community of its former students, for providing educational facilities since 1940 that have been innovative, and responsive to community expectations, and in particular for a number of specialist programmes, including aviation, cricket and tennis studies and CISCO computer networking;

• Through the establishment of formal pre-vocational training and an aeronautics course, the place provides evidence of State Government policy changes in the 1970s to address the increasing retention in the upper school of non-tertiary oriented students, an increase due largely to reduced employment prospects for school leavers; and

• The school’s former students include prominent figures in Australian society such as Michael Jeffrey (Governor of Western Australia 1993-2000 and Governor-General 2003 to the present in 2005), and former Test Cricketer, Rod Marsh.

Physical Description

Kent Street High School can be accessed along a driveway through an avenue of peppermint trees. The
school is a complex with buildings of different building styles around a large area of playing fields. Along
Rathay Street there is a long double row of pine trees that stand out prominently on the skyline.
The original group of buildings have a predominant red-brown face brick dado below the window sill, and
rendered and painted wall from window sill to the underside of the eaves. There are 12 light double hung
timber windows. The roofs are moderately pitched and hipped with terracotta brown 'marseille' tiles.
The entry porticos have a definite 'Art Deco' feel, with horizontal banding at the gutter line, a capped parapet
hiding the roof, and a slight taper towards the top of the parapet.
The theme of the earlier buildings, with a red base and painted above, has been carried through into the later
buildings, so, even though the styles are quite different, there is a cohesiveness to the whole complex.

History

Kent Street Senior High School comprises a number of buildings set in the school grounds: Classroom Block (1939), Classroom Block (1943), Girls’ Shelter Shed (1940, 1979, 1982), Boys’ Shelter Shed (1940, 1953), Girls’ Toilets (1940), Boys’ Toilets (1940, 1965), Manual Training building (1940, 1943), Domestic Science building (1940, 1963), new Manual Training building (1954, 1955, 1965), Home Economics building (1955), Classroom and Administration Block, with Canteen (1963), Science Building (1966), Library (1969- 70), Faculty Building (1973), Pre-Vocational Centre (1979), Gymnasium/Hall (1979), Drama/Media Centre (1982), Aircraft Studies Building (1989, 1993-94), and new Administration Building (1996).

The area in which Kent Street Senior High School is now located was, in the early part of the twentieth century, an undeveloped tract of land on the western boundary of Victoria Park. By 1897, Victoria Park had been declared a Municipality and by the following year, had a population of 1,197 people. By 1906, the year after a tram service from the city opened, the population had grown to 1,500. In 1917, when the population of Victoria Park was 5,000, ratepayers voted for the Municipality to amalgamate with the City of Perth.1

A map from 1911 shows the present school site as part of Reserve Lot 3694, itself adjacent to a 1,000 acre tract of land consisting of the South Perth Park Lands (Reserve Lot 5988) and the Victoria Park Park Lands (Reserve Lot 5987).2 While the population of the area south of the Swan River had grown substantially by the late 1920s, post-primary school students still had to travel to Perth for their education. Although community representatives requested the State Government to provide a local secondary school, a
lack of available funds prevented this from being considered at the time.3

During the economic difficulties of the 1930s, there was also a decline in the size of the school population, due to a lower birth rate and the cessation of immigration.4 There was, however, a growing need to increase the facilities available for post-primary education in Western Australia. In 1925, 3902 post primary pupils attended Central and Primary schools; in 1930 this number had increased to 5406; and, in 1940, to 6114.5

In 1932, the Director of Education, Wallace Clubb, had ordered a survey, which showed that 410 post primary students, residing in suburbs south of the river, had to travel to Perth for their education. On 22 June 1932, local residents met with the Minister for Education, T.A.L. Daly, to stress the need for a high school in Victoria Park. This meeting set in train planning for the acquisition of a 15-acre portion of Reserve Lot 3694. By 1938, when resumption of a school site was almost complete, opposition from Perth City Council resulted in the chosen site being reduced to 10 acres.6

The main reason why the provision of new facilities for post-primary students in the metropolitan area had been neglected, in spite of a demonstrated need, was because an inequitable State electoral system strongly favoured rural voters. While a Select Committee of the Legislative Assembly investigated state education in 1938, its members were preoccupied with the grievances of the disproportionately large number of country Members.7

There had been five year high schools opened at Eastern Goldfields (1916), Northam (1921), Bunbury (1923) and Albany (1926), while in the whole of the metropolitan area there was only one such high school, Perth Modern, opened in 1911. The next city secondary school- which did not become a High School until 1946- to be completed was Perth Girls’ School, at East Perth, in 1936. However, another nonmetropolitan five year high school was opened at Geraldton in 1939.8

On 2 February 1939, the State Government approved the building of a central school for post-primary students in the southern suburbs of Perth at Kent Street, Victoria Park, at a cost of 15,000 pounds. In the same announcement, the Minister of Education, F.J.S. Wise, also announced expansion of the Perth and Fremantle Technical Colleges, to meet some of the lack of facilities for technical secondary students.9

The amount spent on the Kent Street High School compares unfavourably with the expenditure on country high schools, built to accommodate fewer students. Bunbury, which provided facilities for 240 pupils, was completed in 1923 for 24,500 pounds, while Albany, which also catered for a smaller number of students than Kent Street, was built in 1924-25 for 19,000 pounds.10

Plans of Kent Street Central School at the time of construction showed a school consisting of a single storey brick building of eight classrooms, with administrative areas and latrines.11 While the building work was in progress, approval was received in November 1939 for the additional construction of domestic science and manual training areas (at a cost of 3,550 pounds), caretaker’s quarters (600 pounds), and installation of school equipment and furniture (746 pounds).12

Kent Street Central School commenced operation at the beginning of the 1940 school year, with 354 pupils. Kent Street School was then only the third secondary school in the State- after Perth Modern School (1911) and Perth Girls’ School (1936)- to not be built as an extension of an existing primary school.13 The school, in its foundation year, was for Year 7 students only.14 Parents were unhappy with this limitation- brought about due to the Government budgeting for only eight rooms instead of the twelve required as year eight students would still need to travel to the City for their education. Parents also objected to the School’s situation only 300 metres from a Perth City Council sanitary depot, from which emanated unpleasant odours.15

As the feeder areas for the new school included the suburbs of Applecross, Canning Bridge and South Perth, and as there was no direct transport from these places to Kent Street Central School, the families of the children so affected had to be advised as to which existing bus services would need to be accessed each day in order to get to school. Residents in close proximity to the South Perth ferries also would have preferred their children to continue attending City schools. In this matter, however, they had to comply with Government directives.16

At the time that Kent Street Central School opened, there were only eight main classrooms completed. The domestic science and manual training centres were not finished until 20 March 1940, while the caretaker’s quarters were finished a week later. At the opening of the new school, there were eleven permanent staff members; a Head Teacher, a First Male and a First Female Assistant, five Assistants, two Temporary Assistants, and a Monitor.17

Integrity/Authenticity

INTEGRITY: High
AUTHENTICITY: Medium

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.