Heathmere State School (School No. 4526)

Full description

Heathmere State School (VA 5440) was a co-educational primary school in the small town of Heathmere, in the Glenelg region of south-west Victoria. It first opened on 17th June 1934 under the Head Teacher Beryl Gallacher and operated until its closure just over 20 years later, in 1955, as part of the government's consolidation policy for rural schools which saw the closure and consolidation of a number of primary schools in the region.

Petitions for a new school were raised from 1930 at which time it was estimated nine students would regularly attend. The proposal included working the school part-time with the neighbouring Gorae State School (School No. 2532) (VA 3299), though it is unclear whether this actually occurred. The official application for the new school at Heathmere was eventually raised in 1934, and a school building erected by the end of May.

Discussions about merging state schools in the area began from 1944, when it was represented by parents to the Minister of Public Instruction that students would benefit from communal facilities such as libraries, art rooms, cafeterias, and sports facilities, that would otherwise not be available at small, often single-teacher, rural schools. In the 1940s, this discussion included existing schools at Heywood, Heathmere, Myamyn, Drumborg and Homerton.

In 1951, the official process of consolidation began, with schools progressively closing and students moving to the Heywood State School (School No. 297) site to join the newly established Heywood Consolidated School (School No. 5226) (VA 5369). These schools included Condah State School (School No. 1019) (VA 5446), Drumborg State School (School No. 1240), Hotspur State School (School No. 1260) (VA 5440), Mount Eckersley State School (School No. 1720) (VA 5402) and Myamyn State School (School No. 1692) (VA 5403).

However, it wasn’t until 1955 that Heathmere State School was finally slated for consolidation, along with Homerton State School (School No. 1400) (VA 5438). Heathmere State School was officially closed on 29th April 1955 with all the students moving to Heywood Consolidated School. In 1956 suggestions were made to remove buildings from the closed Heathmere and Homerton schools to Heywood for conversion to a domestic arts wing, but new buildings for this purpose were erected instead.