Lilliput State School (School No. 1015; previously known as Lilliput Common School 1869 – 1873)

Full description

This school first opened in 1869 as Lilliput Common School. Classes were held in a small wooden schoolhouse with shingle roof on a two-acre site in Lilliput, north-east Victoria. A two-roomed teacher’s residence was built in 1870.

The school was renamed Lilliput State School around 1873. This was due to the Education Act (Vic) 1872, which established the Victorian Education Department (VA 714) and a subsequent change to school naming conventions.

Enrolment in 1874 was 68, resulting in the schoolhouse being overcrowded. Some students were taught in a mia-mia (a large temporary shelter made from bark, branches, leaves and grass, used by some Indigenous Australians). A new classroom replaced the mia-mia later the same year.

Two rooms were added to the teacher’s residence in 1878, and in 1888 the school grounds were enlarged.

In 1904 the teacher’s residence burned down. In 1912 a new wooden schoolhouse was built as the original one had been damaged by termites. The old schoolhouse was sold and moved off-site in 1915.

By 1940 only 8 students were enrolled at the school. In 1944 this had dwindled to 5, resulting in the school being temporarily closed. It reopened 3 years later in 1947 as a family with 5 children had moved to the area, bringing enrolment up to 9.

Lilliput State School was officially closed in 1970.