History of Towamba Public School

Towamba Public School was founded in 1862. We celebrated 150 years in 2012 with a gathering of former pupils and many historical displays.

A condensed history of Towamba Public School

At one time there were many small schools in the valley- with part time schools at Lower Towamba, Burragate, Pericoe, Lett's Mountain and Pericoe. This reflected the difficulty of travel and the need for education much closer to home, especially for farm kids with milking etc to do before school. Towamba and Wyndham are the only schools still in operation in the valley.

A formal application for a non-vested Public School at Towamba was made on 14th June 1862 by a group of citizens - William Laing, Alexander Binnie, Patrick Whelan, John Slattery, Samuel Parker and Robert Higgins.
The slab building consisted of a school house 33ft x 15ft and two rooms 19ft x 14ft and 12 ft x 11ft which were rather grandiosely listed as the "master's apartment". This building, in the possession of John Stockdale, was on land that had been a Government grant and contained, as school furniture, a desk and twelve forms.
After tendering the new school building was built in 1888
Much more information is available on Kate Clery's Towamba Valley History pages.