CWA building to become Brisbane Girls Grammar School’s new Year 5-6 campus

One of the state’s top schools has begun work on a $30 million vertical campus in a bid to meet surging demand, and it comes with a significant change to the entry requirements.

Brisbane Girls Grammar will build a new ‘vertical campus’ on the site of a former CWA building. Photo: Supplied.

One of the state’s top schools will spend $30 million on its new junior school building in the heart of Brisbane to meet parent demand and keep pace with other girls’ schools taking students as early as Year 5.

Brisbane Girls Grammar School will renovate an old Country Women’s Association residence across the road – which it already owns, but is currently empty – to transform it into a state-of-the-art vertical campus for its inaugural Year 5 and 6 students in 2026.

Jacinda Euler Wlesh with Year 7 students (from left) Lucia Anderson, 12, Liya Wijesekera, 13 and Emily Charlton, 12, in front of the site for the new campus. Picture: Steve Pohlner

The refurbishment officially began on Friday, with initial works to include demolition of the existing facade and internal walls. Construction is due to be finished at the end of 2025.

Principal Jacinda Euler Welsh said the “exciting” project aimed to “evolve” the school’s reputation, ahead of it welcoming the first cohort of 100 Year 5 and 100 Year 6 students.

“We’ve always been a secondary-only school and we’ve prided ourselves on being specialists in that area,” Ms Euler said.

“There were families where the boys were going off to any number of boys schools [in Years 5 and 6], and the girls were seeking it, but needed to wait for it to become available, particularly if they were committed to coming to Girls Grammar.

The new building will include a number of new classrooms. Picture: Supplied.

“Statistically we found there were many more places for boys in Year 5 and 6, than for girls.

“That is particularly what you are starting to see among the Catholic schools – Stuartholme, St Rita’s, Loreto, Lourdes Hill, Brigidine – they have all introduced Year 5 and 6.”

The new five-storey “miniature vertical village”, as described in planning documents, will include eight general-purpose classrooms, a library, playground, canteen, assembly area, as well as speciality music, art and science spaces.

Ms Euler said the existing building – at 87-95 Gregory Terrace in Spring Hill in the heart of Brisbane, directly opposite its senior campus – was still “very structurally sound” and had “lots of space” inside, so the school saw no need to demolish it.

“It was acquired by the QCWA, they had a structure there for many years, then demolished it and built a residential accommodation for country women coming into the city,” she said.

“When they decided to sell that, they were pleased that a girls’ school would acquire it. It was a residential hotel-like arrangement, but we will now put classrooms in those spaces.”

The new building is in Spring Hill, opposite the school’s main campus. Photo: Supplied.

Ms Euler said there had already been “tremendous interest” in the upcoming Year 5 and 6 places, and a “sense of relief” from families who have long-sought this earlier intake.

Brisbane City Council gave the school’s development application the green light a few days before Christmas last year, after the announcement in July that BGGS – considered one of the country’s leading girls’ schools – would go beyond its current Years 7-12 offering.

Parents who had already applied for their child to enter Year 7 in 2028 will be given first priority for the new Year 5 group. Those wishing to make an earlier switch will be able to change their applications to indicate their child would prefer to start in Year 5 or 6.