Thousands of former students expect at 150 year reunion

TOOWOOMBA North State School has grown along side the city. Next weekend past and present students will reflect on how far they have come.

Toowoomba North State School class, from 1916.

WHEN the doors of the Mort Estate State School opened on September 6, 1869, there were 141 boys and 113 girls enrolled.

Toowoomba had a fledgling population of about 3000; there were only three homes on Taylor St and most of the nearby area was farmland.

Much has changed in the following 150 years.

The school grew alongside the city and was later renamed the Toowoomba North State School. Its current buildings were built in 1938, at a cost of about £22,112.

Toowoomba North State School

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Next weekend, the school will mark 150 years. About 3000 people are expected to attend the three-day celebration. Teacher aid Alison Ingham is organising the festivities. She was selected because of her life-long association with the school.

"I was a student in the '60s, we had nearly 1000 students here and we were one of the biggest in the city," she said.

"It was pretty basic, you just sat at your desk all day and everything was done with rote learning.

"Students didn't have the open spaces and resources they have today."

Later Ms Ingham enrolled her own children, volunteered in the tuckshop and later became a teacher aid.

"I was one of those parents who was always as the school," she said.

Ms Ingham is excited about the celebrations.

Musician Josh Arnold prepared a special song to mark the occasion and there will be cake cutting ceremony with the school's oldest living graduate, 100-year-old Ted Bousen, and its youngest current student.

Originally published as Thousands of former students expect at 150 year reunion