A Secondary School is Born

By the 1970s Brisbane was the only state capital in Australia that did not have an Adventist secondary school. This lamentable situation was, however, about to change. A decision was made in 1972 to commence a high school in 1973. Drawing on an analogy from nature, like the acorn, we will start little and then steadily grow into a sizable oak. So, a single demountable classroom was acquired and located on the topside adjacent to the lower school block. For the immediate future the secondary students would utilise the amenities of the primary school. At this point the history of the Mt Gravatt school therefore divided into two branches.

Who would nurture this little acorn in its beginning years? The South Queensland Conference looked just south of the border where a young but energetic principal was leading the Murwillumbah Adventist High School. Mr Desmond Cooke, in only his fourth year of teaching, had been appointed principal of Murwillumbah which was then a junior high school. He had only been in the role for three years when tasked with founding Brisbane Adventist High School. Cooke had every reason to remain where he was, after all Murwillumbah is a favoured part of Australia, but to his credit he accepted the challenge of building a high school from scratch.

The High School campus.

Cooke, supported by Miss Carolyn Timms, expected an enrolment of twenty-five Year Eight students. Yet again, the parents and Adventist community south of the river showed their full support for the new venture and thirty-four students fronted as foundation students. From the first, therefore, the demountable classroom was filled to capacity. Cooke taught mathematics and science, while Timms taught the humanities. Both taught some subjects that had not been part of their teacher training, but that is the way for teachers in small schools.

The first Year 8 class in 1973.

Some months after the school had been going, Pastor Robert Possingham, as the Conference Communications Director, called at the school and talked with some of the students to assess their perceptions of the school. He was pleasantly surprised at the maturity of some of the answers. For example, one student averred: “Our school has many advantages—for instance, the Christian teachers and their friendliness. We are making history by being the first pupils attending an Adventist high school in Queensland, and we have nice Christian young girls and boys as friends. My impression of our new school? Great!” Another student added: “It’s great because I have been here before [Mt. Gravatt Adventist Primary School]. Then I went to a state high school. Now I’m back here and I like this school a lot better.” These kinds of affirmations were replicated by others. In the meantime thought was being given to the future of this little acorn. Where would it be sited to take root? The logical conclusion was to utilise the land on the Wishart Road side of the creek. Building on this site took place in 1975. In the meantime a demountable was added each year on the Primary school grounds to cater for each additional secondary year. Completed early 1976, Brisbane Adventist High School consisted of four classrooms, a staff room, a science laboratory, library, typing room, manual arts workshop, home economics classroom and administrative offices. Even before the school was occupied, teachers and students invested time and effort in their new school. They helped prepare the ground, including grassing the playing fields. In 1976 the original Year Eight students were about to commence Year Eleven, so the new facilities and the scope offered for teaching and implementing the curriculum came at the right time.

The opening of the high school in 1973 was a low-key affair. On the other hand, with its imposing buildings, the official opening of the new school on 15 February 1976 was upbeat. The school was represented by Mr Desmond Cooke, the principal, and by Mr Ron Groom, the School Board Chairman. The Conference was represented by Pastor Leo Rose, president and Pastor I Roy Stratford, secretary-treasurer. Both the president of the TransTasman Union Conference and the TTUC education director, Pastors Claude Judd and Harold Heath respectively, were present, as was Dr Gordon McDowell, education director for the Australasian Division. In addition to these representatives of the church hierarchy, there were community and local and State government representatives: Mr C. W. Fulton from the community, Alderman A. C. Lang from the Brisbane City Council, and Mr W. B. Kaus, M.L.A. Mr Kaus, on behalf of the Commonwealth Government, presented the school with an Australian flag and did the honours by raising the flag for the first time. Yes, this day was something to be remembered. The rapid increase in enrolment under Cooke’s leadership meant that the Brisbane Adventist High School Board and the South Queensland Conference could not rest on their laurels. There was an irresistible demand for more classrooms. Ms Carol Dennis (later Mrs Carol Bacon) recalled that in 1977 her first teaching appointment upon graduating from Avondale College was to Brisbane Adventist High School. Her assigned classroom was one of a set of two demountables located on the high school oval. The demountables were powered via a long extension cord connected to the main classroom block. Almost immediately, therefore, after the school’s dedication in 1976, planning commenced on the next stage in the development of the physical plant. This next stage included eight general classrooms constructed on the eastern end of the original block. This new block was officially opened mid-1978 and coincided with a visit to Australia by Dr Walton Brown, world-director of Adventist schooling. While Mt Gravatt Adventist Primary and Brisbane Adventist High School had become two separate branches, on the occasion of Dr Brown’s visit they had, perhaps a prescience of the future, come together as one entity. The official opening included five new classrooms and two music studios at the primary school. Students from both schools provided musical items.

This occasion was effectively used by the two schools to display Adventist schooling to the local community. Furthermore, by involving a bevy of local and state government representatives it reinforced the contribution Adventist schools were making to the local community and to society in general.

The quality of the student product was evident in the contributions made on the occasion by the high school captains, Cameron McLeod and Wendy Candlin. Their short speeches did them proud. Beside the construction of classrooms, additional land was acquired. As noted in chapter two, parcels of land were purchased on both the eastern and western boundaries of the original ten acre (4.047ha) block. How could parents and the churches finance such development? The answer lay in two sets of policies. The first was the program of per capita funding of students in non-government schools by the Commonwealth Government. This provided additional income to the schools. The second was an internal policy adopted by the Adventist church that to protect the future of its schools this money was not to be used to meet operating costs, including teachers’ wages. These per capita monies, however, could be used to fund capital development and infrastructure. This peculiarly Adventist perspective had been negotiated with the Commonwealth Government on the understanding that at least an amount equivalent to the government grant be invested in the Church’s schools.

Apart from the addition of physical plant, highlights of the 1970s included reaching full high school status in 1977 when the high school graduated its first Year Twelve students, and the addition of a second stream of students in Years 8-10. The inaugural principal, Mr Desmond Cooke, completed his contribution to the high school at the end of the 1979 school year. He accepted an invitation to be principal of Longburn Adventist College in New Zealand. Over the seven years 1973-79 the high school enrolment had grown from 36 to over 200. After enumerating the many things that happened during his term as principal, Des, with typical Cooke humour, added “Apart from that it was a fairly quiet time!” On reflection, it would be agreed that very much happened and was accomplished during the seven years of the Cooke administration.

The new high school building on Wishart Road.

A BAC First

Of particular pleasure for principal Mr Brian Robinson was the election in 1995 of Richie Reid as College Captain. Richie was the first indigenous student to hold that office. Not only was Richie baptised into the Adventist church in a campus baptism, he went on to ministerial training at Avondale College and subsequently served the church in Queensland as a pastor, school chaplain and Conference youth leader. He is currently chaplain at Sydney Adventist College. Richie is representative not only of the best of indigenous Australians but also of the quality of student produced at BAC.