Fairholme Heritage Trail

Fairholme College Heritage Trail

Since 1917

FAIRHOLME COLLEGE HERITAGE TRAIL Welcome to the Fairholme College Heritage Trail, established in 2017 to celebrate 100 Years of education here at Fairholme.

Brass commemorative plaques mark 10 important sites in the College’s history and provide a brief explanation of each site and its significance. As you follow the trail, walk in the footsteps of those who have made Fairholme what it is today and who remain part of its heritage.

This Heritage Trail was officially opened on 24 January 2017 by Mrs Heather Harrison (Neill) (1952-1958), Senior Prefect in 1958, Past Fairholme parent (1978-1985) and College Nursing Sister (19842008); and Mrs Jocelyn Mercer (Cossart) (1947-1949), Prefect in 1949, Past Fairholme Parent (1975-1978), daughter of foundation student, Catherine (Rene) Cossart (Bruce), and current Patroness of FOGA Toowoomba.

The Heritage Trail begins at the base of the large Bunya Pine opposite the western corner the Administration Building. This tree was planted in the 1880s by the original owner of ‘Fairholme’, Mrs Margaret Anne Cameron, and was one of many that lined the driveway to her homestead. You will find Plaque 1 in the garden, next to the tree.

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MAIN DRIVE AND CENTRAL LAWN (1917) If you look back towards the main gates on Wirra Wirra Street and then up the grassy hill towards the main school buildings, you will see where the original driveway went, edged by bunya trees. Make your way up the concrete path and stairs to the left of the next bunya tree, and continue past the Middle School sign and stairways. Plaque 2 is in a garden on the right. The College’s Middle School complex, home to the Year 7 – Year 9 students, now stands in front of you.

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TENNIS COURTS (1919) AND MIDDLE SCHOOL (2008)

The change of this space from tennis courts to classrooms is the most striking one on the Fairholme campus. Many past students vividly remember playing social and competitive tennis games here; current students enjoy using the Middle School Amphitheatre space for games, dance competitions and special events.

Walk to the left along the paved pathway and towards a two-storey, darkbrick classroom block, home to part of Fairholme Junior School. This provides a clue to Plaque 3, which you will find in the curved garden in front of you. It commemorates the building that stood here before the present one, and the school that was here before Fairholme Junior: the Fairholme Preparatory School.

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ORIGINAL SITE OF PREPARATORY SCHOOL (1929) Be sure to walk past the Early Childhood Centre sometime, and you will see that the original building remains much as it is in this photograph. To find the next site, follow the paved pathway around to the right, past the large camphor laurel tree edged by sandstone blocks. A large, two-storey timber building is across the path. Plaque 4 is at the corner of this path, next to the metal railing.

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FIRST CLASSROOM BUILDING (1920)

This elegant, timeless building is a classic example of the beauty and functionality that are the hallmarks of Toowoomba Architects, Marks and Company. Costing £6000, it was opened in September 1920. Principal, Miss Nancy Jobson MA (1920-1921), a very forward-looking educator, saw the need for more classrooms as Fairholme’s enrolments grew. It included a pot-bellied stove to provide warmth on cold winter days and featured bi-fold wooden doors and a raised stage.

Turn to your left and walk up the paved pathway towards the old Homestead. As you do, you will be skirting around the edge of Central Lawn, identified by its large palm trees. This is where the Main Drive ended, curving around towards the entrance to ‘Fairholme’, the original homestead. Generations of Fairholme students have enjoyed relaxing, studying or socialising on Central Lawn. What stories these palm trees could tell!

You will find Plaque 5 in the garden at the western corner of the Homestead’s wide veranda. This is the oldest building on the Fairholme campus.

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‘FAIRHOLME’ (1885) Continue along the paved path to the main steps of Cameron Homestead.

At the foot of the steps, you will see three narrow metal strips. These form an original boot scraper, and date from the 1880s; an essential item, given Toowoomba’s red soil and then unpaved roads. Walk up the 10 steps ‘and one to grow’ and stand where the first three Fairholme students stood with their teacher, Miss Sarah (Say) Cargeeg, on Tuesday 17 July 1917; beginning 100 years of education on this site. Miss Amy Carson was the first Principal at Fairholme.

‘Fairholme’ was built in 1885, and the homestead and surrounding 10 acres were bought by Mrs Cameron in 1887. When Mrs Cameron sold her property in 1917, she also gave £2500 for the purchase of essential items for the school. She passed away in March 1918 at the age of 98.

Fairholme’s Cameron House is also named for her.

The Homestead was used for lessons and provided accommodation for Boarders. In later years, the main room was the Boarders’ dining room, and the verandas were built in to form the Principal’s residence and the school office. In the 1990s, extensive restoration and renovation work was carried out to preserve this building for future generations.

The three main rooms are the Cameron Room, the MacLaren Room (named for Mrs Cameron’s favourite tartan, featured in the summer uniform) and the Spreydon Room (named for Spreydon College, the school that preceded PGC Fairholme).

Continue walking east along the front veranda and look right, towards the side veranda.

This was one of the earliest dormitories; no windows, only wooden slat blinds provided protection from fog and rain. Go back down the main steps, turn right and walk around the eastern side of the Homestead.

Plaque 6 is in a garden behind the grassed space ahead of you. This marks WR Black Dormitory.

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W.R. BLACK DORMITORY (1929)

Look up, and you will see the original gable in the roof line, marking the original entrance to ‘Black Dorm’, as depicted in the plaque’s photo.

Increasing enrolments in the 1920s meant that the College desperately needed more Boarder accommodation, and Black Dorm was built to house 75 Boarders. Music practice rooms and bathrooms were located underneath the main house.

Originally from Ireland, Mr William Robert Black made a fortune in the coal transport industry in Ipswich, and he used his wealth for the benefit of the Presbyterian Church and its schools in Queensland. Fairholme’s Black House also is named for this generous benefactor.

Retrace your steps, and as you pass the eastern corner of the Homestead, note the sandstone block and plaque commemorating Mr Allan Farager BSc, Dip Ed, BEd.St, MACE, Principal from 1980 to 1994. Continue left, past the Homestead and past the Daisy Culpin Courtyard sign, to the College Dining Hall, where you will see a special wall mural, entitled ‘Living Pillars’, painted in October 2016 by artist and Fairholme Old Girl, Bronte Naylor (2011), as her reflection of ‘100 Years at Fairholme’. Step back onto the grass for a better view.

Walk past the brick building next to the Dining Hall. This is the College Assembly Hall, built in 1958 and extended in 1986, the site of many socials and exams for Fairholme students. As you do, you will see another aspect of the 1920 classroom block.

At the western corner of the Assembly Hall, where a large palm tree stands, you will find Plaque 7 in a brick-edged garden overlooking the oval.

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RAY POWELL OVAL (1956)

This oval has been the site of numerous sports, games and activities as well as many Interhouse Athletics competitions and March Pasts for Fairholme students. The photograph on this plaque shows the original smaller oval being graded by a horse-drawn plough in the years before Mr Powell completed this work.

Walk through the paved area under the portico and past the Assembly Hall steps. Plaque 8 is in the brick-edged garden bed across the grass in front of you. If you look straight ahead from this plaque, along the driveway, you will see Fairholme’s Talara Entrance.

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TALARA ENTRANCE (1965) Part of the Talara property had been purchased by Fairholme in 1945, and this final piece completed the current Fairholme campus. It also enabled the extension of the oval and the construction of a separate Principal’s Residence. The derelict old cottage was removed and bluestone gateposts were constructed to mark this new entrance in 1965.

Retrace your steps to the corner of the Assembly Hall. Turn left and walk down the long, paved pathway that runs between the oval and the Middle School buildings. At the bottom of this pathway, you will find Plaque 9 in a garden bed to your right. Turn around and look back up the path, and note the tall palm trees on either side that give the pathway its name: Palm Avenue.

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S.G. Stephens Palm Avenue (1929) On occasions, when falling bunya nuts caused the closure of Main Drive, Palm Avenue served as the College’s main entrance. Mr Samuel George Stephens, a Fairholme College Councillor from 1928-1940, was responsible for improving the appearance of much of the Fairholme campus, planting trees and establishing gardens on Central Lawn and around classrooms.

Over the years, he also donated garden seats, a piano and a fireproof safe.

Fairholme’s Stephens House is named after him. Mr Stephens passed away in 1944.

Walk along the pebbled concrete path beside the driveway, back towards the large bunya tree where the Heritage Trail began.

There is one more significant site to see. Cross over the driveway at the pedestrian crossing at the rotunda and walk on the paved path towards the bluestone entrance on Wirra Wirra Street. Just inside the gate, in a garden to the right, is Plaque 10, the final commemorative plaque. Walk through the pedestrian gate and turn around to see the best view of the Daisy Culpin Gates and the College’s Main Drive.

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DAISY CULPIN GATES (1964) There is an error on one of the original stone plaques on the gates. Can you find it? (It has 1921 instead of 1922, as being the year in which Miss Culpin began as Principal.)

A keen gardener and an excellent tennis player, Miss Daisy Culpin BA was an inspiring teacher and innovative Principal, respected and admired by her students who remember developing a life-long love of literature in her classes. They also remember the days, too beautiful to remain inside, when Miss Culpin would abandon lessons and lead them on rambles around The Range. Miss Culpin is credited with establishing many of the best characteristics of the school: integrity, respect, and the ‘spirit of Fairholme’. Miss Culpin passed away in 1966. These gates, the Daisy Culpin Courtyard and the Daisy Culpin Memorial Prize for Leadership and Work are named for her.

The gates also mark the end of the Fairholme College Heritage Trail. We hope you have enjoyed seeing and learning more about some significant places and people in Fairholme’s history. If you are a Past Student or Staff Member, Past Parent, Council Member or volunteer, we hope this ‘trip down memory lane’ has sparked some memories of your time at Fairholme, and we thank you for what you have contributed to the first 100 Years at Fairholme.

Boarding Office

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Black Dormitory

Senior School Homestead Nancy Shaw Dormitory

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FOGA Foyer

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Dining Hall

Performing Arts Building

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Assembly Hall

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Junior School

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Middle School

Admin Greta Junior

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If you have any questions or comments about the Heritage Trail, or would like to share some memories of your time at Fairholme, please contact our College Archivist, Mrs Jenny Noble on 4688 4688 or at jenny.noble@fairholme.qld.edu.au.