History
Above: Frankston High School, 1930
FRANKSTON HIGH SCHOOL:
'Take your school elsewhere . . we won’t be sorry' By Lance Hodgins
A
magnificent structure – the original Frankston High School stood for almost a century until it was demolished late last year.
One hundred years ago, the people of Frankston fought the government to have it established in their town. They also fought each other as to where it would be built. This is the story of that struggle. In the years immediately after the Great War, the question on most young teenagers’ lips was, “What am I going to do after school?” To most, ‘school’ meant primary school – which generally took most of them on to Grade 8 and then into a shop, factory or back home on to the farm.
There were schools which prepared children for further studies, and there was no shortage of them – over 50 registered secondary schools south of the Yarra. But these religious or private schools were expensive and out of the reach of parents of moderate circumstances. In 1922, there were only five government high schools in Melbourne and not one of these was south of the Yarra. The lack of community pressure came from parents being “reluctant to bump up against established interests.” Dandenong had been granted a high school in 1919 and it was in a situation similar to Frankston – an outer town on the edge of an extensive farming district. Opportunities for the local kids remained extremely limited. It was not difficult to argue that the Peninsula needed a high school. continued next page... July 2022
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PENINSULA