July 19, 2016
The former Rocky Hill State School building will soon be on the move again … this time to Yarraman’s Heritage House complex in Millar Street.
The tiny wooden building was originally located at Rocky Creek, north of Yarraman (on the eastern side of the D’Aguilar Highway, just past the private road to Tarong Power Station).
According to the Education Queensland, the school opened in 1924 and closed in 1963.
Heritage House historian Judy Brand and her husband Neville take up the tale:
“When it was originally shifted in the early 1960s it was privately paid for for by local citizens,” Judy said.
“Some teachers and farmers were involved in it.”
But since then, the building has “upped stumps” a couple of times.
At one stage it was located near the Bowls Club in Margaret Street, Neville said; and at another time it was down near the Over 50s clubhouse.
Currently, it is situated at the intersection of Emmert Street and Margaret Street on the corner of Errol Munt Park.
It has served as a storage area for the cricket club, been used as a meeting room by a youth group, and for some years housed the local Meals on Wheels association.
At last month’s Toowoomba Regional Council meeting, councillors accepted a recommendation that the building be moved to Heritage House.
Yarraman Historical Society president Helene Johnson said Council was concerned about vandalism at the building.
She said there were still local residents who remembered attending school at Rocky Creek and were keen to have the building preserved.
Heritage House plans to return the building to its former look as a classroom with historic school displays inside.
However, no decision had been made as yet as to where the building will be positioned within the Heritage House complex.
The TRC meeting was told the estimated cost to shift the building would be $48,300 with restoration estimated at $35,650.
