Toowoomba South State School
| Toowoomba South State School | |
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Building on the corner of Ruthven and James Streets, 2014
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| Location | 158 James Street, South Toowoomba, Toowoomba, Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 27°34′11″S 151°57′09″E / 27.5697°S 151.9526°ECoordinates: 27°34′11″S 151°57′09″E / 27.5697°S 151.9526°E |
| Architect | Department of Public Works (Queensland) |
| Official name: Toowoomba South State School | |
| Type | state heritage |
| Designated | 2 December 2013 |
| Reference no. | 602824 |
 Location of Toowoomba South State School in Queensland
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Toowoomba South State School is a heritage-listed former school at 158 James Street, South Toowoomba Toowoomba, Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Department of Public Works (Queensland). It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 2 December 2013.
Toowoomaba South is one of the oldest primary schools in Queensland. It is the oldest State School in Toowoomba (although nearby Drayton State School is older). It was first opened in 1865, as school number 112. Initially the school was co-educational. It was closed in 2013.
Toowoomba South State School was established as Toowoomba National School in 1865 on a large site in what was then the civic centre of Toowoomba. Over time it has acquired a number of buildings and landscape elements, including a playshed (1884), an open-air annexe (1913), a main, three-storey brick building (1941), a timber building called the Oslo Lunch Room (1945), a concrete, brick and timber classroom wing called the Wadley Wing (1959), and mature trees. It has been an important place of education since its establishment and a social and cultural focus for students, parents, teachers and members of the Toowoomba community.
European settlement of the Toowoomba area, traditional country of the Giabal and Jarowair people, commenced in 1840 when squatters first occupied pastoral runs on the Darling Downs. Near the boundaries of Westbrook, Gowrie and Eton Vale runs and at the junction of two routes to Gorman's and Hodgson's gaps through the Main Range, the small settlement of Drayton (originally known as "The Springs") evolved from 1842 as a stopping place servicing pastoralists and travellers. From the late 1840s, the Drayton Swamp Agricultural Area ("The Swamp" now Toowoomba), six kilometres to the north-east, began to be considered a more desirable location for settlement. Better land for market gardening, improved water supply, the support of squatters and land speculators, and, from 1855, a better route to Brisbane (the Toll Bar Road), were all advantages over Drayton.
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