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BRIEF
HISTORY OF THE SCHOOL
 Stawell
Secondary College is currently a single campus, Year 7 to
12 co-education College of 650 students serving a growing
district of approximately 12,000 people. The College
was formed as a result of the first voluntary amalgamation
of a High School and a Technical School to take place in
Victoria. The amalgamation occurred in 1987 and despite
both schools having enjoyed long and successful histories
it was decided after extensive debate that the future of
education in the Stawell area would be better served if
all students had access to the opportunities that both schools
had offered and could provide.
The
new college was initially split into two campuses until
July 1997, the Junior Campus (Wonga) comprised Years 7-10
at the old High School site and the Senior Campus (Gold
Reef) for Years 11 and 12 at the old Technical School Site.
By
2001 extensive renovations occurred to the Wonga campus
enabling the college to consolidate onto the one site with
a wide range of enhanced resources.
STAWELL
TECHNICAL SCHOOL
 Initially
taking classes in 1882 it was established as a School of
Mines and Industries in Skene Street Stawell in 1889, offering
subjects such as Chemistry of Assaying Mineralogy, Metallurgy,
Mine surveying and Engineering. From 1916 when junior
technical courses were introduced, the school became known
as the Technical College. In 1970 the three
story main building block opened in Patrick street.
The technical school had a strong academic stream as well
as a trade orientation. It offered the normal range
of academic subjects through to year 12 as well as subjects
such as Motor Mechanics, Woodwork, Sheetmetal/Plumbing and
Engineering Workshop not available in the High school system.
The school also ran a range of trade apprenticeship
courses.
STAWELL
HIGH SCHOOL
 The
building on this site was originally opened on 1 st August
1878 as the Stawell East State School No 1986. Another
State school 502 had a large school in Barnes street which
opened two years before and the numbers enrolled were very
high. Hence there was a need for another school
to service the children of the Miners working on the quarts
reef gold on Big Hill at one end of Stawell. In
1911 with declining numbers due to the reduction in gold
mining, the state school closed.
The
High school opened on February 27th 1912 with Headmaster
H. Bennett and Miss Hunter as his assistant. With
76 new pupils and two teachers they taught a range of subjects,
initially with the help of the staff from the School of
Mines teaching some classes.
Both
the Stawell High School and Stawell Technical Schools institutions
continued providing secondary education to the community
of Stawell until their voluntary amalgamation in 1987.
Ref
The Final
"Pinnacle" History of Stawell High School 1912 -1986.
Shepherd's Gold THE STORY OF STAWELL. C.E.SAYERS
1966
 WONGA
CAMPUS
The
College took advantage of its dual campus status up until
2000. At this time, work began on a three part master
plan designed to upgrade the Wonga Campus.
Across
the two campus structure, the school provided courses in
all eight Key Learning Areas to ensure access to a broad,
general education prior to specialisation, with additional
opportunities being provided for students to participate
in a wide range of extra curricula activities including:
Music, Drama, Sport, Debating, Aerobics, Ecology,
Rural Studies and Gardening. Opportunities in all
of these continue to be provided to students of the College.
Difficulties
in being able to maintain both campuses of the College and
an offer from the Department of Education Employment and
Training to encourage the College to move on to one site
lead to a decision by the school council to investigate
this possibility. After extensive consultation with
College staff, students, parents and the community, what
proved to be a very difficult and controversial decision
was made to accept the Government's offer. This whole
process was undertaken in the relatively short period of
time during term 4 of the 1997 school year. This
was necessary in order for the Government to be able to
guarantee the funding and begin the stage one construction
of the new school at the start of the 1998-1999 financial
year.
All
works have now been completed and all students attend the
new state of the art single campus site.
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