Heritage on our home turf

A great new innovation is Vic Heritage’s iphone app.

Showcasing data from the Victorian Heritage database, it provides a definitive history of over 2,200 important significant and unusual places in Melbourne and regional Victoria.

It accesses a fully searchable online database containing information about Victorian Heritage Places and Precincts, including statements of significance, physical descriptions, historical information, builder, architectural style, photographs and a google-style map. You can choose to search via the normal search term, or much more fun is to search by places ‘nearby’ – you might think you know your local area, but may be surprised by what is included. It displays as either a List with thumbnail photos, or as a Map with the locations as pins.

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The classroom from the south

I was surprised to see “Pavilon Classroom - Natimuk” on the list. I had heard of the canvas sided schools, but was unaware one was at Natimuk (so was an ex-Natimuk teacher too).

The Natimuk Pavilion Classroom was constructed by the Victorian Public Works Department in 1914 as an open air classroom for school children at Natimuk Primary School. It consisted of a rectangular timber structure 20’ x 30’ with a gabled roof. 

The canvas side of the classroom

The room was intended to accommodate 48 children in dual seater desks. Three sides of the classroom are boarded with weatherboards to the height of three feet; above that height, adjustable canvas shutters were fitted right to the roofline. The back wall, on which the blackboard was mounted, was boarded from floor to ceiling. The room was built on sleeper plates for easy removal.

The remains of the canvas still adhere to the window frames

44 of these classrooms were constructed for Victorian schools between 1911 and 1914, but after World War I, the Education Department discontinued their construction. They were unpopular with teachers in winter weather. However they were used for additional accommodation in schools for many years.

Natimuk Primary School moved from Main Street to a site in Jory Street in 1961. The pavilion classroom was relocated by the Education Department to the Australian House Museum at Deakin University in 1988, because it was under threat. The building was returned to Natimuk in 2002 and is now located in the grounds of the present Natimuk Primary School in Jory Street.

Windows to the north, and canvas on the east

Open air classrooms were designed to provide a healthy environment for delicate children, and resulted from the hygiene movement in education at the beginning of the 20^th century. It was hoped that improvements in lighting and ventilation aimed at improving the child’s physical conditions would lead to better educational and health outcomes. The open air classroom reflected the preoccupation with the benefits of light and fresh air for the health and education of young children.

The ventilator near the ceiling could be slid closed, the one on the previous photo is closed

Medical opinion of the time favoured fresh air and a bracing environment for all, derived from the ideas behind the open air sanatoriums used for the treatment of tuberculosis patients. The spread of tuberculosis, known as the 'white plague’ was a constant concern, it was responsible for one death in nine in Victoria in 1902, and in 1904 was declared a notifiable disease.

This classroom is architecturally significant, as the only surviving, relatively intact and rare example of an open air classroom.