1997 School Magazine

@irlli @rnmmar gs,cbool ~rilibane 1997

Ahead of his titne: Vision that becatne Reality

early Minutes of Brisbane Grammar School. I was also privi- leged to meet with some of Lilley's descendants and gain access to letters he wrote to his thirteen children and to visit Girton College, Cambridge which developed a ve1y special relation- ship with BGGS. The outcome of this research was the realisation that the majority of histories written about the development of education in the period 1860 to 1882, largely ignored the work of Charles Lilley, a man ahead of his time, whose advocacy led not only to the development of both the secondary and further education of young people in this State, but also to the wider education of the community in general. The Colony of Queensland was established on 6 June 1859. Initiatives were taken during the first Parliament to establish a framework which would make provision for young people in

Address given by Mrs Judith A Hancock, Principal, Girls Grammar School, Brisbane at A Tribute to Sir Charles Lilley (1827 - 1897), A Symposium held at Brisbane Grammar School on Saturday August 16, 1997 1 975 to 1985 was designated by the United Nations as the Decade for Women. It was during this period that the needs and opportunities for women within a modern society were addressed. A number of reports were released which

included Girls, Schools and Society in 1975, and Tbe Education ofGirls in 1983. Both documents highlighted the problems facing young women in our post-industrial society and drew the attention of governments to the fact that , along with the mi- nority groups of aborigines, migrants and the geographically isolated, girls at that period of Australian histoty were disadvantaged in society. Affirmative action programs were developed and special emphasis placed upon the educational oppor- tunity available for young women within our schools and soci€ty in general. At that stage I became par- ticularly interested in the issues and wondered why the principles that Charles Lilley had worked so hard to establish for the education of young women in Queensland, had re- mained relatively unacknowledged, despite the obvious success of schools such as Brisbane Girls Gram-

the Colony to gain access to educa- tion from primary through second- ary and into universities. Three Acts were passed during the first sitting which were to affect the educa- tional development of the colony well into the next Centu1y. Tbe Grammar Schools Act (1860) in particular, was designed to open the doors to both secondaty and further education to girls and boys alike. The closest development was in NSW where Tbe Act to Incotpo- rateSydney GrammarSchool(l854) had been specifically designed to enable young men who were aca- demically able , to proceed to Syd- ney University. Through such schools it was e.nvisaged that the young people of the new colony would have access to education and training which would allow them to become the future professionals of the rapidl y developing colony.

Sir Cba.rles Lilley

mar and the other Girls ' Grammar Schools, which had opened during the late 19th Centu1y in the new and developing Colony of Queensland. To prove my point, I decided to conduct some research into the development of equality of educational opportunity in this State. Through accessing prima1y documents associated with these developments I embarked upon what was to prove one of the most challenging and interesting periods of my life. The work led me to the Hansard Reports of the early proceedings of both the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council, the Minutes of the 1874 Royal Commission into Education and the

One of those elected to the first Parliament was an outspo- ken radical , Charles Lilley, who had successfully contested the seat of Fortitude Valley in the first elections of 1860 and continued to represent it for the following fourteen years in an energetic, enthusiastic manner. Throughout his career he held many Cabinet positions including Attorney General, Colonial Secreta1y, Vice-president of the Executive Council and Premier and when he left Parliament in 1874 he continued in public life first as a Supreme Court Judge and later as Chief Justice fo r Queensland. Lilley used his con~iderable influence to emb race many causes but education became one of his most ardent. His 12 ----------------------