Grammar Gazette_Issue1_2025

Hurdles and highpoints of a School ahead of its time A sneak peek between the pages of Girls Grammar’s new history book, Wisdom, imagination and integrity: Brisbane Girls Grammar School 1875-2025

Author and historian Helen Penrose has completed a book charting the 150-year journey of Brisbane Girls Grammar School to become one of the most outstanding girls’ schools in Australia. Ms Penrose sat down with Principal Jacinda Euler Welsh on a recent episode of the Illumine podcast to discuss the joys of history; the bumpy evolution of female education and a long-forgotten plan to move the School to a 20-acre site. This is an edited version of the podcast episode. Ms Euler: Can you tell us a bit about your career and how you found yourself as an author of historical publications? Ms Penrose: I did two history degrees —an honors degree in history and a master’s degree in history. I applied for many jobs and the job I happened to get was to do a community history of Brunswick in Melbourne. It was the most wonderful thing I’d ever done, and I realised that this is what I wanted to do. In 1994, I was founding director

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of HistorySmiths and we’ve written on a range of different topics—some quirky things, such as a sewage farm (there’s a very wide readership, you’d be surprised), a legal firm, hospitals and many independent schools. I love writing about schools. What did you discover in your research that demonstrates the pioneering spirit that has defined Girls Grammar, in particular in those early years, when success actually seemed quite unlikely?

It’s a wonderful question and I think that if pioneering means perseverance, resilience and imagination, then I think it’s a good word to use in relation to Girls Grammar, particularly its early history. So, for the first 40 years, the School had 10 principals. It caused incredible instability and also meant that enrolments stayed very small because the public wasn’t trusting that the School was a going concern for a long, long time and that, in turn, added to the financial difficulties.

34 | GAZETTE • ISSUE 1, 2025

Brisbane Girls Grammar School