Objects of Substance- The first Science laboratories

covered way [now demolished] that joined the main building to the Western Wing. I remember this second covered way fondly. It certainly sheltered your access on rainy days and was the backdrop for so many of my official school photographs. These covered ways matched one another exactly and gave the appearance of the School from Gregory Terrace the intended elegant symmetry that has been lost. However, I was delighted that these 1930s balustrades were replicated on the restored verandah and new steps on the far side of the lower level of the Western Wing. What a shame that, when the upper level of the Western Wing was added in 1956, they erected iron railings rather than matching wooden ones.

Detailed and more ambitious plans for the 1933 building [Queensland State Archives]

The construction of the laboratory was considered newsworthy enough for its construction to be reported in the Brisbane Courier [24 th February 1933, p7]. The news item detailed that it will be “fully equipped with demonstration desk and platform, six students’ benches, microscope and specimen cupboards, chairs, etc. Electric light will be installed.” The cost was reported as 3,313 pounds. The opening of the laboratory, on this very date ninety years ago, was welcomed by the students, as much as [I assume] by the teachers who had long anticipated its arrival. In the editorial of the 1933 School Magazine, the student editor proudly announced the new building, was opened by the Official Visitor to the School, Colonel the Honourable Sir Leslie Orme Wilson GCMG GCSI GCIE DSO, Governor of Queensland . Dr J. Lockhart Gibson, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, spoke, expressing his belief that the teaching of science at secondary schools was “more important really for those who did not go to University education, because science, more than any other subject in the school curriculum taught them to reason. It taug ht them to search after the truth”. [ Brisbane Courier , 26 th August 1933, p12] While, as an English teacher I might take issue with Dr Gibson – believing that all subjects do exactly what he ascribes to science – I cannot disagree with his idea that the curriculum must promote critical thinking and the search for truth.