Northam Senior High School is a comprehensive

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, located in Northam, a regional centre in the Wheatbelt region, east of

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, Western Australia.

History

The school was established in 1921 and by 2020 had an enrolment of 715 students between Year 7 and Year 12, approximately 12% of whom were

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

. It is the oldest senior high school outside the Perth metropolitan area. Many of the buildings are

heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset is a preexisting thing of value today ** Cultural heritage is created by humans ** Natural heritage is not * Heritage language Biology * Heredity, biological inheritance of physical c ...

listed having been built in 1921, 1930 and 1945. The main school building, designed by the Principal Architect of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

William Hardwick William Burden Hardwick (1860 – 1941), often referred to professionally as W.B. Hardwick, was an Australian architect who from 1917 until 1927 was Principal Architect of the Public Works Department in Western Australia. ''The Encyclopedia ...

, and the later additions that followed the original design are considered good examples of the inter-war arts and crafts style. Enrolments at the school have been reasonably steady with 645 students enrolled in 2007, 663 in 2008, 629 in 2009, 559 in 2010, 608 in 2011 and 604 in 2012.

Notable alumni

Harry Butler William Henry "Harry" Butler (25 March 1930 – 11 December 2015) was an Australian naturalist and environmental consultant, best known as the presenter of the popular ABC television series ''In the Wild'' from 1976 to 1981. He was a househo ...

(1930–2015), naturalist and environmental consultant * John Colebatch (1909–2005), pioneering cancer researcher * Jerry Ellis,

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

, chairman of

BHP BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...

, chancellor of

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a ...

* Bobby Hill, plays for

Greater Western Sydney Greater Western Sydney (GWS) is a large region of the metropolitan area of Greater Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia that generally embraces the north-west, south-west, central-west, and far western sub-regions within Sydney's metropoli ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

Barbara York Main Barbara Anne York Main (27 January 1929 – 14 May 2019) Ann Jones (2019"Barbara York Main, Australia's spider woman and Wheatbelt advocate, author and poet dies"''Off Track'', Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Published May 23, 2019. Acces ...

(1929–2019),

arachnologist Arachnology is the scientific study of arachnids, which comprise spiders and related invertebrates such as scorpions, pseudoscorpions, and harvestmen. Those who study spiders and other arachnids are arachnologists. More narrowly, the study of sp ...

, adjunct professor at the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

* Kenneth Martin, a justice of the Supreme Court of Western Australia *

Nonja Peters Nonja Yvonne Huberta Maria Peters is a Western Australian Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by th ...

, academic * John Rutherford, Australian Test cricketer *

Sydney Stack Sydney Stack (born 28 April 2000) is a professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He played junior representative football with Perth in the WAFL and represented W ...

, plays for the

Richmond Football Club The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers, is an Australian rules football team playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Between its inception in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond in 1885 and 1907, the club competed in the Victo ...

in the Australian Football League *

Shirley Strickland Shirley Barbara de la Hunty AO, MBE (née Strickland; 18 July 1925 – 11 February 2004), known as Shirley Strickland during her early career, was an Australian athlete. She won more Olympic medals than any other Australian in running sports. ...

(1925–2004), a world record-holding Olympic athlete *

Jay Watson Jay Watson (born 27 May 1990 ) is an Australian multi-instrumentalist, producer, singer and songwriter. He is best known as a member of the psychedelic rock bands Tame Impala and Pond. Watson records solo material under the name GUM and, as of 2 ...

, musician, singer and songwriter, with

Tame Impala Tame Impala is the psychedelic music project of Australian multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker. In the recording studio, Parker writes, records, performs, and produces all of the project's music. As a touring act, Tame Impala consists of Parke ...

and

Pond A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from th ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Public high schools in Western Australia Educational institutions established in 1921 Northam, Western Australia 1921 establishments in Australia State Register of Heritage Places in the Shire of Northam

History

Notable alumni

See also

References

External links