Shepparton High School (SHS) was a

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 sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

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 ...

Shepparton Shepparton () ( Yortayorta: ''Kanny-goopna'') is a city located on the floodplain of the Goulburn River in northern Victoria, Australia, approximately north-northeast of Melbourne. As of the 2021 census, the estimated population of Shepparto ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. It opened in 1909 as Shepparton Agricultural High School – the first high school in Shepparton and one of the first public high schools in Victoria. It closed in December 2019 to make way for the construction of

Greater Shepparton Secondary College Greater Shepparton Secondary College (GSSC) is a Public High School in Shepparton, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. It opened in 2020 as an amalgamation of four previous high schools in the region. The high schools main campus is locat ...

, which opened in 2022.

History

The school was first opened on 20 April 1909 as Shepparton Agricultural High School, with a roll of 31 students. The

Governor of Victoria The governor of Victoria is the representative of the monarch, King Charles III, in the Australian state of Victoria. The governor is one of seven viceregal representatives in the country, analogous to the governors of the other states, and t ...

, Sir Thomas Gibson-Carmichael, formally opened the school a month later, on 20 May. The ceremony was attended by the Director of Education, Frank Tate, the Minister for Education,

Alfred Billson Alfred Billson may refer to: * Alfred Billson (British politician) * Alfred Billson (Australian politician) Alfred Arthur Billson (11 January 1858 – 31 October 1930) was an Australian politician. He was born at Wooragee to brewer George ...

, the Minister for Agriculture,

George Graham George Graham (born 30 November 1944), nicknamed "Stroller", is a Scottish former Association football, football player and manager (association football), manager. In his successful playing career, he made 455 appearances in England's Football ...

, the Clerk of Parliaments, Sir George Jenkins, and various others. It was the first high school in Shepparton, and one of the first public high schools in the state of Victoria. As one of the ten agricultural high schools created from 1907 to 1912, its agricultural aspect was intended to address a perceived need for better technical education in rural Victoria following the nationwide depression of the 1890s. To this end, each school was supplied with agricultural equipment and farmland with which to teach these skills. While Victoria's first high schools were vocational in name, their curriculum was still considerably academic. Besides the agricultural course, a more general course was also available to students, and was seen as a continuation of the state's existing

primary education Primary education or elementary education is typically the first stage of formal education, coming after preschool/ kindergarten and before secondary school. Primary education takes place in '' primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or ...

system. A lack of local interest in the agricultural course meant that it did not last long. By 1914, only 9 of the 129 students enrolled at the school were taking the course. It was eventually replaced by a single subject, Agricultural Science, requiring little practical work, and by 1918, even the word "Agricultural" had been semi-officially dropped from the school's name. The school's farm fared better, proving valuable to the farmers and horticulturists of the area through its agricultural experiments. The farm also made a profit, which was unique among Victoria's agricultural high schools, and ensured its continued support throughout the 1920s. The

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

of the 1930s saw an end to that success, and the farmland was finally put up for sale in 1939.

Notable alumni

Gail Gago Gail Elizabeth Gago (; born 4 July 1957) is a retired Australian politician, and a member of the Labor Party in the South Australian Legislative Council from the 2002 election until her retirement in 2018. Background Gago was born in Mooroo ...

* Frank McNamara *

Francis Palmer Selleck Sir Francis Palmer Selleck (20 August 1895 – 2 October 1976) was an Australian businessman and politician who served as the 73rd Lord Mayor of Melbourne. Biography He was the grandson of the first Francis Palmer Selleck (1824–1883), of Sh ...

Richard Pratt (Australian Businessman) Richard J. Pratt (born Ryszard Przecicki; 10 December 193428 April 2009) was an Australian businessman, chairman of the privately owned company Visy Industries, and a leading figure of Melbourne society. In the year before his death Pratt was Au ...

* Jarman Impey (AFL Footballer) * Steven King (AFL Footballer) * Adem Yze (AFL Footballer) * Adam Briggs (Australian Musician) * Jarrod Lyle (Professional Golfer) *

Stephen Tingay Stephen Tingay (born 13 August 1970) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Melbourne in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the 1990s. Recruited from Shepparton, Tingay was an energetic and hard working midfielder kno ...

- AFL footballer

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1909 establishments in Australia Educational institutions established in 1909 Shepparton 2019 disestablishments in Australia Defunct public high schools in Victoria (Australia) Educational institutions disestablished in 2019