ONLOOKERS may have noticed recent developments at St. Mel’s Primary School. Just as one building has opened its doors, the oldest school building is currently being demolished.
On the last school day of term two, current students and staff of St. Mel’s Primary School were pictured in front of the old ‘senior’ building prior to it being demolished over the school holidays.
St. Mel’s deputy principal, Wendy Baldwin said, “This building was the original church at St Mel’s. In its first years, regularly of a Friday afternoon it was converted from classrooms to the church and then back to classrooms again each Monday morning. We’ve also been told that the Italian community used to use the building for dances on a Friday night for many years. The building held a lot of history and memories for all the generations of children and families that have shared their journey at St. Mel’s.
“Although sad that we are losing that history in the form of a solid building, we are very pleased with our brand new learning centre (The O’Reilly Building) that has been purpose built to suit our modern teaching methods and where many new memories will be created.”
The site where the building stood will be landscaped with play areas for the students to enjoy.
Wendy said, “We hope to use some of the bricks from the old building in the landscaping of the new area but that will depend on the quality of the bricks that are left behind.”
Current St. Mel’s students will be involved in the ongoing evolution of the new area with opportunities to plant and decorate the site.
