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University of Queensland Gatton Campus is a heritage-listed university campus of the University of Queensland at Warrego Highway, Lawes, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1897 to 1960s. It is also known as Foundation Precinct Gatton College and Lawes Campus. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 6 January 2004. == History == The University of Queensland Gatton Campus was established in 1897 at Gatton as the Queensland Agricultural College. The College initially operated as a tertiary agricultural institution offering a basic practical and theoretical agricultural education for young men and short courses for farmers on specific topics, but from its inception, there was also an expectation that the College would be involved in agricultural research and experimentation. In 1922, it was re-structured as the Gatton Agricultural High School and College. From 1927, the College also took students from the University of Queensland for a year of practical experience. During the Second World War, the College was used as a field hospital by the United States Army from 1942 to 1944. After the war, it continued to operate as both a secondary and tertiary institution until the high school section was closed in 1962. In the 1960s the college began to diversify the courses on offer and the first women students enrolled in 1969. In 1990, the College merged with the University of Queensland.〔 The need to establish an agricultural college was first raised in Queensland Parliament in 1874 by Edward Wilmot Pechey, MLA for the Darling Downs. The development of scientific methods of agricultural production appropriate to Queensland was of both public and political concern and calls for a college and experimental farm continued to be made in the Parliament for the next two decades. Unlike the debate over the establishment of a university which divided those in favour of practical, applied education from those supporting humanist education for its own sake, agricultural education was widely supported in recognition of the essential role of primary production in the colony. It was also seen as a means to attract more people to settle and cultivate the land and it was proposed that several colleges were required to investigate agricultural methods for the various regions and climatic conditions in Queensland.〔 The Queensland Department of Agriculture was established in 1887 and teaching and research into agriculture was part of its early agenda. Following a request from the Queensland Government to the United States Government in 1889, Professor Edward Shelton of Kansas State Agricultural College was appointed as agricultural instructor for Queensland in 1890. After touring agricultural education institutions in other Australian colonies, Professor Shelton advocated the establishment of a local college in his first annual report.〔 The Australian-wide economic depression of the early 1890s frustrated attempts to utilise the £5000 allocated by the Queensland Parliament in 1891 to the founding of a college, and it was not until 1895 that the first 600 acres of land were purchased by Peter McLean, Under-Secretary of Agriculture. The land was part of the Rosewood Estate near Gatton, which the Government re-purchased under the provisions of the Agricultural Lands Purchase Act of 1894. A further 1092 acres were acquired in 1896 when the new Minister for Agriculture, Colonel Andrew Joseph Thynne, was determined to make the college a reality. The site was chosen both for its proximity by rail to Brisbane (and to the Department of Agriculture and Stock and its experts) and for its diversity of soil types. Three soil types were present on the site, providing scope for experimentation and wide cultivation experience for students. The Gatton site was also close to the greatest concentration of farmers in the colony. As the land was virgin forest, a contract was let in 1896 for the clearing and grubbing of 233 acres.〔 Sketch plans for the college were prepared by architect John Smith Murdoch of the Queensland Department of Public Works in 1896. The scheme comprised seven buildings linked by elevated covered walkways, in design reflecting Queensland's timber rural vernacular architecture. JS Murdoch was a talented designer, whose body of work includes such notable works as the Customs House, Maryborough, the Commonwealth Bank in Queen Street, Brisbane (now demolished), Commonwealth Government Offices at Anzac Square, Brisbane, Stanthorpe Post Office and the Old Parliament House in Canberra. The tender of £5079 by RW Roe was accepted in July 1896 and a Foundation Day ceremony, which attracted many notable public figures, was held on 22 August. Changes driven by budgetary considerations were made during construction, including the deletion of the network of covered walkways.〔 Professor Shelton was appointed as the first principal and the Queensland Agricultural College was officially opened by the Governor, Lord Lamington, on 9 July 1897. The College had an initial intake of twenty-three students and a staff of six men. The buildings were an administration and teaching block, two dormitories, a teacher's block, a dining room and kitchen, the Principal's residence and the Overseer's residence. The buildings were timber framed and clad, with cedar joinery and galvanised iron roofs. They were orientated to face south, in the direction of the Gatton-Forest Hill-Laidley Road and beyond this the Southern and Western Railway, where College Siding was established. The road to the siding was made all-weather proof in the early 1900s and served as the main entrance to the College until the mid-1920s, when the principal entrance was re-oriented to the north and the road from the Warrego Highway. In the first six months of operation a number of sheds, stables and a silo were constructed and machinery and livestock was purchased. Of the original buildings only the Foundation Building (the administrative and teaching block) and the Homestead (former Principal's residence) remain on the site.〔 The establishment and operation of Queensland Agricultural College was an important commitment by the Queensland Government to agricultural advancement. The development of the dairying industry was an early priority as was the introduction of new agricultural methods and technologies. For instance, in 1897, the first cutting of a crop with a "Scientific Harvester" to produce ensilage was watched by a 200 strong crowd of farmers from as far away as Nanango. As well as providing a basic practical and theoretical agricultural education for young men, the college also offered short courses for farmers on specific topics such as cheese making, milk testing, bee-keeping and sugar farming. The college also held short courses for teachers who were then able to offer basic agricultural education in schools across the state. The college continued to expand, with a gymnasium constructed in 1899 (now Sir Leslie Wilson Hall) and a third residential hall erected in 1908. The first two Canary Island Date Palms (Phoenix canariensis), now a signature feature of the campus, were planted outside the Foundation Building in 1915. Also planted in the 1910s, during the First World War, was a double row of Eucalyptus trees along College Siding Road.〔 For the first 25 years of its existence the Queensland Agricultural College was the responsibility of the Department of Agriculture and Stock, and functioned in isolation from the mainstream Queensland public education system. The gap between leaving school at 12 to 14 years and entering college at age 16 meant that there were no "feeder schools" to sustain the College, and the First World War (1914-1918) further reduced student and staff numbers. By the early 1920s, the College was threatened with closure, a 1921 report recommending that the property be sold as farms and the buildings removed and utilised elsewhere.〔 A special committee appointed by the Governor-in-Council advised that rather than closure, the Queensland Agricultural College be reconfigured as an Agricultural High School and College under the control of the Department of Public Instruction. This was the first major change to the structure and purpose of the college, and was made possible with the passing of the Agricultural Education Act 1922 and the establishment of a Board of Agricultural Education. Agricultural subjects were incorporated into the state secondary education curriculum and the Queensland Agricultural College was re-structured as the Gatton Agricultural High School and College. Boys were accepted from age 14 for high school training and encouraged to continue at Gatton at diploma level in their third and fourth years. At this time, 629 acres of college land was under cultivation including 5 acres for research, 38 for field trials and 20 acres of orchard. Site improvements by this time included a substantial hay shed erected in 1922.〔 The establishment of a Department of Agriculture at the University of Queensland at St Lucia in 1927 also had an impact on the college at Gatton, as university students were required to complete a compulsory year of practical training at Gatton. Gatton College Principal, JK Murray, had been a representative on the Faculty of Science at the University since 1917, however, closer links were formed with the establishment of the new faculty. Murray, a trained agricultural scientist, was appointed as the University's first Professor of Agriculture whilst continuing as College principal. Murray strongly supported research, and collaboration between institutions continued with the establishment of a Council of Scientific and Industrial Research or CSIR (later the CSIRO) laboratory and field station at Gatton in 1930. (The CSIR was established in 1926 by the Commonwealth Government and in the 1930s established research laboratories throughout Australia to help develop Australian primary industry, including forest products, fisheries and food production.) In 1928 the College paddocks were renamed in honour of famous agricultural scientists.〔 In the 1920s the main Brisbane-Toowoomba Road through Shire of Tarampa (later Shire of Gatton) was upgraded as one of Queensland's first Main Roads, and the farm road leading from the Brisbane-Toowoomba Road (later the Warrego Highway) to the College was upgraded as the principal entrance to the Gatton Agricultural High School and College, thus re-orienting the main entrance to the north. The avenue of Canary Island Date Palms (Phoenix canariensis) which extends along each side of the original roadway from the Warrego Highway and through the heart of the campus to the Foundation Building was planted in 1927. A 1936 military map, compiled from earlier aerial photographs and a 1934 ground survey, indicates that an avenue of trees extended along the road opposite the main entrance to the College, north of the Brisbane-Toowoomba Road to Lockyer Creek and a popular swimming hole. At an early period a timber changing rooms was constructed beside the swimming hole.〔 A spate of building activity and infrastructure improvements barely kept pace with the growth of the College following its conversion to an agricultural high school and college.〔 Along with their farm neighbours, one of the principal difficulties experienced by the College since its establishment had been the provision of an adequate water supply during periods of drought. After lobbying by successive Principals, a low-level weir was constructed in 1928-29 on Lockyer Creek, along with two 30,000 gallon (136,000 litres) reinforced concrete tanks on the creek bank, and a pump to force water to another 30,000 gallon (136,000 litres) capacity reinforced concrete main supply tank, or water tower, located in the campus core. The water tower has become a College landmark, visible from the Main Range at Toowoomba, 50 kilometres to the west. A substantial overhaul was made in 1997.〔 Staff and students often worked together to build or improve college facilities during this period. Their work included formation of the Tom Graham Cricket Oval in 1931, and the 1930 relocation by students using horses and tractors, of a timber grandstand, erected in 1927 on a sports ground near the site of the present War Memorial Swimming Pool, to a more appropriate location overlooking the planned new oval. In the early 1930s the Gymnasium was lined with silky-oak and walnut milled and installed by students. In 1935 this building was extended in length, new dressing rooms were constructed either side of the re-erected stage, and the interior was lined to match the existing hall. Used variously as a gymnasium, theatre, cinema (a cinematograph projector was installed in 1927, and replaced by a Movietown Sound Projector in 1931), assembly hall, recreation hall, chapel, and currently as a lecture room, the building was re-located in 1978 to a site between the inner and outer ring roads on the western edge of the campus.〔 In 1935 College Siding was renamed Lawes Siding in honour of Sir John Bennett Lawes, who had endowed the world's first agricultural research station in England. Also in 1935 a flagpole, presented by the Bundaberg Branch of the "Old Boys" Association, was erected in front of the Foundation Building, between the two Canary Island Date Palms planted in 1915. After the central road through the campus was closed, the flagpole was re-located in 1985 to the southern end of what is now the central walkway.〔 Three more halls of residence were built in the 1930s. Thynne Hall was constructed in 1933 (sold for removal in 1973) and Morrison Hall, originally Shelton Hall, in 1936. Enrolments continued to grow, with 323 full-time students attending in 1938 when a third dormitory, Riddell Hall, was constructed. Residential facilities were stretched in the late 1930s when 106 unemployed young men took part in a year's training course conducted under the Unemployed Youths Training Scheme.〔 With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 student enrolments declined, but the war initially impacted little on the functioning of the College. In 1941 a shearing shed, with drafting yards and dip, and Crow's Silo, were erected. Also constructed in 1941was a new seed research unit, including offices, four laboratories and a glasshouse, barn and seed store, which were handed over to the CSIR. This facility was named the Cooper Laboratory.〔 The entry of the United States into the war in late 1941, however, brought a significant period of change to the College, with eighty-five acres of its land and the majority of its buildings being transferred in March 1942 to the United States Army for hospital purposes. The 153rd Station Hospital occupied the site briefly until July 1942, when replaced by the 105th General Hospital Unit. Only twenty-four students and a drastically reduced staff remained on campus. The College administration moved to the newly completed Cooper Laboratory and Riddell Dormitory was retained until September 1942 by which time temporary buildings had been constructed for the College by the Department of Public Works, in the northeast corner of the campus. The College also occupied the nearby College View State School as a laboratory from March 1942 to April 1943. In January 1943 more temporary buildings were erected for the College, which re-opened for enrolments in February 1943. College wartime work included the testing of alternative fuels and growing crops of opium poppy, urgently needed during war for the production of morphine. Extensive temporary facilities were erected by the Civil Construction Corps for the military hospital, including nearly two dozen large timber hospital wards, interconnected by covered walkways, on the eastern side of the campus core. A large "tent city" was established to the south of the core, serving as living quarters for soldiers undergoing rehabilitation. Existing buildings were altered to serve a variety of wartime purposes. The Foundation Building was used as both the administrative headquarters for the US Army and as a laboratory and pharmacy, its verandahs enclosed to provide more space. Shelton Hall (now Morrison Hall) was used as the hospital, its dormitories well suited for use as hospital wards, with dental services, X-Ray facilities and operating theatres located on the ground floor. In 1943 a 'U'-shaped morgue was constructed, used for the examination and preparation of deceased soldiers for transportation back to their families in the United States. In 1944 the two most northerly wings of the building were removed prior to the Americans leaving the College, and from 1945 the remaining section was utilised as a residence and later a girls' change room before being converted into a small chapel in 1959. 19,000 patients from the battlefields of the Pacific and New Guinea were treated at Gatton during the period of occupation by the US Army.〔 A number of more permanent facilities were also constructed during the period of military occupation, including a Sewerage Treatment Works and a Pump House on the northern side of the Warrego Highway. These are still in use.〔 In 1944-45 the College repossessed the site for educational purposes. Many of the buildings needed to be re-adapted for college requirements, and this was paid for by the Commonwealth Government. Twenty buildings erected on campus during the war were acquired form the Commonwealth Disposals Commission including 8 former military hospital wards, which remained in use as dormitories to accommodate a postwar influx of students and staff. These dormitories, commonly known as the "warrens", were destroyed by fire in August 1963. The morgue and the remnants of a rubbish dump established by the US Army about 50 metres southeast of the present piggery are the only surviving features associated with the American occupation of the campus. A cairn and plaque commemorating the use of the College by the United States Army 105th General Base Hospital between 1942 and 1944 was erected opposite the main dining hall and unveiled in 1968.〔 The late 1940s and 1950s was a period of recovery and consolidation for the College. Few new buildings were erected, but student enrolments increased significantly and College land holdings expanded with the purchase of a small farm in the Laidley area in 1945, an adjacent farm of 95 acres in 1948 and an additional 85 acres to the west, fronting the Brisbane-Toowoomba highway, in 1950. Teaching innovations introduced during this period included training of returned servicemen, Summer Agricultural Schools for primary school boys, Rotary-sponsored short farming courses for migrants and a course in butchering for indigenous students.〔 In 1950 the former Crowley Vale State School, erected to a standard Queensland Works Department "open-air" school plan, was moved onto the College grounds as a lunchroom for farm hands. and was re-located to its present position in 1995.〔 In honour of students and staff from the College who had fought in the two world wars, an Olympic-sized War Memorial Swimming Pool was constructed in the early 1950s. Site excavation was carried out in 1950-52, largely by student labour using farm machinery such as tractors and ploughs, but the post-war shortage of materials delayed construction until 1953-54. The pool was funded by a War Memorial Fund established by College staff and students. In 1958-59 dressing rooms and a spectator pavilion were constructed beside the pool, partly funded by Queensland Government subsidy.〔 In 1959 the main entrance from the Warrego Highway was improved with the construction of curved brick fences with ornamental steel work flanking the entrance, and a steel sign replacing the old wooden sign. The Hugh Courtney Oval was established in 1959-60, 1000 tons of ashes from the Bulimba Powerhouse were spread for drainage and the grass was cultivated by Gatton students.〔 A dam was constructed to the east of the Foundation Precinct in the 1950s. In 1980, during a particularly dry season, it was re-designed as a wildlife sanctuary and named Lake Galletly after past student, long-serving staff member and nature conservationist, Jim Galletly.〔 In contrast to the restricted building program of the 1950s, the 1960s and 1970s was a boom construction period for the college, reflecting in part the dominance of the Country/National Party in Queensland politics. The Queensland Government made a commitment to upgrade facilities at the College and to replace the early timber buildings and Second World War timber and fibrous cement structures, with more substantial brick buildings. In 1962 the high school section was closed and the college reverted to a tertiary institution with around 900 students enrolled. Thirty overseas students enrolled in 1960 under the Colombo Plan. In 1966 a wide diversification of courses was initiated under the guidance of the newly formed Queensland Agricultural Education Advisory Board, including rural-related subjects such as food technology, hospitality, tourism, real estate valuation and wildlife services. The College gained autonomy from the Department of Education in 1967 and commenced a major building program. Brisbane firm Bligh Jessup Brentnall was retained as architects and developed a site plan for the college, heralding the "red brick" era of its development. Construction included halls of residence, lecture theatres and schools, a new administration block, and new animal facilities. A new gymnasium was erected in 1968, funded by the College Welfare Fund and Queensland Government subsidy, and was dedicated in 1969 as the War Memorial Gymnasium.〔 An airstrip was established in 1966 as a training ground for students interested in obtaining a private pilot's licence and has developed as a facility for the Air Training Corps and Army Cadets on campus, as well as for sports such as gliding, hot air ballooning and parachuting. In 1973 it was officially named the CH Francis Airstrip in honour of long-serving staff member Charles Francis who was instrumental its development.〔 In 1971 Gatton became a College of Advanced Education and control passed to a College Council. The then Director, Neil Briton, quoted Prime Minister John Gorton in declaring the aim of the College to be to produce a new end-product - a liberally-educated technologist. The first women students enrolled in 1969 on a non-residential basis, and residential women students were accepted in 1971. The College began to confer its own degrees in 1973 and continued to diversify the courses on offer. The next major change came as a result of new Commonwealth government education policy in 1988, which required tertiary institutions to have a minimum student population of 2000 full-time enrolments. Gatton did not meet the size criteria and like many other smaller colleges, consolidated with a larger institution. On 1 January 1990, it became part of the University of Queensland and is now known as The University of Queensland, Gatton Campus. There are currently around 1000 students enrolled.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「University of Queensland Gatton Campus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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