Catalogue information
Balmain Public School is a primary school from the Australian state in the suburb of Balmain, in the south west of Sydney. It is popularly known as "Pigeon Ground" or "Pigeon Park" due to the one-off pigeon sport pastime in the adjacent Gladstone Park. The school started out as a one-teacher school in a small wooden building and became a national school in 1860 with an enrollment of 138 students. In 1861, plans were drawn up for a brick building next to the Catholic Church on the edge of Gladstone Park, which was completed and occupied in November 1862, supplemented by new rooms in 1864 to accommodate the 350 students and five teachers. The school entered secondary classes in 1864. In 1876, a two-story building was erected for a Girls and Infant Department. 1,269 children were enrolled in 1883. A new building for babies was built in 1892 and in 1912 the school was separated from Gladstone Park. A three-story building was completed in 1915 and became known as the Girls Building. The boys moved into the 1876 building, and the 1862 building was sold to the Catholic Church in 1920 for their extensions. An evening school was established in 1899. In 1901, special classes were started for what were then called handicapped children, perhaps the earliest of such classes in New South Wales. Girls' secondary classes were discontinued in 1950 and boys in 1959. The 1876 building was destroyed by fire in 1959 and then redecorated.
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