© Heather Wade, 2025.
The history of the Harvey schools, both Government and Catholic, can be confusing because they have changed names and locations over the years. Here is a quick history and outline of those changes.
Government Schools
1899 – Miss Edith Mitchell began teaching in the newly constructed Agricultural Hall on the corner of Uduc Road and Young Street.[1] [See ‘Harvey School Records (1899 – 1921)’ on this website.]
1902 – The pupils moved to the purpose-built school in Gibbs Street in February that year, the current site of the Harvey Primary School. It continued to cater for children from 6 to 14 years of age and was called either Harvey School or Harvey State School.
Head Teacher at Harvey School from 1905 to 1908, Henry Iles, (far right). Photo taken c1905, courtesy of Harvey & Districts Historical Society.
Circa 1937 pupils at the school were able to sit for the Junior Certificate.[2]
1950 – In line with other schools in the State, Harvey State School changed its name to the Harvey Junior High School on 1 January as the school catered for both primary students (Years 1 to 7) and secondary students (Years 8 to 10).[3]
1952 – The Education Department purchased the Commonwealth Training Centre on the South Western Highway for an Agricultural School. The site had originally been the Harvey Internment Camp and in 1942 became an Officer Training Camp. After WW2 it became a farm training camp under the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme to rehabilitate farmers after war service.[4]
1953 – The agricultural wing of the Harvey Junior High School opened. The Junior High School continued in Gibbs Street and the two campuses operated as the Harvey Agricultural Junior High School, administered from Gibbs Street.[5]
1954 –The new Junior High School buildings on the corner of Gibbs and Young Streets were officially opened by the Minister for Lands and Agriculture, Mr EK Hoar:
The opening of the new junior high school was regarded locally as one of the most important forward moves yet made in educational circles. It was thought it would solve the problem of accommodation for the next five or six years and marked a step forward in the policy of consolidation of schools, as Cookernup school had been consolidated with the Harvey school. The Harvey school now comprised three schools in one— the junior high school and the primary school on the Gibbs Street site and the agricultural wing on the South Western Highway.[6]
The high school students moved into the new classrooms built by Newby & Sons and the primary school students remained in the original school.[7]
Harvey Junior High School, taken 12 November 1959, courtesy of State Library of Western Australia.[8]
1955 – The school population was growing and in 1955 there were 590 pupils – 418 in the primary school and 172 in the high school and agricultural wing. The increase of 65 on the previous year’s numbers were mostly high school students.[9]
1962 – In Term 3 the secondary students moved from Gibbs Street to the current high school site on the South Western Highway with a ceremonial march through town from the old school to the new. The new school was called the Harvey Agricultural High School and still only catered for Years 8 to 10. Those requiring Upper School Education (Years 11 & 12) travelled to Bunbury Senior High School and later to Newton Moore. In earlier times, students attending Years 11 & 12 from Harvey boarded in Bunbury to attend the High School there.
Harvey Agricultural High School constructed in 1962. Photo per Memories of Harvey Facebook.
1964 – The Harvey Agricultural High School was officially opened on 7 May by the Education Minister, EH Lewis with the Director General of Education, Dr TL Robertson, in attendance. It was the 39th High School in WA and had cost £170,000 to build.[10]
1975 – The first cohort of students who could complete Years 11 & 12 commenced at the renamed Harvey Agricultural Senior High School.[11]
1998 – The Harvey Agricultural College was formed splitting from the Harvey Agricultural Senior High School, but remained on the Agricultural School premises. The initial enrolment was 62 upper school students.
1999 – The Wokalup Research Station was sold to the Education Department and became the farm of the Harvey Agricultural College,[12] but the residential and other teaching areas remained in Harvey.
2000 – The Western Australian College of Agriculture – Harvey, was formed joining four other Colleges from around the state to become a Registered Training Organisation (RTO).
2012 – New facilities for the WA College of Agriculture – Harvey were built and opened at the farm at Wokalup to accommodate up to 128 boarding students plus day students. It was the first time the whole College, staff and students operated from one site.[13]
WA College of Agriculture – Harvey Administration Building, Wokalup, July 2024. © Heather Wade.
NB Carnamah Historical Society & Museum has a listing of ‘WA State School Teachers 1900 -1980’ at https://www.carnamah.com.au/teachers
St Anne’s School
The Harvey Catholic Church purchased land on the corner of Young and Gibbs Streets in 1927 and Our Lady of Immaculate Conception Church was built there in 1932. The Church building is now used as a Community Centre.
The Bunbury Mercy Sisters answered the call to establish a convent and school in Harvey. The old boy’s boarding school in Bunbury was dismantled, transported and converted into the convent with two school rooms under the one roof. It was blessed in November 1934 and school commenced in 1935 with 42 students and by year’s end there were 61. The school grew to cater for an influx of Italian migrants in the late 1930s and increasing numbers of secondary students in the 1940s. In 1938 the Church was made available as a classroom helping to ease the pressure. [14]
St Anne’s Convent and two classrooms, Young Street, Harvey c1960s. Photo: Harvey History Online Collection.
Numbers still increased. Building two brick classrooms in 1954 eased the overcrowding and increased the number of classrooms to five.[15]
The 1954 brick building is now the Creative Arts Centre. © Heather Wade, 2024.
The land on which the current St Anne’s school and church complex stands, at the corner of Hester and Young Streets, was purchased in 1963. In 1964 four classrooms were built on Young Street and the Catholic High School opened. In 1971 a convent, and in 1972 a church, Our Lady of Immigrants, were built in Hester Street.
Declining high school numbers and the school being run on two sites posed problems. To remedy the situation, new school buildings were opened in October 1978 on the current St Anne’s site, which from then on operated as a primary school only. In January 1983 Harvey Shire purchased the old church and old school buildings for use as a community arts centre. At the School’s jubilee celebrations in November 1985, Mercy Hall was opened.[16]
Mr Shane Baker was the first lay Principal from 1984 until 1990. He was responsible for two major changes which took place in 1991: Pre-Primary education was offered for the first time and operated full time, and secondly, the school went single stream for the first time, i.e. no split classes from Pre-Primary to Year 7.[17]
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[1] Bunbury Herald, 15 April 1899, p. 3.
[2] Harvey Primary School, 100 Memories 1899 – 1999, p. 15, edited by Marion Lofthouse née Manning.
[3] Harvey Murray Times, 23 December 1949, p. 9.
[4] Harvey Agricultural Senior High School – Agricultural Wing – notes on the history of the land 1952 to 1969, notes in HHO’s collection.
[5] Harvey Murray Times, 31 December 1953, p. 1.
[6] Harvey Murray Times, 23 July 1954, p. 1.
[7] Memories of Harvey Facebook.
[8] Harvey Junior High School, 12/11/59 [picture] : 133811PD, part of the Wylie collection of slides, BA1686/344, State Library of Western Australia.
[9] Harvey Murray Times, 18 February 1955, p. 1.
[10] Harvey Murray Times, 15 May 1964, p. 1.
[11] Discussions with Kerry Davis and Elaine Hill.
[12] https://www.harveyag.wa.edu.au/college-history accessed 29 Dec 2023
[13] Ibid.
[14] St Anne’s School 1935-1985.
[15] History of the Catholic Church in Harvey, notes in HHO’s collection.
[16] Harvey Reporter, 16 August 2005, p. 11.
[17] St. Anne’s Primary School, Veritas, 1992 School Magazine.