A storyboard has been unveiled on the site of the former Evanston Primary School to mark the 60th anniversary of the official opening of the school on 29th November 1962.
The school was officially opened on Friday 29 November 1963 by the then Minister for Education, Hon. Sir Baden Pattinson, KBE, LL.B., M.P.
The school opened its doors on Tuesday 6 February 1962 and closed on Friday 7 December 2012 (although the school year did not end until 14 December 2012).
The inaugural Headmaster was Mr William H B Turner, A.U.A., who was supported by seven teachers, eight classrooms and 218 students.
The school “re-opened” in 2013 as the primary years of the newly created Gawler and District College B-12 on the Gawler High School site and was joined by the former Evanston Pre-School.
Local Member of Parliament, Mr Tony Piccolo said that he was an old scholar of both Evanston Primary and Gawler High, while his two sons, Raffaele and Stefan attended Evanston Pre-School.
Mr Piccolo said Evanston Primary School was built and opened as part of the population boom years of the 60’s with many young families moving into the areas around the Gawler Township.
“Sadly, as the suburb aged, enrolments at the school fell dramatically, which is one of the reasons why the school closed after serving local families and thousands of students for 50 years.
A plaque or something similar for the site was first mooted by Mrs Anne Hausler a former teacher at the school.
After many years absence, Mrs Hausler visited the school site during 2021 and was surprised to see no plaque on the site to mark its important history.
Mrs Hausler said that despite teaching at the school [during the 60’s] for a number of years she would not have been able to find the site of the school as there were no signs or directions.
The storyboard has been funded and erected by the Town of Gawler.
Gawler Mayor, Karen Redman said Evanston Primary School provided quality education to the people of southern Gawler for many years.
“It was staffed by fantastic teachers, and I think it’s appropriate to acknowledge the school and where it was, as part of our history of Gawler,” said Mayor Redman.
“The Town of Gawler consider it a privilege to be associated with this project.”
Mr Piccolo said it was a chance discussion between Evanston Primary School teacher, Mr Paul Malkin and me on the train returning from a tour of parliament that led to the exploration of the three local schools merging to give students greater access to educational resources.
“Mr Malkin, who was also my geography teacher at Gawler High in years 8 and 10 mentioned to me that classes from Evanston Primary walked over to Gawler High for science lessons on a regular basis,” said Mr Piccolo.
“As I was on the Gawler High Governing Council at the time, I asked the Governing Council to explore the benefits of co-locating the primary school students on the Gawler High site.”
“Later, similar discussions were held with the Evanston Pre-School community.”
“After many meetings and discussions, the parents from all three schools approved the merger through a formal ballot, and Gawler and District College was born.”
The school was named after the suburb it was located in. Evanston was originally named Evans Town after Ann Taylor Evans, the wife of the land developer James Philcox and became Evanston in 1854 when the land was transferred to John Morphett.
At one stage, it was proposed to name the suburb “Tambelin” but that was rejected by the Geographical Names Board.