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Schools and Preschools

The first school in Rowville was established for Aboriginal children at the Native Police Depot in the 1840s.

There were so few children in Rowville over the next 130 years, that no school was built and the few local children went to either Scoresby, Mulgrave or Lysterfield State Schools.

Lysterfield State School which was opened in 1877 is the district's oldest institution. The school continued right up until the 1990s on its small Wellington Road site until the decision was taken to move the school to larger grounds on the Lakesfield Estate.

Rowville Primary School was built in 1973 and quickly became one of the state's largest primary schools. The pressure on it was eased in the late 1980s with the building of the Park Ridge, Karoo and Heany Park Park Primary Schools.

St Simon's Catholic Primary School was established in the early 1980s. The long-awaited Rowville Secondary College commenced classes in 1990.

Rowville's first kindergarten was built in Wellington Road in 1971 and in the 1980s further preschools sprang up in Eildon Parade, Taylors Lane North, Pitfield Crescent, Murrindal Drive and, in the 1990s, in Liberty Drive.





  • ARNOTT Darren Arnott Remembers

    Former Rowville Primary School student Darren Arnott was inspired by last year's (1998) 25th Anniversary Celebrations of his old school to recall and record his memories of his days there when the school was hidden in a bush setting.

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  • FINN Frank and Kath Finn Remember

    Frank and Kath Finn have been the proprietors of the Rowville Caravan Park and Motel on the hill in Stud Road since 1968. They have both had a long involvement with the Rowville Red Cross and for many years the meetings were held at their Motel. Kath has been the Red Cross representative assisting with vaccinations in Rowville for 25 years. The only sessions she has ever missed were when she was in hospital as a result of the cowardly attacks made on her during two aggravated burglaries in 1991.

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  • GILL Nellie Gill Remembers

    Nellie Gill is the grand daughter of George and Mary Ann Gill who settled in Rowville on a 155 acre property south of Wellington Road in 1857. George called the property "Somerset Farm" after the county of his birth in England. The property was to remain in the hands of the family for well over 100 years and it was not until the 1980s that the last of the Gills moved away from Rowville. Gill Court off Dandelion Drive is named in honour of this Rowville pioneering family.

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  • HOBBS Hedley Hobbs Remembers

    Hedley came to Lysterfield as a child after his parents had been forced off their farm in the Western District by bad seasons. Hedley's mother became the first postmistress in Lysterfield and his brother Gordon built and ran the first store in the tiny community.

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  • Lightwood Park Sub-Division

    When I interviewed Hedley Hobbs for the article that appeared in the December 1997 and February 1998 editions of the News, he showed me an old poster advertising the Lightwood Park subdivision. It was too yellowed with age to copy but it is reproduced here as closely as possible to the original.

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  • TRESISE Max and Sally Tresise Remember

    Max and Sally Tresise were among the very first residents on the Twin Views Estate. The estate had formerly been the sixty acre farm in Taylors Lane of the Raymond family. The Raymonds had sold to developers Wallace and McKay, who appointed Gordon Norris of Dandenong as the selling agent. It was one of the developers, Jack Wallace, who built the first home on the estate at No 2 Norris Road.

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  • VANCAM Lois and Ray Vancam Remember

    Lois and Ray Vancam are the longest living residents on the Stamford Estate having moved into their home in Hillview Avenue in 1959. In this interview they recount stories of the primitive conditions on the estate in the early years. Lois, of course, is very well known for her many years of dedicated service in manning the school crossing in Stud Road.

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  • William Saurin Lyster

    William Lyster, in whose honour Lysterfield is named, was an extraordinary man whose great energy and many talents left an abiding legacy, not only in this district where he led the way in opening up the potential of the beautiful Lysterfield Valley, but also in the field of the dramatic arts in which he was acknowledged as Australia's leading impresario of the 19th century.

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