The cache is just outside the community centre fence, so can still be found if the centre is closed to the public because its been booked for exclusive use by a group or organisation (eg a weekend wedding). The container looks like it should be there but will appreciate a sprinkle of grass or leaves to help it blend in. While the container is about the size of a fist, internally its too small for anything other than a logbook, so no need to leave swaps or trackables and don't forget to BYO pen.
Stinkbugs in the cottonwood tree; avoiding the boys playing ‘catch and kick’ football in the playground; making ‘daisy chains’ with lantana flowers; marble games in the dirt under the Norfolk pines; smelly boys toilets; watching the waves over the fence, leaf ‘boat’ races in the gutters when it rained; 30¢ for a hotdog, piece of cake and cup of cordial on tuckshop days. These are some my memories of school and Coolangatta State School was my Primary School in the 1970s. Little did I realise back then just how significant this school was in Coolangatta history. For me it was just school!
Coolangatta State School dates back to the 1919 flu epidemic. There were children living in Coolangatta but they all went to Tweed Heads Public School. When the Queensland/New South Wales border was closed on 30 January 1919 those kids could not get to school. Nobody crossed the border, and nobody knew how long the border was to be closed for. Alternative arrangements were called for, appropriate furnishings and two teachers were sent from Brisbane, and 61 students started the new Coolangatta School in its temporary home in the Coolangatta Town Council building on 10 February. By the end of year successful lobbying by parents made the school permanent.
In March 1920, the Department of Public Works began constructing the first purpose-built school on this site at a cost of £1542. The new school consisted of two classrooms upstairs and an open-sided ‘playroom’ plus cooking and dressmaking room downstairs. At the time of the official opening in October 1920, there were 67 students on the roll with two teachers, one of whom, Claude de Jersey - the teacher-in-charge, is the grandfather of the current Governor of Queensland, Paul de Jersey
By the end of 1922, just two years after opening, the population of township of Coolangatta had increased and thus the school was ‘bursting at the seams’. An additional two classrooms were built but by the end of the decade overcrowding was again an issue. Over subsequent decades the school continued to be extended. Eventually in the mid-1970s the decision was made to move to a new site in Kirra and in November 1977 we all started class in brand new buildings at the new school in Staplyton Street. The Kirra Hill site was turned into the Coolangatta Special School catering for students with intellectual and other disabilities until 2006 when they too moved to a larger, purpose-built school in Currumbin.
When it was announced that the Special School was about to move, there was community concern as to what would happen with the Kirra Hill site. Imagine the real estate value of this block of land if it was sold! A small group of concerned citizens, many of them ex-students, began to lobby to “Save Kirra Hill”, the momentum grew and in 2008 the site was handed over to the Gold Coast City Council by the Queensland Government. After a 3-million-dollar restoration and refurb, it re-opened as the Kirra Hill Community and Cultural Centre. It has an art gallery and a variety of spaces which can be used by community groups or hired for private functions. It also features a history room on the second floor near the principal’s office. If it’s open when you come to visit, please feel free to call in – there is no admission cost and offers ever changing displays.