Profile: Bacchus Marsh Primary School

A history of the state’s oldest continuing public school, by Dr Deborah Towns OAM. Celebrating its 175th in 2025, Bacchus Marsh Primary School is Victoria’s oldest continuing public school. It was established by the NSW government, because when it opened, the area now known as Victoria, was still the Port Phillip District of the colony of New South Wales.

It continued as Bacchus Marsh National School after 1851 when Victoria separated. The new Victorian government adopted the same NSW system of National Schools and Denominational Schools. Students paid small school fees that provided for maintenance, books and subsidised the teachers’ salaries. Denominational schools were administered and partially funded by different religions. National schools were supported by local communities.

The school’s first teachers were a married teaching couple, Henry Ball and his wife. The couple stayed for three years.

The school opened in a rented building with 34 girls and boys, and all teaching was conducted in one classroom. The girls were also taught needlework by Mrs Ball. Tempted by possible riches, Mr Ball eventually resigned to seek his fortune on the Ballarat goldfields.

Disgruntled public opinion led to the Boards amalgamating and the Common Schools Act was passed in 1862. All government funded schools became known as Common Schools.

The school combined with Korkuperrimul and Maddingly National Schools, and the Church of England’s school. Altogether they became Bacchus Marsh Central Common School in 1863. The alphabetically based numbering system began so that Bacchus Marsh was Number 28.

In 1865, a new site was purchased on Lerderderg Street, where the school continues today. Funded by the government and the local community, a brick school was built, and it is still used in the present school. By 1871, there were 140 children.

The pioneering, ‘free, compulsory, secular’ education system was established by the 1872 Education Act and the school became Bacchus Marsh State School. It was compulsory for children to attend school until they were 14 years old, and the school provided classes to year 8. By 1873, there were 200 students.

The school’s progress has prospered from committed teachers, the support of parents, and the local and wider community. This has included school committees, school councils, and ladies and mothers’ clubs raising funds and community volunteering. Remodelled in 1915, the school gained new classrooms. Older boys trained as cadets. Students were encouraged to plant trees as Arbor Day was celebrated. Older students left to attend Bacchus Marsh High School after it opened in 1920 and it continues today as Bacchus Marsh Secondary College.

In 1950, just after World War 2, the school celebrated its centenary, and overcrowding was a problem. Accommodation was increased with prefabricated classrooms known as ‘Bristols’, manufactured by the Bristol Airplane company and imported to Australia. In the 1960s, other classrooms were added to accommodate student numbers and enhance learning.

The school was renamed Bacchus Marsh Primary School in 1970; around the time the Education Department celebrated its centenary in 1972 and made organisational changes. However, the school celebrated its 122nd year.

As Bacchus Marsh Primary School ever since, its student numbers and buildings have increased due to Bacchus Marsh proving to be a popular place to live. Firstly in the 1830s, as a rural centre for farms and market gardens. Then in the 1850s, new businesses were added to service travellers, as it was halfway between the Ballarat Goldfields and Melbourne. And today, families are attracted by its less expensive real estate and easy commute to Melbourne by road or rail.

With over 500 students around the turn of the century, the school was needing refurbishment. In 2006, the school community led by the school council and inspired by principal Ian Wren, developed a state-of-the-art learning environment. Gaining a $6 million grant from the Building Futures Program and other grants, the school won the 2010 Best Primary School over $3 million category in the Education Department’s School design awards. Today the school has almost 800 students accommodated in 33 classes in ten main buildings, with specialist spaces, and a gymnasium.

Bacchus Marsh Primary School’s 2024 annual report states, ‘Our vision is to develop self-sustaining, life-long leaners in a recognised centre of educational excellence.

Written by Dr Deborah Towns OAM

Dr Deborah Towns OAM is an Honorary Fellow in the Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Melbourne. A former teacher and public servant, she is a sociologist, historian and author.

At the 2022 conference ‘Free Secular Compulsory: 150th Anniversary of the Victorian Education Act 1872’, she delivered the keynote.

Deb won the 2018 Collaborative Community History Award shared with co-author Dr John Andrews for A Secondary Education for All? A History of State Secondary Schooling in Victoria (2017).

Education & training

Updated 9 February 2026

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Profile: Bacchus Marsh Primary School

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