Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tomorrow, I open the new library at Tarampa State School, a 131-year-old school located in the Brisbane Valley north-west of Ipswich. This facility is just one of the new state-of-the-art facilities that have been built throughout Blair as part of the Building the Education Revolution, which has seen an investment of $109 million in 65 schools in Blair by this federal Labor government. The school received $850,000 under the Primary Schools for the 21st Century program to build a new library. The previous library was not a purpose-built library. Rather, it was an old classroom in the original school building, which is impressive, given that it was built in 1886. The old library is now being used for staff resources. The school received an additional $75,000 under the National School Pride program, and that has been used to improve some of the safety, comfort and aesthetic needs of the students, such as bituminising the undercover area, recementing around the undercover area and installing a soft-fall facility in the playground and some latticework.

Tarampa is a small rural township of just a few buildings: a hotel, a general store, a church and a school. In the early 1860s, the Tarampa Agricultural Reserve was declared for closer settlement and was occupied almost exclusively by German settlers. Baptist and Apostolic churches were opened in the early years of the next decade. The farms were used for crops and dairy, and a local creamery was opened in the 1890s. A butter factory at Lowood, five kilometres north-east, took over from the creamery in 1903.

An affiliation with Lowood, also German settled, further developed with the Lowood Agricultural Society showground being built in 1906 on part of the Tarampa estate. Intensively farmed holdings raised Tarampa's population to just over 500 in 1911. However, the town still contained only a few businesses, and only the publican had a non-Germanic surname. A population movement out of Tarampa began in the 1910s, and by the early 1950s there were only about 200 people living in Tarampa. The decline in dairying further reduced the population. Today, the Tarampa and Lowood communities boast about 3,000 people, as people see the benefit of coming to this beautiful area.

I look forward to being at the Tarampa show on Saturday for my 68th mobile office since the last election—but I digress. The Tarampa State School was established in 1880. The area was, at first, dense bush and scrub. Students had their first lessons in an old slab building on Grlenke's paddock, and the school's first teacher was a Mr JH Stewart. I am not sure how, with an English surname, he coped with all those German speakers. There were 44 students originally, and the school is still relatively small with 65 enrolments. Many of the original students spent their lives in the district. They went on to develop and progress the region, especially in Tarampa and Lowood. The school remains a symbol of the early pioneers' dedication to education and the importance of children being the central point of the community.

One of my electorate staff, Lucas Bird, was a student at Tarampa State School, completing years 4 to 7 from 2001 to 2004. He played a significant role in the 125th anniversary celebrations in 2005, and Lucas has informed me there are number of time capsules located throughout the school property. He has also told me that a leopard tree, planted on the school grounds about 100 years ago, still stands. The original lunch shed is still standing and they still have the original school bell—an old hand-held bell. The school has played an important role in the community over many years as a meeting place. It has hosted festivals such as the Spring Festival, held by the local German population, and the Tarampa Gift, a fete that celebrates the pioneering heritage of the region. In 1930, at the school's jubilee, it was noted that the original students and early pioneers played a wonderful part in making the district what it was.

This new library is a demonstration of the federal Labor government's commitment to vital infrastructure in local schools—even small rural schools like Tarampa State School. It is a commitment that, as a federal member, I will always support, even if those opposite, our conservative opponents, will not. This gives kids in Tarampa as much opportunity as kids in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.