Bacchus Marsh Primary School

BMPS HistoryIn the beginning...

The Bacchus Marsh Primary School was here before the gold rush, even before Victoria itself. Possibly the first government school in Victoria, it was initially located along the Lerderderg River, in what is now the Avenue of Honour.

The school began on 13th May 1850 as the Bacchus Marsh National School, a one teacher school with a voluntary enrolment of 34. In April 1863, it amalgamated with three other small schools in the area; Korkuperrimul National School, Maddingley National School, and the Church of England School, becoming the Bacchus Marsh Central Common School.

The school moved to the Mechanics' Hall in Young Street, and in May was given the number 28. Its enrolment, still voluntary, had risen to 100. John Pascoe Fawkner attended the opening in November 1865 of the school's brand new brick school house built in Lerderderg Street. 1872 saw the advent of the Education Act, which brought secular, compulsory and free education to Victoria.

The Bacchus Marsh State School, as it became known, now had an enrolment of 200. Almost 100 years later in 1970, the school changed its name again to Bacchus Marsh Primary School, No 28.

2019 sees the school still located at Lerderderg Street with an enrolment of 899, and the original 1865 school house forming the nucleus of this much enlarged school.