Bundaberg School of Arts - Bundaberg 1.7

Bundaberg School of Arts is a heritage-listed former school of arts and now community centre at 184 Bourbong Street, Bundaberg, Bundaberg Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Anton Hettrich and built from 1888 to 1889. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.HistoryThe former School of Arts is a substantial masonry building in classical revival style and was constructed in 1888-1889 as the third school of arts building on this site.The Burnett area, in which Bundaberg lies, was first settled by Europeans in the 1840s and 1850s as a series of pastoral runs. In the late 1860s, as good agricultural land around Maryborough began to be scarce, agriculturalists and timbergetters became interested in land on the navigable Burnett River to the north. The foundation settlers of Bundaberg selected land in 1867-68 under the "Sugar and Coffee Regulations" stemming from the Crown Lands Alienation Act of the 1860s which aimed to promote agriculture and closer settlement. The site of Bundaberg was officially surveyed in 1869. Coastal traffic grew, and copper was first mined at Mount Perry in 1871, which enabled Bundaberg to develop as a port and supply centre, in spite of competition from Maryborough for this trade. Although the higher southern bank of the river was officially surveyed as the town site, both sides soon developed wharves and buildings and were initially linked by ferry, then by bridges in the 1870s. Sugar plantations were established in the surrounding area and were to become the basis for the city's wealth as the industry boomed from the 1880s to the 1920s.