State School 4180 opened in a new red-brick building on Everard Road in 1924. Additional buildings were added over the years and student numbers had reached 574 by 1966. Dwindling enrolments led to the school’s closure in the end of 1993, having ‘drawn the short straw’ with Eastwood Primary and Croydon West (now Ainslie Parklands) Primary. Education Department bureaucrats used this technique throughout Melbourne in the 1990s, to force a group of schools to ‘agree’ on which one was to close. The grounds of SS4180 became the Wilkins Grove housing estate, but the school building itself was protected by a heritage overlay. It survived to become the Maroondah Montessori Pre-School in 1996.
Then
Now
Furthermore
Maroondah Montessori Pre-School does not dwell on the origins of its site, but it’s plain to see upon entering the premises. Maroondah City Council’s heritage overlay appears to have fulfilled its purpose.
Links
Ringwood East Primary School – public Facebook group