Henry BastowPrint Page

The sculpture commemorates Australian architect, Henry Bastow (1839 - 1920). 

In 1872, Victoria’s Education Act  legislated that the Government, on behalf of the community, took responsibility for educating all children and young people. The largest education building program ever seen in Australia began in 1872 when education was proclaimed free, secular and compulsory.

The challenging job of designing and constructing hundreds of new schools throughout the state was made significantly easier for the Department of Education by the employment of Henry Robert Bastow as Chief Architect and Surveyor. Through his vision, leadership, energy and commonsense, 615 schools were built in just five years.

Confident and ambitious, Henry Bastow completed more than 600 schools in the first half a dozen years, and plenty more in the ensuing decade. He achieved this by creating templates for various sized buildings and adapting each to meet the specific environmental needs of the individual schools.

Bastow listened to communities and teachers. He amended designs, matching school buildings to learning and teaching practice. He learned on the job. His designs were flexible and visually commanding. He wanted the buildings to work, and he wanted them to make a statement: education matters.  His designs for hundreds of schools, and his influence over other great public works (as head of the Public Works Department in the 1880s), placed him in the upper echelon of influential Melbourne architects.

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