Melrose Park history

School history

The original inhabitants of the area were Aboriginal members of the Wallumedegal tribe.

Melrose Park Public School was founded in 1945.

The school opened as Walumetta Infants School on 28th January 1945, with Miss Jean Chaffers–Welsh as its first teacher. There were 47 students enrolled for the first term. The school consisted of a small timber building divided into two classrooms.

In 1792 land grants were given to two marines, Isaac Archer and John Colethread. Samuel Marsden acquired the land in 1798. Later, the area was called Ermington, after "Ermington Park House" which was built by Major Edmund Lockyer in what is now Crowley Crescent. In 1926 the whole area was sold to the City Mutual Life Assurance Society Ltd for £35,000. It was subdivided in 1929 and is now occupied by the Ryde–Parramatta Golf Course and Melrose Park.

Melrose Park Public School history website

Find out more on our historical school website here. This website was first established in 2020 to mark the 75th Anniversary of our school.  Please contact the school if you have more photos or would like to be interviewed.

Past Head Teachers

  • Jean Chaffers-Welsh – appointed January 1945
  • Flora Roughley – appointed June 1946
  • Bessie Hutton – appointed January 1950

By 1952 the school had grown to an enrolment of 227. It was given primary status and renamed Melrose Park Public School. A new building, containing four classrooms, was opened on 29th November 1952 by the Hon R J Heffron MLA, deputy premier and minister for education.

Past Principals

  • Raymond Larson – appointed January 1952
  • Lindsay Hamilton – appointed February 1954
  • K Partridge – appointed February 1955
  • Randolph Brennan – appointed January 1962
  • Peter Finlayson – appointed January 1968
  • John Quigley – appointed February 1971
  • H Kearns – appointed January 1974
  • Eric Mathew – appointed February 1977
  • John Paul – appointed January 1983
  • Colin Hodder – appointed May 1983
  • John Vernon – appointed January 1985
  • E Helen Richards – appointed February 1988
  • Ian Chaseling – appointed February 1990
  • Denise Galbraith – appointed January 1998
  • Trudy Hopkins – appointed September 2001
  • Craig Oliver – appointed September 2004
  • Milly Stone – appointed January 2009
  • Clare Kristensen – appointed March 2011
  • Nicole Doig - appointed 2024
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