Innisfail State High School

Last updated

Innisfail State High School
Location
Innisfail State High School
2 Stitt Street

Innisfail
,
Queensland
,
4860

Australia [1] [2] [3] : 3 
Coordinates 17°32′12.51″S146°1′38.75″E / 17.5368083°S 146.0274306°E / -17.5368083; 146.0274306 (Innisfail State High School)
Information
Type State secondary day school
Motto Latin: Honor et Labore [4]
(Honour and Labour [5] [4] )
Religious affiliationNon-denominational
Established1955 [2] [6]
Closed2009 [7] [2]
Authority Department of Education (Queensland)
PrincipalJulie Pozzoli [8] [3] : 1 
Staff
  • 56 (Teaching) [3] : 8 
  • 35 (Non-teaching) [3] : 8 
Year levels Year 8 – Year 12 [4] [3] : 3 
Gender Coeducational [3] : 3 
Enrolment722 [3] : 3  (August 2009)
Campus typeOuter Regional
Colours
  •   Green
  •   White
  •   Black
Website innisfailsc.eq.edu.au [1] [9] : 1  (Now Innisfail State College's website)

Innisfail State High School (ISHS) was a high school situated in Innisfail (Queensland, Australia). [2] [1] The school was located in "Division 4" of the Cassowary Coast Regional Council local government area. [10]

Contents

Motto

The school's motto was the Latin phrase Honor Et Labore, [4] which means "Honour and Labour" in English. [5] [4]

Nomenclature

The school's name was derived from its location in the suburb of Innisfail. That suburb, and the adjacent suburbs of East Innisfail and Innisfail Estate, derived their names from their location, and proximity to the boundaries of the old town of Innisfail. The town was initially named Geraldton after the first settler, but in 1910, the government renamed it to Innisfail, due to confusion with Geraldton in Western Australia. That town derived its name from the name of the sugarcane plantation owned by Thomas Henry Fitzgerald, a sugarcane farmer who settled on local river frontage land and established the first European settlement in the region in 1880, which became a sugar-producing region. [11] Innisfail is the poetic name for Ireland, meaning “Isle of Destiny”, based on the old Irish word for "Island of Fál" (Irish : Inis Fáil), a reference to the standing stone (Irish : Lia Fáil) at the Inauguration Mound (Irish : an Forrad) known as the "Stone of Destiny". [12]

History

Opening

The school opened on 24 January 1955. [6] [13] : 1 

Closure

The school suffered severe damage when the town was devastated by Cyclone Larry in 2006, necessitating the school to function using several demountable classrooms while it underwent substantial repair and rebuilding. [13] : 1  [14] [15] Community consultation commenced in August 2007, [13] : 1  and there was overwhelming community support for the relocation to the local TAFE (Technical and Further Education) site for the start of the 2010 year. [13] : 1  For a more effective and efficient delivery of education services, [13] : 1  in 2010, [16] on 31 December 2009, the school closed [6] and the Innisfail State College was formed by amalgamating the school with two other local educational institutions: [7] [14] [13] : 1 

The college was officially opened on 28 February 2010 by the then Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and Queensland Education and Training Minister Geoff Wilson. [14] The amalgamated college still operates on the old TAFE land as of 2025. [17]

Administration

Staff

In 2009, the final year of the school's operation, the school had a teaching staff of 56 (Full-time equivalent: 56) [3] : 8  and a non-teaching staff of 35 (Full-time equivalent of 35). [3] : 8 

Principals

Julie Pozzoli was Innisfail State High School's first and only female principal, arriving eight weeks before it was damaged by Cyclone Larry in 2006. [18] [19] : 3  Pozzoli remained the principal until the school's closure in 2009, [4] [3] : 1  becoming the founding principal of the newly-amalgamated Innisfail State College from 2010 [20] [17] [13] : 2  to 2012. [21]

Students

Years

The school catered for Year 8 to Year 12. [4] [3] : 3 

Enrolments

The trend in student enrolments for the school's final few years was as follows:

Trend in total enrolment figures
YearTotalRef
2005752 [19] : 2 
2006760 [22] : 3 
2007731 [9] : 3 
2009722 [3] : 3 

Notable alumni

AlumniNotabilityRef
Brett Anderson Rugby league player [23]
Brent Cockbain Cockbain is a former international rugby union player for Wales, whose games include the 2003 World Cup. [24]
Billy Slater Slater is a renowned rugby league fullback who played for the Melbourne Storm (2003-2018) and represented Queensland in State of Origin (2004–2018) and Australia internationally. Slater is the current coach of the Queensland Maroons for the State of Origin series (2022 to 2025). [25]
Ty Williams Williams is a former professional rugby league player with the North Queensland Cowboys (2002-2010) who also represented Queensland in State of Origin in 2005. [26]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Contact us". Innisfail State High School (www.innisfailshs.eq.edu.au). Archived from the original on 25 October 2009. Retrieved 12 November 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Innisfail State High School (1955—2009)". National Redress Scheme (www.nationalredress.gov.au). Archived from the original on 11 November 2025. Retrieved 11 November 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Queensland State School Reporting - 2009" (PDF). Innisfail State High School (www.innisfailsc.eq.edu.au). Department of Education (Queensland). 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 March 2011. Retrieved 12 November 2025.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Principal's message". Innisfail State High School (www.innisfailsc.eq.edu.au). Archived from the original on 25 October 2009. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  5. 1 2 "Honor et Labore (Latin) → Honor and Labor (English)". Google Translate (www.translate.google.com.au). Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 November 2025. Retrieved 10 November 2025.
  6. 1 2 3 "Historical Summary → Opening and closing dates of Queensland schools". Department of Education (Queensland) (www.education.qld.gov.au). July 2024. Archived from the original on 22 August 2025. Retrieved 23 October 2025.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Historical Summary → Opening and closing dates of Queensland schools". Department of Education (Queensland) (www.education.qld.gov.au). July 2024. Archived from the original on 22 August 2025. Retrieved 23 October 2025.
  8. ↑ "Principal's message". Innisfail State College (www.innisfailsc.eq.edu.au). Archived from the original on 25 October 2009. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  9. 1 2 "School Annual Report 2007" (PDF). Innisfail State High School (www.innisfailshs.eq.edu.au). Department of Education (Queensland). 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 October 2009. Retrieved 12 November 2025.
  10. ↑ "Cassowary Coast Division 4" (PDF). Cassowary Coast Regional Council (www.cassowarycoast.qld.gov.au). Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 November 2025. Retrieved 12 November 2025.
  11. ↑ "Innisfail History". Cassowary Coast (www.cassowarycoast.net). Archived from the original on 9 November 2025. Retrieved 8 November 2025.
  12. ↑ Patrick Weston Joyce (1911). The Lia Fáil or Coronation Stone of Tara . Retrieved 10 January 2011.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Curtis Pitt, Member for Mulgrave (15 September 2009). "Innisfail State College" (PDF). Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) . Queensland: Legislative Assembly. Event occurs at 12.05 pm. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 November 2025. Retrieved 10 November 2025.
  14. 1 2 3 Crompton, Jo; Morton, Rick (28 February 2010). "Innisfail State College celebrates official opening". The Queensland Cabinet and Ministerial Directory (Press release). Queensland Government (www.statements.qld.gov.au). Archived from the original on 11 November 2025. Retrieved 11 November 2025.
  15. ↑ "Innisfail State College, Innisfail Estate, QLD → 2024". My School . Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 November 2025. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  16. ↑ "Innisfail State College (2010—)". National Redress Scheme (www.nationalredress.gov.au). Archived from the original on 6 November 2025. Retrieved 5 November 2025.
  17. 1 2 "About our school". Innisfail State College (www.innisfailsc.eq.edu.au). Archived from the original on 9 April 2025. Retrieved 9 November 2025.
  18. ↑ "Congratulations to Julie Pozzoli who is one of our Professional Business Woman of the Year finalists!". 28 July 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 November 2025. Retrieved 12 November 2025– via Facebook (Sunshine Coast Business Women's Network).
  19. 1 2 "Innisfail State High School" (PDF). Innisfail State High School (www.innisfailshs.eq.edu.au). Department of Education (Queensland). 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 November 2025. Retrieved 12 November 2025.
  20. ↑ "Principal's message". Innisfail State College (www.innisfailsc.eq.edu.au). Archived from the original on 1 November 2010. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  21. ↑ "Principal's message". Innisfail State College (www.innisfailsc.eq.edu.au). Archived from the original on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  22. ↑ "Innisfail State High School" (PDF). Innisfail State High School (www.innisfailshs.eq.edu.au). Department of Education (Queensland). 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 November 2025. Retrieved 12 November 2025.
  23. ↑ Elbra, Tim. "The extraordinary honour roll of Australian Schoolboys rugby league representatives". Fox Sports (www.foxsports.com.au). 19 December 2024. Archived from the original on 19 July 2025. Retrieved 11 November 2025.
  24. ↑ "Brent Cockbain". British & Irish Lions Rugby Club (www.lionsrugby.com). Archived from the original on 6 November 2025. Retrieved 6 November 2025.
  25. ↑ "Billy Slater on growing up in tropical innisfail". Qantas (www.qantas.com). 21 September 2017. Archived from the original on 16 July 2025. Retrieved 5 November 2025.
  26. ↑ "Where are they now: Ty Williams". Cowboys Rugby Club (www.cowboys.com.au). 6 February 2021. Archived from the original on 12 July 2025. Retrieved 5 November 2025.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.