Another old Victorian country primary school is about to be auctioned.
The former primary school was built more than a century ago at Cressy in western Victoria, on the Hamilton Highway about 40km from Colac on the shores of Lake Corangamite.
It is one of the oldest public schools in the state.
If it is not churches and halls, then it's abandoned schools which are hitting the market to entice tree-changers to convert them to homes.
Three bidders battled it out to pay $475,000 for old Windermere Primary School last year, about 15 minutes drive north west of Ballarat.
The decaying Wooren primary school in South Gippsland sold for $450,000 earlier this year.
The 111-year-old school was famously the scene of a dramatic kidnapping of its rookie teacher and nine students back in 1977.
Wooren was opened in 1912, parts of Windermere were built in 1857.
One benefit of these old schools is the big blocks of land they occupy.
The Cressy school takes in eight hectares (19 acres) and is set for auction on May 27 at 11am on-site after it was closed just shy of its centenary in 2010.
A suggested selling price range is $750,000-$795,000.
The Cressy State School, the overcrowded forerunner to this primary school, was opened in 1866, after classes began a few years earlier in a local church.
The state's oldest public school is said to be at Bacchus Marsh which opened in 1850.
The larger school was opened in March 1912.
That original state school was relocated to nearby Berrybank and used as a classroom until it was destroyed by the terrible bushfires of 1944.
The school block has frontage to the Woady Yallock River.
The main school building originally accommodated two large classrooms and a headmasters office, later additions added a further three classrooms, library staff room/facilities sickbay/store.
Outside there is an array of outbuildings including the school's former art room (concrete floor power and water connected), storage shed and a number of sundry shelter and equipment sheds.
Cressy is less than an hour's drive to Geelong and Ballarat.
For more information contact Josh Todd from Ray White on 0428 621004.
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Chris McLennan
ACM national rural property writer based in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Career journalist. Multi award winner.
ACM national rural property writer based in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Career journalist. Multi award winner.
