Hidden by mature trees and set at the top of the hill at Kinross Wolaroi School is one of Orange's grand old mansions.
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The heritage-listed turreted mansion was built by John Hale, who also designed other notable East Orange buildings such as Croagh Patrick and Bowen Terraces.
Now an iconic part of Kinross Wolaroi School there are plans for restoration works of the historic building with renovation plans to include all borders moving into new accommodation.
On March 2, 2024, the school will raise funds for restoration of the Wolaroi Mansion with the Kinross Wolaroi School Country Fair.
The family of John Charles McLachlan moved in to the mansion in 1884 after years of construction.
However, less than 10 years later it was converted into a school in 1893 and it has been an educational building ever since.
Mr McLachlan was educated in Sydney before moving to Bathurst in 1862 to work at a solicitor's office.
He transferred to Orange where he began an extensive legal practice.
Mr McLachlan was also involved in establishing the first Highland Society in Orange.
He became the first captain of the Volunteers, and supported the development of cricket in the Orange district.
Beginning of Wolaroi
In 1868, Mr McLachlan married Dora Moulder and they lived in a small house on Bathurst Road.
However, her father Joseph Moulder gave them 1700 acre of land as a wedding gift for them to build their home.
Mr McLachlan named the property Wolaroi, which was understood to mean echidna in an Aboriginal language.
The mansion was then built upon his favourite site, which provided an extensive view of Orange.
However, the mansion was vacated in February 1889 when Mr McLachlan moved to Sydney to extend his legal practice.
Mansion becomes a school
In 1893, Mr T H Richards the owner, principal and sole teacher of Weymouth House, on the corner of Byng and Sale streets, bought the McLachlan's Bathurst Road property, including the mansion.
That year the students were moved to the mansion and the new school was given the name Wolaroi Grammar.
Weymouth House had originally opened in June 1886 at its Byng and Sale Street address, now known as the Union Bank.
Mr Richards had come to Orange from All Saints College Bathurst and brought with him his wife as school matron.
The Richard's continued to run the school until 1906.
In 1913, Charles R Campbell secured the property and became the third headmaster.
The Methodist years
However, in 1925 it was sold to the Methodist church and it was reopened as a school in 1926 by Sir Neville Howse.
It's first principal of the Methodist period, from 1926-1974, was Stanley G Brown who took up duties on February 8, 1926.
According to the school's website, the curriculum was very wide and the small staff gave instruction in book-keeping and business methods, typing, woolclassing and stud management, horticulture and orchardry as well as the more common school subjects.
Mr Brown also promoted physical health Provision was made for this with the laying down of two tennis courts and two concrete cricket wickets.
The school also made rapid progress with enrolments in the first five years rising from 42 to 93 students including from 21 to 81 boarders.
At this time the the upstairs verandah of the mansion was enclosed with wood to provide a sleeping area for the students.
Despite the depression leading to a drop in enrolments, Mr Brown sought approval in late 1932 to appoint an agricultural instructor for boys who came from the land and were destined to return to rural occupations.
Agricultural classes were formed and boys received both theoretical and practical instruction in crop-growing, horticulture, livestock, dairying, poultry-keeping, bee-keeping and engineering.
In 1940, Mr Brown returned to Brisbane Boys College, where he'd come to Wolaroi from. He died in August 1953 and memorial entrance gates were unveiled in his honour at the school in 1956.
Co-ed merger
By the early 1970s Wolaroi was in financial difficulties.
At the same time society's attitudes towards education and both Wolaroi and the Presbyterian Ladies College on the western side of Orange independently decided to become co-educational.
As a result PLC changed its name to The Kinross School.
Then the Methodist Church approached the Presbyterian Church with a view to Kinross School assuming responsibility for Wolaroi.
The challenge was accepted and the amalgamated schools became Kinross Wolaroi School in 1975.
In 1977, Kinross Wolaroi School became a Uniting Church School following the creation of the Uniting Church in Australia.
Wolaroi House has continued to function at the school as new classrooms, buildings and boarding houses have grown around it.
Return to beauty
In 2009, Kinross Wolaroi School submitted a development application to Orange City Council for the restoration of Wolaroi House.
An article in the Central Western Daily on April 26, 2009, said the mansion was housing offices and borders' sleeping quarters.
The restoration work included removing the wood enclosure that was added to the upstairs verandah in the 1920s. It was to be replaced with metal lace.
Then principal Brian Kennelly told the CWD it was important to the school and the city as a whole to restore the building.
"It's one of the four original heritage-listed mansions in Orange and it's in desperate need of repair," he said.
More restoration work is also being planned.
- Information obtained from Kinross Wolaroi School's website, Orange360 and the Central Western Daily