Victoria’s School Boards of Advice were established under the Education Act 1872, which created Australia’s first free, secular, and compulsory public education system. Elected by local ratepayers, these boards acted as the community bridge to the newly formed Education Department, managing local school infrastructure, monitoring attendance, and resolving community grievances.
Each board consisted of five to seven unpaid members who served three-year terms. They were elected directly by local ratepayers or appointed by the Governor-in-Council.
The board was responsible for:
- Determination of what use should be made of buildings outside of school hours
- Suspension of a teacher for misconduct and notification of such decisions to the Minister
- Report on condition of school buildings and request furniture and other necessities
- Visit the school from time to time, and report on attendance and give an opinion on management and general condition of the school
- Encourage regular attendance of children and report on recalcitrant families
- To recommend school fees and nominate outstanding students for scholarship purposes
Boards of advice were abolished by the Education Act 1910 and replaced with School Committees, which were elected by the parents of students rather than general ratepayers.
Difficulties were anticipated about representation in the North Riding of the Shire of Avoca at the beginning.
Avoca Mail, Friday 23 May 1873, page 3
OPEN COLUMN.
(To the Editor of the Avoca Mail.)
SIR.-- As announced in the public papers, the election of School Boards of Advice must take place in this Shire within one month. This, then, being the right time, I should like to say a few things about the matter through the medium or your widely circulated paper. Seeing that each candidate has to be elected, not by the vote of his own locality, but by the aggregate vote of the whole riding, I fear that, unless considerable judgment and foresight are exercised, that some of the schools in outlying and sparsely populated portions of the district will suffer great loss by not having a local representative on the Board. It must be very desirable that each locality as far as practicable should be represented, and that no one place should have more than its fair share of representation. I should like if possible to have only the required number of candidates nominated, and thus avoid, what in some ridings may be, the very unfair result of the poll.
Take for instance the North Riding of this Shire as an illustration of the matter. There are six schools in it at present-viz, Homebush, Natte Yallock, Redbank, Moonambel, Kimberley, and Percydale, Now they can only have five repre-sentatives for the six schools, and suppose that three were elected at Moonambel, one at Redbank, and one at Percydale, then it must be patent to all, that the Homebush and Natte Yallock Schools would be greatly injured, inasmuch as they would be almost totally unrepresented on the Board. For where is the man who would travel from Moonambel, Redbank, or Percydale, down to Homebush or Natte Yallock, to inquire into the peculiar necessities of the school there. It is unreasonable to expect it, and those who do must only be disappointed. Now if eight or nine candidates were nominated for the said Riding, one or two of the places would almost to a certainty be left out in the cold. I am perfectly acquainted with each of the places named above, and I think I understand what I am writing about; so I beg to suggest :-(1.) That Homebush, Natte Yallock, Redbank, and Moonambel, should each have one local representative, and that Percydale and Kimberley should have one to represent both. I put the latter two places together in this way not because they are small, but because they are more adjacent to each other than any other two places in the Riding. (2.) That the people in each locality should have a meeting of all the ratepayers in such neighborhood, and by a majority of such meeting decide on their man.
In this matter I hope that all will have common sense enough to sink all private, personal, and denominational interests in the general good. I need hardly say that if any one locality bring forward two or three they thus decrease their own strength in proportion to the number of their candidates, themselves in the same ratio, so that the poll may reject all their men. These principles may apply, and increase the strength of other localities against more to the North Riding than to either the South or West, but they are applicable to all in a lesser or greater degree.
I am, yours, &c.,
FAIR PLAY.
Elections for five persons to form the Board of Advice for the school districts of both the south and north ridings of the shire of Avoca were advertised on 3 June 1873.
The Avoca Mail contained correspondence on the topic and advertisements were placed by various candidates.
Avoca Mail, Friday 6 June 1873, page 2
(To the Editor of the Avoca Mail.)
Sir,— There appears to be an unusual stir about the choice of members of the Board of Advice for educational purposes, and in reference to the schools in this, the South Riding of the Shire of Avoca. This is, perhaps, as it should be, so far as regards the importance of the subject, but I begin to fear the small commotion may drift into that kind of spurious excitement which attends upon elections of another kind, and I would steadfastly counsel the ratepayers, those especially who have families, to look carefully at the qualification of those who will be placed in nomination.
Members of Boards of Advice should be qualified to understand at all events the elementary principles of Education, should at least know how to spell English as well as the school children whose mental interests they are supposed to look after.
There should be no clamour or display of partizanship of a noisy nature. Any such would do harm to the great cause of Education itself which is the primary object to be regarded. Members of the Board should know what should be taught and how to teach it. If they do not and harm ensues, the responsibility rests with those who return them.
I am, Sir, etc.,
A VOTER.
George Powell, Simpson John Richard Matthews, William Buhlert, Henry Kaye, and James Griffith were elected as members of the Board of Advice for the South Riding of the Shire of Avoca
George Pinch, Henry Trood Stockman, Joseph Henry Gawith, Henry Hall,
and Frederick Date, were elected as members of the Board of Advice for the North Riding of the Shire of Avoca.
Initially, Boards of Advice were responsible for enforcing compulsory school attendance, using their local knowledge to encourage families to send their children to school. When this proved ineffective, the Education Act Amendment Act 1876 replaced the system with government-appointed truant officers who investigated absences and prosecuted parents when necessary.
Further reading
How schools are governed. (2026, March 27). Victorian Government :Education and Training. https://www.vic.gov.au/how-schools-are-governed
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