Badger History
Badger Creek adjoins the picturesque township of Healesville in the Yarra Valley 65 kms. from Victoria’s capital Melbourne. Surrounded by beautiful mountain ranges, water catchment areas, ever growing vineyards and home to the famous Healesville Sanctuary of Australian native animals.
Copy of a print by Keith Ross
of the original Badger Creek Primary School
Early History
The first white settlement in this area was the cattle run owned by Dalry, established in 1846. In 1863 an aboriginal reserve was set up under the care of John Green. Green named the settlement Coranderrk, the aboriginal name for the Christmas Bush which grew there in great profusion. The settlement extended from the Yarra River to Don Road on both sides of Badger Creek and covered an area of 4000 acres. In 1894 a government program of village settlement for the unemployed saw farmers introduced to the area and 2000 acres of Coranderrk were reserved. The children of the settlement originally went to school at the Coranderrk reserve. As numbers increased a school was opened at Badger Creek in January 1899. State School No. 3309 began with about 20 children, under Head teacher Adrienne Black. The Coranderrk School was closed and the children from the reserve joined the settlers’ children at the new school. The building, moved from Gruyere North, was erected on a half hectare site which was purchased for ten pounds. Further land was acquired in 1955 and again in 1979, increasing the school to its present area of 3.5 hectares.
Today the award-winning buildings of the present school, designed by Architect Rachel Cole, was officially opened on the 9th of September 1989. The original building is now located on a site across the road where it is used for various community purposes. Attendances at Badger Creek have grown from around 30 students in 1902 to approximately 256 today.
Our school logo, a possum curled within the circular Badger Creek School name, was designed by Kym Tyler, a Healesville High School student. The possum is of particular significance as it lived in the roof of our original T.V. room which can be seen in the grounds of the old school. Today we sponsor the Ring -Tailed Possum at the Healesville Sanctuary.