Wisanger School

The Wisanger Farmers' Assembly Room, better known today as the Old Wisanger School, was opened in 1884. The Hall was used as a community centre and school for many years. ... The problem of providing education for small numbers of children in scattered locations on Kangaroo Island was partly overcome by a system of part-time and half-time schools during the 1880s. In this system as many as three small schools shared a teacher, who travelled from one to another on a horse or bicycle and often gave lessons in a private home. This was a common rural system and Adelaide officials probably considered it adequate. The islanders probably felt that their children were being given an opportunity which would help prepare them for life in South Australia with as little disadvantage as possible. - Jean Nunn, This Southern Land, pp.171, 175.As the numbers of islanders slowly increased, so did the various public facilities required. Throughout the island's history a total of 23 schools have been established, with only 3 presently in operation. Most of the schools were set up between 1869 and 1903 and then between 1911 and 1919, coinciding with the increase in cereal growing. Although the earliest schools were at Penneshaw and Kingscote, the existing small stone schools were not erected for the Education Department until 1897 and 1910 respectively. The earlier schools were conducted at a variety of places usually provided by the parents, who also built many of the more isolated bush schools on the island. Nineteen of the 23 schools were one teacher bush schools. Wisanger School was typical: built by local farmers as the Wisanger Farmers Assembly Room in 1884, and leased to the Education Department, this simple small building served as a focus of the district’s social life until the 1970s and gave the longest continuous service of any of the schools, until 1945.

A Short History of Kangaroo Island by Susan Marsden, 1991 (downloadable as a Word document)