Exterior and playground of Ainslie Primary School, Braddon, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

Abstract

View looking towards Mount Ainslie of children engaged in various activities on the large grass areas at the back of Ainslie Primary School. On the near side of a wide path, girls in school uniform ring a woman teacher while further away are two long rows of boys. The main two-storeyed block of the building is symmetrically disposed either side of a central structure accentuated by two vertical piers. The school was built in 1938 to a design by Charles Whitley, an architect employed by the Department of Works. Architecturally, it is an example of Art Deco style as seen in the flat roof and fluted decoration on the piers. The school was the first in Australia to have incorporated into its planning a library, lecture room and needlework room. This photograph is from an album that was held at the London office of the Australian National University over the period 1949 to 1952. The album was used to inform prospective staff about Canberra. These images are part of the series produced by the Department of Information and kept at the National Archives of Australia in Canberra. National Archives holdings in this series have gaps and some images may be held only at the ANU Archives.