Sports houses include Banks (red), Macquarie (yellow), Philip (blue) and Cook (green), named after famous explorers in the region.

It was constructed during a period of unprecedented economic growth in Ayr, and ranks with the 1935 Court House, 1935 Masonic Hall and 1939 Tropix Theatre, as one of the more important interwar buildings in the town.

A secondary department, offering academic, commercial, domestic science and manual training subjects, was finally attached to Ayr State School in 1928.

[4] Intermediate schools, equipped with workshops, laboratories, and domestic science rooms, were established in principal Queensland towns after 1928.

Intermediate schools catered for children 12–13 years of age, offering a two-year course as a link between primary and secondary education.

This scheme, under which the Ayr State High and Intermediate School was constructed, was instigated by Labor Premier Forgan Smith.

The two-storeyed brick building was in progress by mid-1935, and was opened on 1 March 1937 with an enrolment of 77 students in the high school and 203 in the intermediate section.

Construction had cost approximately £16,000, and when completed provided for a manual training section, store rooms, and a large concreted play area on the ground floor, and 8 classrooms, head teacher's office, staffrooms, entrance hall, cloakrooms, and domestic science section on the first floor.

[4] Ayr State High School was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 13 January 1995 having satisfied the following criteria.

[4] It is also a good example of a building designed to accommodate the tropical North Queensland climate, being raised above an open undercroft; with wide verandahs and ventilators.

Ayr State High School is significant for its aesthetic quality in design and classical-inspired detailing, including the arched entrance and symmetrical layout with projecting central bay.