"Mosquitoes breed prolifically in the stagnant water of the swamps and the land mentioned is approximately three (3) feet only above swamp water level"The Department of Public Instruction reserved the site for the school on the understanding the then Cairns City Council had plans to drain the swampy areas, and because it was the only one of the three possible sites identified that could be procured for school purposes "..without the expenditure of a considerable sum [of money]..".

[6] During the early 1940s teachers would catch a bus from Cairns City to a small shop, then, on most days, walk along a sandy, unsealed road to school.

To the south was the creek and to the west, across Pease Street, was a tangle of ti-trees, stunted growth and thick blady grass.. At night the curlews called incessantly and in the early morning scrub wallabies came in to graze on the sports field."

At certain times of the year the areas where cows had been, produced enormous crops of delicious mushrooms" Local parents and residents were concerned about their children having to walk 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) or more from home to school, crossing the then busy (and dangerous) Kuranda railway line each day.

[3] This direction was given as, by this time, in the ongoing war that had started in 1939, Japan had almost totally conquered South-East Asia and was rapidly moving southward towards Australia, already flying planes over Australian waters and bombing naval bases around Darwin.

[11] By the beginning of the 1960s the school was still bordered with "scrub and swamp" to its north, "scrub and swamp" to its east, a dirt drain (or creek) to the south, plus a tangle of ti-trees, stunted growths, and blady grass across the road, to the west[14] At this time the then Principal of the School (Mr Kevin Whouley) recalls:[14]

The school was [thus] blessed .. by a very active committee of parents led by Jim Lyons with the assistance of Norma Alexander who was President of the Ladies Auxiliary.

Jim and Norma were determined that the school would want for nothing and their efforts were crowned with success" The parents at this time built a model train capable of carrying about 40 children, which the Parent's Committee transported all around the region to offer rides and raise money sufficient to build two concrete tennis courts.

[14] Following original agreement from the Queensland Director of Education to build a school at Edge Hill a notice was placed in the Queensland Government Gazette on 22 July 1939 calling for tenders to build the school, and by September 1939 it was announced that Mr V. A. Mazlin had won the tender.

[3] The school was classed by the then Department of Public Works as a "Sectional Type School, One (1) class room", lifted off the ground on stilts, with front entry steps leading up into a verandah running along three sides of the building (2.44 m wide) and a single doorway into a single classroom (6.39 m long x 5.49 m wide).

[3] The Parents Committee and Ladies Auxiliary of the early 1960s worked to raise the monies necessary to build a covered bicycle shelter where students attending the school parked their bikes almost 50 years (finally pulled down in 2009).

[14] Two concrete cricket pitches were laid the school's oval during the 1960s, the costs of construction of which were almost exclusively funded by the parents Committee and Ladies Auxiliary of the day.

He was most sceptical and doubtful of any success but as he felt the school badly needed a wheelbarrow he grudgingly gave his consent to an afternoon garden party, a Friday it was .. "..there was an iced cake raffle at 6d.

a ticket, we had a folk dancing display, a parade of decorated bicylcles, we had cautiously ordered a dozen bottles of softdrink.. and that completed the party.