Block C, a two-storeyed masonry building, was erected in 1875–1876, initially as an immigration depot, and was converted for school use in mid-1877.

Although a new school reserve had been gazetted in October 1876 – bounded by Kent, Sussex, Ferry and Fort Streets and adjacent to the new immigration reserve – acute overcrowding, particularly in the infant classes, at the Alice Street school prompted more direct action.

At a well-attended meeting held at the Town Hall on 8 June 1876, residents protested at the conversion of the present immigration barracks to any other use than that for which it was originally built.

[2] Specifications for remodelling the interior of the immigration barracks for school purposes were prepared in March 1877, and the work was completed by mid-July, at a cost of £248.

On the upper floor, the two kitchens (married couples' and single women's) were converted to classrooms with galleries suitable for children under 8 years of age.

Although the latter was a combined school, the girls occupied one half of the upper floor, and the infants the other, and there was little exchange between the two staff.

[2] The school population increased rapidly in the first few years, and alterations costing just under £600 were made to the main building by Messrs J & J Rooney in 1880–1881.

The lack of classroom space was not eased, however, until the construction of a separate infants' building (Block A) in the school grounds in 1881–1882.

[2] The former Immigration Barracks barely accommodated the Alice Street students who moved there in mid-1877; by early 1879, overcrowding had reached chronic proportions, with some parents refusing to send their children to the school.

Plans were prepared by Public Works, and tenders were called for a new infants school building in March 1881.

The contract was let in June that year to Maryborough contractors George William & Edwin Negus, with a price of £1,601, and the building was completed in August 1882.

[2] In 1910, dormer windows were installed in the southern side of the roof above the central classroom, tenders being called in April and the work completed in August.

[2] In late 1934 the infants' school was remodelled, with the southern verandah and hatroom removed and the southern end wall sheeted in weatherboards; the galleries removed in the main room, its floors levelled and the space partitioned into three classrooms; all classrooms lined in pine; and windows throughout enlarged.

[2] In October 1881, the Department of Public Instruction also let a contract for the construction of a teacher's residence in the grounds of Maryborough Central Staee School.

A report in the Maryborough Chronicle of 11 December 1926, described the equipment as up-to-date, and includes turning lathes and other machinery.

In 1908, the technical college was set up as a separate institution, with a wooden building constructed at the end of the School of Arts in 1910.

[2] Teaching block A (infants school), located fronting Kent Street to the southwest, consists mostly of a series rooms opening off an articulated northeastern verandah.

The building, a single-storeyed weatherboard and chamferboard structure, has masonry and concrete stumps and corrugated iron gable roofs with large dormer windows and a spire to the central section.

The attached school building on the eastern corner has enclosed northwest and southeast verandahs, and the northern additions have boarded ceilings raked to collar-beam height.

[2] Teaching and administration block C (central school), located to the southeast of teaching block A and fronting Kent Street to the southwest, is a two-storeyed rendered masonry structure, scribed to imitate stonework, with a hipped corrugated iron roof with projecting gables.

[2] The symmetrical Kent Street elevation (southwest) has a central gable section which consists of an entrance porch to the ground floor with double timber doors and a sash window either side, and a triple sash window to the first floor and rendered quoining to the corners.

The porch has paired chamfered timber posts, arched brackets and batten balustrade, a concrete floor and hipped corrugated iron roof, while the first floor triple sash window has a long hood supported by curled metal brackets.

Either side of the projecting gable section are two- storeyed verandahs which return at either end of the building.

[2] The principal's residence, located in the northern corner of the site fronting Sussex Street to the northeast, consists of a single-storeyed chamferboard structure with concrete stumps and a corrugated iron gable roof.

[2] The building was originally symmetrical to Sussex Street, with a central projecting gable with triple sash window and verandahs either side.

An addition has occurred to the rear of the kitchen, and small verandah spaces on the southeast and northwest have been enclosed.

[2] Students of the school won the Lilley Medal in 1910 (Eric B. Freeman), 1911 (Idrisyn F. Jones), 1933 (Patricia Enid Fairlie[8]), and 1935 (Oscar A.

[10] Maryborough Central State School was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 31 October 1994 having satisfied the following criteria.

The buildings form an attractive group, contributing to the Maryborough townscape[2] From its lengthy association with Maryborough and its prominent position on one of the major arterial roads in that city, the Central State School, and in particular the two-storeyed 1875–1876 building, has acquired landmark status in the community.

From its lengthy association with Maryborough and its prominent position on one of the major arterial roads in that city, the Central State School, and in particular the two-storeyed 1875–1876 building, has acquired landmark status in the community.