In this new form of vocational school, the younger grades followed the usual primary school curriculum, but in the upper grades, boys were taught manual arts, elementary agriculture and farm management, while girls were taught home management and needlework skills, in addition to the more usual academic studies.

The school was housed in temporary accommodation, firstly at the showgrounds, and then in the local Irish Club and CWA halls, until the present brick building was completed.

[1] Plans for a new, substantial brick primary and rural school were prepared in the office of the Queensland Government Architect, Public Works Department.

Other members of the office involved in the design of the Tully Rural School were William Jestyn Moulds and Harold James Parr.

This scheme, under which the replacement Tully Rural School was constructed, was instigated by Labor Premier William Forgan Smith.

[1] The new school cost approximately £13,000, and contained 8 classrooms, head teacher's room, cloakrooms, and male and female staffrooms.

Some of the projects he initiated included: a forestry plot planted with Kauri and Hoop pines and Indian Teak; annual plantings in the school grounds, including a grove of maple (the gardens are now considered amongst the finest in Queensland state schools); poultry raising; a bushhouse of ferns; garden rock walling; and manual training programmes which supplied the school with blackboard frames, library cupboards, and other joinery.

Domestic Science students made clothing for the children of Britain, and large fetes were conducted annually, the proceeds of which were shared between the school and the patriotic societies.

[1] Tully State Rural School is a single-storeyed brick building with a corrugated iron roof, which is capped with a cupola.

[1] Tully State School was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 13 January 1995 having satisfied the following criteria.

Tully State School follows in the tradition of fine buildings erected by the Queensland Public Works Department.