History of St Hilda's School

St Hilda's School was founded in 1912 when the Diocese of Brisbane bought the former school, Goyte-Lea from Miss Davenport. The school was renamed St Hilda's in honour of the seventh century Abbess of Whitby, who had been a great scholar and leader in the early church and whose life of discipleship, self-discipline and leadership provided an excellent example for young women of all ages to follow.

Since the day in 1912 that the first Headmistress, Miss C.E. Bourne, chose as the School's motto Non Nobis Solum (Not For Ourselves Alone), the school has endeavoured to promote in it students high ideals of love and service to God, to the community and to one's fellow human beings.

Goyte-Lea had been founded by Mrs and Miss Davenport in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, at a time when the philosophy of liberalism was informing the movement towards the development of the Australian nation, and when the rights of women to educational, economic and political equality were of profound concern to many women and some men within the Australian colonies.

When the Diocese purchased Goyte-Lea and renamed the school St Hilda's, the school retained Miss Davenport's deep commitment to the education of women as it entered into a rich Anglican heritage. Anglicans in the forefront of the liberal-humanitarian movement had produced great benefits for humanity in the areas of community service and human rights throughout the nineteenth century, and the theology had been revitalised by the Oxford Movement.

The choice of the name, St Hilda's, revived the rich heritage of faith in God that marked the early Celtic Church in England, and through this, the deep commitment to God, to unselfish consideration for others and to scholarship that marked St Hilda's life.

Image Archive

View the many digital images of the school past and present online here.

Construction of St. Hilda's School on the current site in 1917

Front Drive 1922

The east verandah, exam time, circa 1920-23