In the making of this map, we acknowledge that Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children succeeded in an effective education system for thousands of years before the colonial invasion of Australia.

This map gives the locations/information of public schools with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students enrolments which were/are managed by the then Department of Public Instruction, later the Department of Education (DoE).  

Information used to populate this map was supplied in a data set by the NSW Department of Education based on the census of government school students undertaken annually.  This map is based on the August 2025 data set. It does not include any public school that closed before or opened after August 2025.  The data set for the Public Schools map includes public schools that have a current enrolment of 1 percent or more of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students as at August 2025. Some schools did not provide number of enrolments of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students and, as a result, these schools have not been included on the map, even though Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students may have enrolled.  

Under colonisation, the NSW Public Instruction Act (1880) created a state-wide system where every family was obliged to send their child to school. Since then, there have been several iterations of policy on the education of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students into the western system of education. Initially, separate schools for Aboriginal students were established in NSW. During the Protectionist era (c.1870s-1930s) the movement of Aboriginal people in the state was controlled by the NSW Aborigines Protection Board. Aboriginal Schools provided basic education for Aboriginal students usually with the white reserve manager (or his wife) also acting in the role of schoolteacher.   

After 1940, during the Assimilation era (c.1930s-1960s), NSW Aboriginal schools were merged into local public (government) schools and managed by the Department of Public Instruction. This transition occurred over a number of years and in 1968, the title “Aboriginal School” was abolished, and the few surviving schools were given public school status.  

The documentation of the education of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students in NSW has, at times, been scant or ambiguous. If you would like to contribute or update any information, please contact purai@newcastle.edu.au or rap@det.nsw.edu.au 

Here is a direct link to using and creating maps in the Time-layered cultural map guide.  

*End date: In order for the timeline feature to operate on the TLCMap system an arbitrary end date needed to be set at 2099. All public schools are operating when this information was uploaded in 2025. 

Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people are advised that this map may contain links to images and words of deceased ancestors. Some material may include language and/or views from a time period which we consider inappropriate and even offensive today. 

Please contact purai@newcastle.edu.au if you would like to reproduce this material.

BOOKS:  

Fletcher, J. (1989a) Clean, clad and courteous: A history of Aboriginal education in New South Wales, Southwood Press Pty. Ltd., Marrickville, NSW.   

Fletcher, J. (1989b) Documents in the history of Aboriginal education in New South Wales, Southwood Press Pty. Ltd., Marrickville, NSW.    

NSW Department of Education and Training. Government Schools in NSW 1848-2003 (6th Ed.), NSW Department of Education and Training, 2003.   

DATA SETS:  

NSW Government - Education. Master dataset: NSW government school locations and student enrolment numbers. https://data.nsw.gov.au/data/dataset/nsw-education-nsw-public-schools-master-dataset. Accessed 31/10/25.  

NSW Government - Education. Historical information about NSW government schools (1848-2019). https://data.nsw.gov.au/data/dataset/nsw-education-historical-information-of-nsw-government-schools. Accessed 31/1/25.   

ARCHIVES:  

The original records are available to view in the reading room at the Western Sydney Records Centre (WSRC). If you find an entry for a school that you are interested in you can pre-order the record for viewing at the WSRC. Pre-ordering your records in advance gives the archival team time to process requests and have the records ready ahead of arrival at the centre.  

https://mhnsw.au/guides/pre-order-records-your-visit/  

Schools & Related Records 1876-1979 AND List of Aboriginal School Files, 1876–1979:  

The school files were created by bringing together all of the correspondence about each school. The correspondence is from teachers, parents, the Education department and district offices, other government departments, local members and Education ministers. Some school files are up to 15 boxes of papers; some are only a few centimetres thick. These files contain petitions for schools including details of possible pupils; teacher appointments, teacher’s leave and transfer requests and teacher’s examinations; occasional complaints about teachers by parents and inspectors and occasional complaints about children and/or parents by teachers; plans of school buildings and plans of school sites, including proposals that did not proceed; detail about how schools worked and detail about how schools interacted with the community.  

Museums of History New South Wales (MHNSW) - State Archives Collection (StAC): Department of Education; NRS 3829 School Files. Schools & Related Records 1876-1979. https://mhnsw.au/indexes/schools-and-education/schools-and-related-records/. Accessed 31/1/25.  

Photographic Collection:  

The History Unit of the Dept of School Education collected these photographs when preparing school histories, research for public relations, or giving presentations.   

Museums of History New South Wales (MHNSW) - State Archives Collection (StAC): Department of Education; NRS-15051. List of school photographs. Accessed 31/1/25  

We are indebted to the members of Local Aboriginal Land Councils for their assistance in verifying information relating to their local history.