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 Torres Strait Islander students and, as a result, these schools have not been included on the map, even though Aboriginal and 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.

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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.