Our History

Since Reverend Bacon’s foundation of Thornburgh College in 1919 and Blackheath one year later, the College has almost always been a co-educational College and in fact, was one of the early co-educational boarding schools in Queensland.

Originally founded as a Methodist and Presbyterian boarding school, and under the motto ‘Sine Domino Frustra’ – Without God All Is In Vain’, the College became a non-denominational College embracing Christian values in 1978, and since then has been governed by a Board of Directors, with an active Foundation, Association, Past Student Association (the BPSA) and Parents & Friends Association.

Much of the original infrastructure still remains – in particular Thornburgh House, which has served a variety of purposes from boys’ dormitory, to classrooms and most recently, administration. Throughout our rich history, we have held firm to the values of family and ‘mateship’, building a strong sense of fair play and respect in generations of students. We strive to continue this as we welcome new students through our historic gates and into our environment.

The College holds an extensive range of historic records, articles and artefacts, most of which are being digitised and will be available in our online Archives section soon.