Recently Austral Public School celebrated 130 years of education. I was privileged to join the community of staff, students and parents to celebrate this historic anniversary. In 1891 an application for a school in the Austral area was made for 44 students to serve as a second school for the children in the western portion of what was then known as the Hoxton Park area. The school took the name "Austral" after the Austral Banking and Land Proprietary, with the name gradually coming to be used for the entire area before being officially gazetted in 1972. Since opening its doors in 1893, Austral Public School has been a community mainstay through the area's growth from farmland to brief soldier settlement to new growth corridor. The school population has grown from its initial 44 to around 540 students today and will continue to grow through planned upgrades.