Wartburg State School was built by German and Prussian immigrants who came to the Baffle Creek District to start a new life away from the social, economic, political and religious hardships they were facing in their homelands.
Education of their children was of paramount importance to these people who banded together to provide the land and initial building whilst under severe financial hardship themselves. There is a story of a principal who forbade the speaking of German at school to stop the scallywags from getting away with the mischief that they could cook up in a language unknown to him. The parents where keen for their children to learn English as the children became the main spokespeople for those parents who understood little English.
For many years Wartburg was a one teacher school with sometimes over 50 students under the instruction of the lone teaching principal. In 1966 the school shut for a brief time until a community minded family decided to boat their children over from the south side of the Baffle so that the school could reopen. The CSR Macadamia Nut Farms had a policy of employing families with children which ensured the survival of Wartburg for many years.
In the 1980s subdivision of the farms in the district lead to a resurgence of children into the district and in 1988 the school grew to a two teacher school. Growth has ebbed and waned over the intervening years with the school reaching a high of four classes and 86 students in 2006.
People have often been heard to comment, "Why Wartburg? Shouldn't the school be called Baffle Creek State School?"
As we delve back into our history, we discover that the school's founding parents chose the name Baffle Creek Sugar Mill State School. They were instructed to come up with a more unique name than something that contained the words Baffle Creek. At the time there were already another two schools in the district that had Baffle Creek in their name. These two schools have since closed. Wartburg was then suggested as it was the name of the sugar mill manager's house.
With a little foresight, the Department of School's should have realised that Wartburg was in an ideal location for longegivity, and that it would have been more prudent to get the other two schools to adjust their names instead.
Wartburg celebrated its centenary in 2013. It was established in 1913 by Prussian and German immigrants seeking a new and better life in Australia. In keeping with this beginning, today many people move to this area seeking a sea/tree change for themselves and their families.