History, growth & education

St Peters Lutheran College was established by the Lutheran Church in 1945, against seemingly insurmountable odds. In February 1945, the College opened its doors to 56 Boarding students on a parcel of land in Brisbane’s western suburbs—the exact spot that the Indooroopilly campus sits on today.

Through the vision and generosity of its founders, and through the commitment, hard work and passion of successive generations of staff, students and families, St Peters has grown to be one of the leading independent schools in Queensland and Australia. There have been just seven Heads of College since its inception and the iconic Ross Roy House (the only building in early College life) still stands tall today.

The St Peters Journey

St Peters has grown in leaps and bounds since 1945, all while remaining true to the vision and values of its founders. In 1973, demand saw the need for a Lower Primary school to be constructed at Indooroopilly and, in 1978, an Upper Primary school was built.

In 1974, the iconic St Peters Lutheran College Ironbark program was first introduced, near Crows Nest in Queensland. Initially established as a trial program, this visionary, life-changing outdoor education program was permanently instated in 1976 and has continued to be core to the St Peters learning experience. Currently, Ironbark is held over a five-week period. Students in Year 9 live and breathe country life, learning invaluable lessons about resilience, team work, leadership, communication skills, and learning to live in a community.

Between the 1980s and 2000s, St Peters Indooroopilly underwent a lot of changes. Pre-school (now Prep) was introduced, and numerous state of the art facilities such as the Gymnasium, Technology Centre and Visual Arts Centre were developed. In 2007, with the change of Education Queensland’s approach, the Junior High sub-school structure was introduced. To this day, Junior High caters specifically for the developmental needs of students from Years 7-9. The current school structure at Indooroopilly includes Prep, Primary Years (Lower Primary and Upper Primary), Junior High and Senior School.

St Peters Lutheran College Springfield was the latest addition to the St Peters Lutheran College mix. Established in 2008 as a Prep-Year 8 school, the campus now caters for students from Kindergarten-Year 12.

Future Development

In many ways, the St Peters Lutheran College of today would be unrecognisable from the tiny ‘school on the hill’ of 1945. Through all stages of development, however, the College community has remained constant in clinging to the hope of founding Headmaster, Mr W C Schneider, who dreamed of “a school which should do much good for the Church and the Country”.

St Peters will continue to develop and challenge itself going forward. The recently approved Masterplan and Strategic Intent, Plus Ultra 2025, charts an exciting future for the College. To view our Masterplan, click through to read about Our Vision.