Dora Creek Public School

Creating a Climate for Growth and Harmony

Telephone02 4973 1261

Emaildoracreek-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

The New Century

A postal receiving office was opened with the name of Newport on 16th July 1885 and in 1887 the location was raised to the status of a full post office.

Six years later the villages' Progress Association formally requested that the name of the post office be altered to "Dora Creek" which was the name of the new railway platform there. Another group of residents petitioned that the name Doree be retained. During April of 1885, John Douglas addressed a request to the Postmaster-General that a post office is opened at his store, which now occupied a building separate from the school, though next door. Douglas supplied his postal address at "Doree, Cooranbong", by which he intended that the post office should be known as the Doree Post Office. The postmaster was in favour of this application but commented that Newport was the correct name of the place, "Doree" is merely the name of Douglas' residence.

A postal inspector pointed out that the village of Martinsville, about eight miles distant had a post office under the name "Dora Creek" and he felt confusion would arise if any change was made in the name of the Doree Post Office. The railways refused to change the name of the then Dora Creek station and with the persistence of the Progress Association on the 16th January 1894, Doree Post office was renamed, Dora Creek.

On 1st January 1902, Newport School was re-named Dora Creek to avoid confusion with Newport, Pittwater, and because the local post office and railway station were both called this. It appears that in the 1890s the township was often also called the Village of Coree.

The school grows


Mr Adam reported in 1914 that the school had a library, tennis court, flower and vegetable gardens and manual training equipment. By 1921 there were 129 children enrolled at the school and the headmaster applied for a second teaching assistant and additional seating accommodation. The latter was supplied, but the former was not granted until 1926 when the two assistants were Misses H. Alcorn and A. McFarlane. By this time the enrolments had actually diminished to 96.