attractive feature of school grounds. At Marburg State Rural School 275 exotic and indigenous trees were planted initially. Encouraged by the Education and Forestry Departments, by 1953 about 380 Queensland schools were undertaking forestry projects. An account in the school's 125th Anniversary Book recalls that the trees were ordered from the Department of Forestry, planted in rows, and spaced two metres apart. Trees planted include: Bunya Pine (Araucaria bidwillii), Kauri Pine (Agathis robusta), Crows Ash (Flindersia australis), Mexican Cedar (Taxodium mexicanum), Pinus longifolia, Pinus radiata, Pinus insularis and Silky Oak (Grevillea robusta). Ongoing planting occurred. The trees remaining include Hoop Pine (Araucaria cunninghamii), Kauri Pine, Silky Oak and Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria heterophylla). In addition to the usual school subjects, farm-craft, leatherwork, blacksmithing and domestic science were taught. Other activities at the Marburg Rural School were a calf club; a forestry nursery germinating seeds of selected hardwoods and softwoods, and planting the seedling tubes around Marburg; an orchard of citrus and nut trees; pasture renovations using grasses, legumes and fertilizers; potato growing; milk and cream testing; pig raising on the school farm; room competitions; and meal preparation. As well as the forestry plot, other landscaping and tree planting took place in the school grounds. An orchard was created on the site of the current pre-school; an ant-bed surfaced tennis court was added by the school community in 1927, to the west of the teacher's residence, after levelling of the site; and paths and gardens were laid out between the school buildings by the early 1930s. Eighteen fig trees (17 small leafed and one with large leaves) lining the driveway from the entrance gate to the school buildings were planted in the 1930s. The rural school scheme was phased out between the 1940s and 1960s due to a move to larger farms by the late 1940s and the consequent decline in government emphasis on closer settlement; as well as the transfer of domestic, vocational and commercial subjects to the curriculum of the growing number of state high schools. Marburg Rural School reverted to a state school in 1963 after the cessation of vocational and domestic science training at the school. In 1959 the vocational building burnt down and classes were transferred to Ipswich. Domestic science classes ceased in 1963 and the building was sold for removal. This change coincided with a decline in Marburg's population towards its lowest level in the