Djidi Djidi School

Public Buildings

Two years after Djidi Djidi Aboriginal School’s library was destroyed in a fire the new state-of-the-art Kwilena Library was officially opened in November 2017 for the students to enjoy the new facilities. When it burnt down, the school community was grieving the loss of the building and the history and culture, however, this destructive fire ironically presented a new opportunity to explore state of the art learning resources and techniques, with a strong emphasis on world’s best practice to energise the learning environment and foster a culture of information exchange and tutelage. The school teaches children from kindergarten to Year 6 and was established in 1996 in order to better serve the needs of the Noongar children in the South West. Hargreaves Design Group researched Djidi Djidi’s specific school ethos that espouses collaborative learning in real-life environments with a strong community focus. With this in mind, the blue circular seating arrangement became the centrepiece of the early childhood room with the acoustic ceiling feature with suspended disks of muted colours representing puffy clouds. The older primary children’s acoustic ceiling more lineal suspended panels to represent cirrus clouds. Whilst the colour scheme is deliberately restrained there is an air of playfulness which engages students, staff and visitors alike. The school celebrated the new facility with an official opening with the entire school community present, Bunbury MLA Don Punch paid tribute to Hargreaves Design Group, a major contributor to the successful outcome of the project.