In the 1920's, the area known as Ashburton Forest was a popular picnic spot on Sundays. There were market gardens, orchards and open paddocks where dairy cows grazed. On April 1927, the Government Valuer was authorised by the Education Department to choose a suitable site for a proposed school at Darling East. The site nominated was bounded by Winton Road, Taylor Street and Karnak Street. Tenders were eventually called for the erection of an infant school at Darling East and W.N.Langdon & Sons submitted the succesful tender in July 1948.
Solway was opened on the 2nd of October 1950 as Darling East Primary School with Leslie W.Thompson as the Head Teacher. He was assisted by Miss L.Lyndon, Mrs G.Eley and Mrs C.Peterson with Carol Dacosta being the first pupil enrolled and a nett enrolement of 124 pupils. School Inspector J.S.Bacon noted that students from Toorak Teachers' College visited the school as an example of the best in modern school architecture.
The first School Committee was elected in November 1950 with Messrs. R.L.Kikham (Chairman), E.J.Tarry (Correspondent) and W.F.A.Schurmann (Treasurer) in charge. The official Opening Ceremony of the school was performed on the 17th of February 1951 by the Director of Education, Major-General A.H.Ramsay.
In 1954, the Education Department was advised that the non-official Post Office established in Taylor Street would be henceforth known as "Solway" and after a parent survey the school became known as Solway Primary School* from the 3rd of June, 1955. 1965 saw the introduction of the House and Prefect systems which were introduced to encourage responsibility and leadership. The Houses were named Blue, Green, Gold and Red.
The School Council has been an integral part of the Solway Primary School community. Up until 1982, it is noted that Andrew Jackson was Chairman for a staggering 16 years from 1955 to 1970. Eric Tarry, John Taylor, Marcus Embury and Neil Sainsbery were the longest serving Secretary's and Frank Schurmann's 16 years as Treasurer was well ahead of similar service by Stuart Delaney and Barrie Dunn. It should also be noted that Mrs. May Caldwell was Treasurer of the Solway Mothers' Club for a total of 13 years.
*Footnote: The source (see bibliography) appears to be a book created as an in-house project by Solway, some time around 1982. Most of the content is verified by other historical sources but the content as a whole needs to be treated with some caution as there are definate innacuracies. The school was most definately known as Solway State School prior to being known as Solway Primary. This is shown in grade photos and in old documents still in posession of past students. The school was not known as Solway Primary until 1970/1971. Students attending at the time are also convinced that the principal in 1968 was Mr. Holden, not Hoblen. - Ian Gardener (Solway 1965-1971)