This open-access dataset documents sports house systems in Queensland public and private high schools in 1969 and 2023. Developed to support historical and sociocultural analysis of school sporting traditions, it examines how house naming practices reflect broader shifts in social values, educational cultures, and commemorative practices over time. By capturing house names across two benchmark years, the dataset enables longitudinal comparison of institutional identities and changing patterns of representation within Queensland secondary education and society (Clarke and Kirby, 2024).
The dataset was compiled through historical and archival research using a range of primary and secondary sources. Data for 1969 came from digitised newspapers and John Oxley Library holdings, including school yearbooks, annual reports, magazines, newsletters, and other institutional ephemera. Data for 2023 were sourced from official school websites and publicly available social media accounts. Where records were incomplete or unclear, the researchers contacted schools directly to confirm house names and historical details. The dataset identifies sports houses for 173 of 262 Queensland public and private high schools operating in 1969 (626 unique houses) and 489 of 506 schools operating in 2023 (1,880 unique houses). Data were standardised to support comparative analysis across historical periods and educational sectors.
The dataset underpinned the 2024 research article High School Sports Houses as Identity Primers: Constructing Queensland and Australian Identities (Clarke and Kirby, 2024) and was later repurposed for an interactive component of the Sunshine Coast Council exhibition Around the Track, presented at Landsborough Museum from 10 April to 30 August 2026.