John Moore Aireys was granted a pastoral lease in 1842 and his brother George was the Crown lands Commissioner in Geelong, it is believed that the name of the township came from one or both of these men.

Aireys Inlet Primary School was established in 1893 to help educate the children of the newly established lighthouse and a small number of other local students. The initial formal education of the local students began in the dining room at the local boarding house before a more suitable site was established.

During March 1892, Henry Buckhurst from Urquharts Bluff chaired an important meeting regarding the town’s education facility. Two resolutions were passed at this gathering. The first was that a proper schoolhouse should be provided and the second requested the Department of Education to select a suitable site. The Department replied that a school could not be provided unless 20 children attended. An Inspector’s report stated that with the children from the three lighthouse keeper families, plus those from local families, 23 children were available.

Also found at Hasty’s was a suitably detached room 30 feet long and 14 feet wide available at a rental of £6 per year. Over the years these premises proved unsatisfactory. New owner Albert Anderson removed the building to a different site in 1911. Presumably the School still used this re-Iocated building until it closed in 1919, due to a drop in attendance when the lighthouse went to automatic control. Only three children were left after the lighthouse children departed. The School re-opened part time between 1935/9, then full time 1940/2. A new school was built in 1965.