Ormond College

About the College

Ormond College is the largest Residential College of the University of Melbourne. It is home to about 330 undergraduate, postgraduate and professorial/academic residents.

History

The University of Melbourne was established by an Act of the Victorian Parliament in 1853. Seventy-five (quickly reduced to sixty) of the one hundred acres of the University site were set aside for residential colleges, to be founded under the auspices of the churches. Ten acres each were allotted to the Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist and Roman Catholic churches, the remaining acres being reserved for sporting facilities. The Anglican Church was the first to accept the offer, and Trinity College opened in 1872.

At the end of August 1877, Alexander Morrison, Headmaster of Scotch College and convenor of the Assembly's Committee to “watch over the land”, received a letter from the Director of the Victorian Education Department, proposing that if the Church did not mean to take the land for a College, that it be sold and the proceeds divided, half to the church, and half to the state for University purposes. This spurred Morrison into action. A subscription list was opened, with a target of £10,000; on this list Francis Ormond's name appears against a donation of £3,000.

The General Assembly meeting in November 1877 resolved that the Church should immediately proceed with the building of a College and that £10,000 be raised for the purpose, that the buildings be used as a College of Residence for University students, and as a Theological Hall. Immediate steps were taken to raise the money. In the course of three years, some £38,000 were raised, of which Francis Ormond contributed £22,571. The foundation stone of the College (now lost) was laid by the Governor of Victoria, His Excellency the Marquis of Normanby, on 15th November 1879.

The original buildings consisted of the front wing of the Main Building and the Tower, which is 50.3 metres high. The Master used the southwest door as his private entrance. The formal opening of the College took place on 18th March 1881. At this ceremony it was announced that Francis Ormond had offered to bear the whole cost of building. On opening there were 20 students, soon growing to 24.

The rapid growth of the College soon outstripped the available accommodation, and Francis Ormond provided funds for the southwest wing, together with a temporary building (which was, however, stone-walled and tin-roofed) where the cloisters now are, which served as kitchens and a Dining Hall. The next addition to the buildings of the College was the Wyselaskie building, which was completed in March 1887. Wyselaskie was a Western District squatter, who also gave generously to the Presbyterian Ladies' College. The building contained a lecture hall and two residences for Theological Professors, and was adapted and divided in 1968 so as to provide for four residences. On 6th July 1887, the portrait of Francis Ormond which now hangs above Hall Door was unveiled by Sir James McBain.

In honour of the Silver Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Victoria in 1887, Francis Ormond funded the building of the Victoria Wing which came into use in 1889. In 1893 the Dining Hall, kitchens, staff quarters, and the original Lodge (Allen House) were opened. On either side of the end window of the Hall are effigies representing Francis and Mary Ormond.

No further significant alteration to the College structure occurred until after the First World War. After the war, the demand for places in College was far greater than the room available. The College took rooms in Parkville (a practice which has been resumed in the last few years) and in 1922 the fourth side of the quadrangle buildings was brought into service. This wing contained the MacFarland library (now the Chapel), the Students' Common Room, the various walks, and further student accommodation.

The period after World War II saw great demands for accommodation; for the first time the College passed 150 men. Three-man studies appeared, which continued into the early 1960s. Following an appeal for funds in 1949, a series of improvements were made to Main Building. The kitchens were extensively modernised and general maintenance was brought up to date after the lag resulting from the Depression of the 1930s and the shortages of men and material during and after the War. In 1955, the squash court was built to commemorate the Ormond men who died in the Second World War.

The new Lodge was designed by the architects Grounds, Romberg and Boyd and was completed in 1958. It was occupied by tutors for some time until the Master and family moved in after the Lodge had been extended over the summer of 1960-61. At the same time, a permanent residence was provided for the Vice-Master by the conversion of a few rooms of the old Lodge (Allen House) and the addition of a semi-circular cream brick building. The remainder of Allen House was converted into tutors’ flats and student studies.

In the vacation of 1960-61 a new domestic wing was built to accommodate the extra staff and facilities required for the larger College planned for 1962. The three octagons of Picken Court were built during 1961 and were ready for occupation in 1962. They now contain accommodation for 104 students and eight tutors. The Chancellor of the University, Sir Arthur Dean, opened the building in March 1962.

1965 saw the erection of the new premises of the MacFarland Library, which were combined with a new Theological Hall Common Room. The Library had so far recovered from the shocking neglect of the years after 1930 that, while still having room for improvement, it had grown beyond the capacity of the original building. The former library became the Chapel, the official opening of which took place on 19th March 1967. For the first time the College had its own place of worship, as befits a Church foundation. In 1982 the Library was reorganised, separating the Ormond College and Joint Theological collections.

The Chancellor of the University, the Right Honourable Sir Robert Menzies, on a Sunday in April 1968 and in the company of a distinguished gathering, officially opened the southeast building and named it McCaughey Court after the Master, Dr Davis McCaughey. This building, which caused much comment, won awards for the architects Romberg and Boyd.

The College approached the end of its first century with the admission of women to resident membership in 1973. Women had been admitted from the beginning as ‘out-patients’ (non-resident students), receiving the advantages of tutorials but suffering the disadvantages of exclusion from the Ormond residential community. From 1961-1974 female students were able to live in College in return for waitressing duties, (they were known as student waitresses) and attend tutorials. After the 1973 admission of women as residents, it became clear that an Ormond composed of both men and women lost none of its vitality. Indeed, by 1978 the College was to see a woman as Vice-Master (Rachel Faggetter) and no fewer than nine women have been elected to the Chair of the Students' Club. In 1996 two women took up senior positions within the College: Dr. Ann Hone as Dean of Studies, and Mrs. Phillippa Connelly as Dean of Students.

The Centenary was recognised with much pomp and ceremony in the presence of the former Master and then Governor of Victoria, Dr Davis McCaughey, whose twenty years of responsibility developed the College in so many ways to its present strength and size.

The last twenty years of the College has seen progressive maintenance and modernisation to ensure Ormond is safe, secure, and equipped to progress into the decades beyond. In the eighties, bathrooms, the tower, JCR, the quad and the plaza were all significantly renovated. The College also built the current tennis courts with the help of the OCA in 1982, and acquired the four Parkville houses in 1985. The nineties saw the installation of both individual student telephones and internet connections. Most recently, the College Gym was opened (1999) and a major renovation of the JCR undertaken (2001-).