JUBILEE HISTORY TEXT, 1911. Chapter III - 'The Real College'.The following text is an excerpt from the
Jubilee History Text published in 1911.
The Real College 'Knowle House—although the College remained there so long—was never more than a temporary abiding place. Dr. Morrison never owned the place, and always looked forward to the day when he would be able to build a real college of his own. It was not till 1869 that there was forced upon him the absolute necessity of either materially enlarging Knowle House or moving to a new place. He did not hesitate. Knowle House was very close to the heart of the town, and the Doctor had fully realised the disadvantages of its situation. In 1869 he purchased a large area of land on Newtown Hill—the present site of the College buildings. Plans were prepared under the Doctor's directions by Messrs. Davidson & Henderson, architects. The building, as originally designed, was slightly different from the form it has assumed since. It was intended to be built in sections and the final section—a projecting wing on the western end of the north front—has never been added. It would embrace that portion of the playground which now lies in front of the gymnasium.
Nobody who knew the site in 1869 would recognise it now—apart altogether from the buildings which have been erected on it. It was a rough almost a waste corner of the hillside. Three great gullies intersected it. One corner—it is now the centre of the cricket oval—was in winter time a quagmire. The Doctor, however, and his architects saw how it could be improved, and its condition today bears witness to the correctness of their judgment.
Building operations were begun in May, 1870, and by the end of the year all that it had been decided to erect at once was ready for occupation. This section extended to the eastern wall of the present, music room. The north front stopped short at the edge of the porch. The first room built was the dining room. It is possible even now to read in the varying character of the brick work the history of the successive additions to the building. The garden was laid out at once, and the lofty trees which now adorn it were all planted in the early part of 1871.
In December, 1870, the school broke up for the last time at Knowle House. It was to resume after the holidays in the new building. The Morrison family were sent to Queenscliff while their new quarters were being fitted up. Then with the opening of the school Year of 1871, the whole establishment was installed. There was a great influx of new pupils, and over 30 boarders began in the new building. The whole of the accommodation was taken up. Indeed, the dining room in the Doctor's quarters had to be utilised as a classroom.
Next year three more acres of land were bought, and the block extended from street to street, with the exception of the church grounds in the southeast corner. The level section of the playground was ploughed, levelled, and sown with grass to provide a cricket ground, and a year later a turf pitch was laid down in the centre of it. Two new classrooms were added in 1871, and gas laid on through out the building. The gymnasium, with itsfloor covered with tan bark, and its lofty wirenetted gable front, was installed at the same time. Pupils continued to increase, and all the accommodation was taken up as quickly as it could be provided. The extension of the northfront was carried out during 1873, bringing that portion of the building to its present size. The plans provided for a large ornamental oriel window over the porch, and this was actually built. The boys in their free time used to congregate round the workmen and help them with the work. One boy in particular developed a genius for stone carving, and carved some of the freestone which now forms part of the porch. The oriel window had been completed, and the workmen were engaged on the walls behind it at lunch time one day. The crowd of admiring boys had just trooped in to the dining room when, without any warning, the whole of the upper work of the porchfell out with a crash. Five minutes before it would have fallen on the group of boys below and the story of a tragedy would have had to be added to the history of the College. Asit was, two or three of the workmen were severely shaken, but nobody was seriously injured. It was found, on investigation that the porch was not strong enough to carry the oriel window, and the work was completed without it.
Improvements continued to he made. The boarders at Knowle House had been taken to the sea everymorning. The College was now too far off forthat, so the Doctor had a swimming bath built in 1874. The bath continued to be used until the year 1910. At the same time shower baths were erected, and water laid on all over the building, and to the gymnasium and cricket pitch.
It was many years before any great additions were made. From 1876 the College remained practically unaltered for twenty years. The old stable, coach house, and cowshed stood at the back of the church. Hugh Mackay, the Doctor's henchman, had planted a strip in front of them with vegetables, and on Hugh's suggestion the Doctor enclosed a piece of land on the other side of the back gate and allowed him to make a kitchen garden there. Fruit trees were planted in it as well asin the garden between the school and the church. The kitchen garden remained there for a quarter of a century. Old Boys well remember. the fruit raids which were made into it, as well as the trouble which arose every year through the football being kicked into Hugh's pear trees, to the destruction of the fruit.
The paddock on the southwestern side of the school grounds was bought by the Doctor about 1880. It was always nominally included in the playground area, but it was not for many years put to any better use than that of a cow pasture. The surface was too rough and too steeply graded to be of any value for games. NormanMorrison came to the school asvice principal in 1891, and that year a contract was let for ploughing and grading the paddock. Hundreds of loads of soil were carted in and spread over its surface, and a year later it was fit forfootball. Thenceforward football practice was transferred from the Aberdeen ground to the school paddock.
Before this was done, however, the football room had been built at the back of the gymnasium, with great shower baths and a terrific odour of eucalyptus. Soon after the gymnasium was built there had been added to the side of it a playing shed, in which were the football lockers. On wet days, miniature cricket and football in the shed, and beamkicking on the rings in the gymnasium were the favourite amusements.
In 1896, after the return of Norman Morrison from Europe, a new era of improvements began. The first sign of this was the erection of a new kitchen on modern lines, and the installation of a hot water service. From that date scarcely a year passed without some addition of consequence. In 1898 Dr. George Morrison died and Norman Morrison became principal. Great alterations were made to the building. Behind the old blank wall of the western wing were added a masters' common room and a boys' dressing room. Thememorial library, which perpetuates the memory of Dr. Morrison, was also built and opened in May, 1899. The following year a story was added to the southern wing, and increased boarders' accommodation provided. The chemical laboratory and a new classroom were added to the gymnasium building.
Continuous additions and improvements were effected after that. "Paddy" Rook's paddock was purchased. The cricket field extended and completed. Later on, the oval was formed, and the pavilion erected. The old vegetable garden had been abolished, and the ground it occupied turned into a playing field. Through all these years the school had been steadily growing in size. In 1906, Norman Morrison found it necessary to purchase "Warrinn," the large villa which had been built on the corner of the football paddock some years before. This enabled the "House". system, which is such a feature in English and American public school life, to be introduced in a modified form. At the same time, the Sloyd workshop and another classroom were added to the respectable group of buildings which had grown up round the old gymnasium.
In 1908 the College became the property of the Presbyterian Church, and one of the six associated Public Schools of Victoria. It was Norman Morrison who brought this change about. The negotiations were conducted with the constant advice and approval of the Old Collegians Association, and when the constitution was formally announced on 7th February, 1908, the greatest satisfaction was shown by all who had the interests of the College at heart. The Council consisted of Mr. Charles Shannon (chairman), Dr. J. H. McFarland, the Rev. Dr.
Marshall, the Rev. D. A. Cameron, Mr. Robert Gillespie, Mr. Alexander Gray, the Rev. J. A. Forrest, Mr. J. McKiehan, Mr. H. B. Gibb, the Rev. G. H. Balfour, and the following Old Geelong Collegians—Messrs. J. L. Currie, Neil Campbell, L. A.Whyte, S. B. Calvert, and Dr.
A. Norman McArthur. No changes were made in the staff nor in the internal economy of the school. Norman Morrison remained principal until his sad death through a gun accident in November of 1909. Then Mr.W. Bayly was appointed headmaster, and under his management the College has continued its career of growth and development.
Thus, the Geelong College, originally a public school under the aegis of the Presbyterian Church, after 34½ years as a private school, returned again to the control of the Church and to the wider public school life of the State. It was only as a private school that it could have reached the strength and importance it attained in those 34½ years of private management. Those who controlled it in the beginning had neither the means nor the inclination to develop it on the large scale successfully attempted by Dr. George Morrison. It needed his complete personal direction and shrewd business ability to bring it to the stage reached in 1908, when the College came into the Public Schools Association of Victoria, on equal terms with those schools which had been public institutions throughout their history. There is this to be remembered also, that while the public schools of Victoria have in the last fifty years experienced many vicissitudes, the Geelong College in private hands maintained a continuous and steady course of development.'
Sources: Sources: Geelong College. History, Register, .. And Records by G, McLeod Redmond. Melb; Sands & McDougall, 1911. pp 19-27.