Scotch College, Melbourne

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Scotch College

Motto: Deo Patriae litteris 'to God, for country, and for learning'
Established	1851
Type	Independent all-male primary and secondary
Principal	Dr F.G. Donaldson AM
Founder	Rev. James Forbes
Chaplain	Rev. Graham Bradbeer
Students	500 Junior, >1,500 Senior
Grades	K-12
Location	Hawthorn, VIC Australia
Campus	Urban
Colours	Cardinal (Gold & Royal Blue)
Website	www.scotch.vic.edu.au

For other schools named Scotch College, see Scotch College.

Scotch College, Melbourne is an independent school for boys located in Morrison Street, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia and is usually referred to as Scotch. The school is a member of the Associated Public Schools of Victoria.

Scotch was established in 1851 by Reverend James Forbes, and was originally located in a house in Spring Street and known as the Melbourne Academy. Scotch is the oldest secondary school in Victoria and celebrated its sesquicentenary in 2001.

Although people may mistakenly associate Scotch with the Uniting Church, in 1977 when the Presbyterian Church of Australia was invited to join this new denomination there was a hard fight for Scotch to remain the property of the continuing Presbyterian Church. This fight was successful and Scotch continues to be governed by a Council which is made up of three groups; Old Boys (1/3) nominated by the Old Scotch Collegians' Association, Presbyterian Church of Australia nominees (1/3) and "members of the Scotch family" nominated by council members from associations including the Scotch Parents' Association and Scotch Foundation.

1 Funding
2 Controversy
3 Extracurricular activities
4 Facilities
5 House System
6 Alumni
7 Notes
8 External link

[edit] Funding

Tuition fees range between $16,000 and $26,000 (P-12) for day boys. Scotch College has received criticism for receiving excessive funding from government sources, around $3 million per year (2005). Notably, funding for the College was compared to that provided to Glen Waverley Secondary College (a state school) in an Australian Labor Party television advertisement during the 2004 federal election, supporting an ALP proposal to reduce independent school funding provided by the federal government. The advertisment presented information to the effect that the independent school received substantially more funding than the state school, despite the fact that students at Scotch were already paying into its coffers annual fees of "between $16,000 and $26,000 (P-12) for day boys". Students at Glen Waverley Secondary College (which makes one of the highest student fee payment requests of any state school in Victoria) do not contribute anything like this figure towards the financing of the school.

It is estimated that the school has an annual budget of $80 million (School Annual Report 2006) which is more than 4 times the budget of Glen Waverley Secondary College which has more students. It is therefore one of Australia's richest schools with a budget higher than most multiple campus independant schools.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Controversy

Scotch was also involved in a fight over the acquisition of land to widen the Citylink freeway overpass in 2006.^{[citation needed]} The Monash Freeway overpass divides Scotch College and St Kevin's College. In mid-2006, Scotch lost the battle against Citylink, but will only lose minimal land which would be as wide as 5 metres along the back length of the school where the overpass currently exists and as a result will not actually touch any buildings or ovals. This is because there is an unused embankment which stretches along the freeway end of the school that is wider than the required amount of land. The only matter is the movement of some very old trees which currently reside on the embankment. Citylink and the State Government will be paying for the use of the land and it is estimated that the amount may reach $100 million.

This is the second time the school had to fight for their land. The first was in 1992 where Scotch won against St Kevin's who lost a considerable amount of land and ovals^{[citation needed]} which most believe was because of the then Premier's influence (who is an Old Scotch Collegian).

[edit] Extracurricular activities

The school has many extracurricular activities, from sporting to other various services. The school competes in the APS league in: Athletics, Badminton, Basketball, Cricket, Cross Country, Australian Rules Football, Hockey, Rowing, Rugby, Soccer, Squash, Swimming and Diving, Table tennis, Tennis, Volleyball and Water Polo.

Some of the services the school provides, which are compulsory for students in Years 9-12, include: Cadets, Scouts, Sea Scouts, Sports First Aid, Pipe Band, Military Band, Outdoor Program (where the student does a different activity every term from a wide choice of activities) and the Outdoor Expedition Group.

The school's cadet unit is the oldest military unit in Australia, even formed before the Australian Army. The unit consists of two recruit companies, broken down to six or eight platoons depending on the number of enrollments, and also support company consisting of: HQ, Signals, Mountaineering, Boating and Engineering. Every year, there is a 3 day bivouac and a 5 day main camp in the Grampians with nearly 400 people attending. The annual tattoo is a formal ceremony at the end of the year which includes all members of the unit. The tattoo rehearsal goes for most of term four as it includes rifle drill. Thousands come to watch the tattoo, which is always presided over by a high-ranking member of the Australian Defence Force. Every year, members of the unit march in the Anzac Day parade in Melbourne city.

Scotch College has a successful sporting history. In 2006 the school jointly won the APS Australian Rules Premiership, First VIII Rowing (Head of the River) and VSRU Open Grade Rugby. It is 5th time in the last 6 years Scotch has won the Rugby first XV's and the third consecutive year it has won the Head of the River.

[edit] Facilities

The school's main 27 hectare campus is located in Hawthorn. Sporting facilities include 4 cricket/AFL fields, 1 rugby field, 18 tennis courts, 1 outdoor basketball court, 1 soccer field, 1 synthetic surface hockey field, 1 climbing wall, 25m heated indoor swimming and a diving pool, 3 gymnasiums, 3 squash courts, an observatory, a rifle range and 2 weights rooms. Since the school is situated on the banks of the Yarra River, the school has rowing and boating facilities located within its grounds including a club room, changing rooms and boatsheds.

The school also has a very large music and drama building called the James Forbes Academy which includes two computer music rooms, many rooms for private lessons and two professional standard theatres seating over 500 with one built for music and the other for drama which includes a skywalk. There is also an isolated rock room and other orchestra and recital rooms.

In addition to the Hawthorn property, the School has about 80 hectares of forest in the hills at Healesville east of Melbourne and a residential seaside property at Cowes on Phillip Island. The property at Cowes is the site of a one week orientation camp for all Year 7 students early in the year and numerous other camps. A lodge for the use of boarders has been built near Mansfield, 130 km northeast of Melbourne.

[edit] House System

The school has 12 senior school houses. Both boarders and day boys are mixed into houses after joining the school. The houses are named after people such as ex-headmasters and distinguished ex-teachers. The houses are: Bond, Davidson, Eggelston, Field, Flemming, Forbes, Gilray, Lawson, Littlejohn, Monash, Morrison, Selby-Smith.

[edit] Alumni

Academic research of Who's Who in Australia (a listing of notable Australians) showed that Scotch College alumni were listed more often than those of any other school.^[1]

Scotch is the only school whose alumni have held each of the offices of Governor-General, Prime Minister, Chief Justice of the High Court, Head of the Australian Defence Forces, Governor, Premier and Chief Justice of a Supreme Court.

Scotch has educated more Governors-General of Australia (three) and Australian State Premiers (eight Premiers of four different States) than any other Australian school.

[edit] Academic

Sir Walter Murdoch Murdoch University named after him, former Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of University of Western Australia
Stuart Macintyre Laureate Professor of History, University of Melbourne and 2007-8 Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University
David Pennington former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne
Sir George Whitecross Paton former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne
Peter Singer philosopher, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University
Sir Benjamin Rank pioneering plastic surgeon
Hugh White strategic studies guru, ANU
Ian Renard Chancellor of the University of Melbourne
John Spence Regent's Professor of Physics Arizona State University
David Vines former Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy, Glasgow
James P. Leary Professor of Folklore and Scandinavian Studies University of Wisconsin-Madison

[edit] Politics

Jim Bacon former Premier of Tasmania
Sir Zelman Cowen former Governor General of Australia
Peter Hollingworth former Governor General of Australia and Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane
Dr David Kemp former Federal Liberal Minister
Rod Kemp Federal Liberal Minister
Jim Kennan former Attorney General of Victoria and Labor leader
Jeff Kennett former Premier of Victoria
Sir Harry Lawson former Premier of Victoria
John MacPherson former Premier of Victoria
Kalkot Mataskelekele President of Vanuatu
Andrew Peacock former federal Liberal leader
Andrew Refshauge former Deputy Premier of NSW
Sir George Reid fourth Prime Minister of Australia, former Premier of NSW, member of British House of Commons
William Shiels former Premier of Victoria
David Smith, official Secretary to five Australian Governors-General from 1973 to 1990
Vaiben Solomon former Premier of South Australia
Sir Ninian Stephen former Governor General of Australia and High Court of Australia Justice
Michael Wooldridge former Federal Health Minister

[edit] Law

Kenneth Hayne High Court of Australia judge
Sir John Latham former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia
Alastair Nicholson former Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia
Sir Hayden Starke former Justice of the High Court of Australia
Sir Ninian Stephen former Governor General of Australia and High Court of Australia Justice
Sir Henry Winneke former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria and Governor of Victoria
John Winneke (son of above) Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria, Hawthorn footballer

[edit] Military

Air Marshall Ian Gration former head of Royal Australian Air Force
General Peter Gration former Australian Defence Force chief
Sir James Whiteside McCay WW I General
Sir John Monash head of the Australian Imperial Force World War I, face on AUD$100 note, Monash University named after him
General Smith WW I
Sir Clive Steele WW II General
Major General Greg Garde AO RFD QC, Former Deputy Chief Australian Defence Force (Reserves), Australia's highest ranking reservist

[edit] Business

Sir James Balderstone - former Broken Hill Proprietary Company (BHP) and AMP Limited chairman
Charles Goode Chairman ANZ Bank, Chairman Woodside Petroleum
Craig Kimberly businessman, founder of Just Jeans
Sir Laurie Muir Stockbroker and PBL director
Evan Thornley businessman, founder of Looksmart
Sir Archibald Glenn

[edit] Media, Entertainment and the Arts

Graeme Bell Australian Jazz legend (with his brother)
Roger Bell Australian Jazz legend (with his brother)
Ric Burch designer of Olympic Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies
John Ewart AFI award winning actor
Patrick McCaughey former National Gallery of Victoria director
Campbell McComas entertainer
Peter Nicholson cartoonist for The Australian
Ron Radford Director of the National Gallery of Australia
Felix Riebl Lead singer of The Cat Empire
Jaime-Robbie Reyne Actor, Musician
Jesse Spencer actor
Chris Wallace-Crabbe poet
John Williamson country crooner
Stuart Gerstman Renowned Art Dealer, Scout Master and Identity
Nicholas Buc Musician, Composer

[edit] Sport

Campbell Brown AFL player, Hawthorn Football Club
Drew Ginn Oarsome Foursome Olympic rowing gold medalist
Andrew Heath Wallaby
Richard Loveridge Hawthorn AFL Champion and Freehills partner
Ewen McKenzie Wallaby legend, Current Waratahs Coach
Cameron Mackenzie Olympic sprinter
Scott McGuinness Hawthorn AFL veteran
Dean Pullar Olympic diving medalist
Will Slade AFL player, Geelong Football Club
Matt Welsh Olympic swimming medalist
Rob Woodhouse Olympic swimming medalist
Dave Fitter Western Force Rugby Union Prop, Wallaby

[edit] Other

James Ryan O'Neill (born Leigh Anthony Bridgart) - Tasmania's longest serving prisoner

[edit] Notes

2 ↑ See (1) Mark Peel and Janet McCalman, Who Went Where in Who's Who 1988: The Schooling of the Australian Elite, Melbourne University History Research Series Number 1, 1992; and (2) Ian Hansen, Nor Free Nor Secular: Six Independent Schools in Victoria, a First Sample, Oxford University Press, 1971

[edit] External link

Scotch College, Melbourne website

Members of the Associated Public Schools of Victoria, Australia

Presbyterian Church of Australia Schools

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