Ormond College

Ormond College is one of the largest residential colleges of the University of Melbourne located in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is home to around 350 undergraduates, 90 graduates and 35 professorial and academic residents.

Beginnings
The University of Melbourne was established by an act of the Parliament of Victoria in 1853. 60 acre were set aside for residential colleges, of which 10 acre each were allotted to the Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist and Roman Catholic denominations. The Presbyterian allotment became Ormond College.

At the end of August 1877, Alexander Morrison, headmaster of Scotch College and convener of the Presbyterian Church 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 school. 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, George Phipps, 2nd Marquess of Normanby, on 15 November 1879. The formal opening of the college took place on 18 March 1881. At this ceremony it was announced that Francis Ormond had offered to bear the whole cost of the remainder of the planned buildings.

On opening there were 20 students, soon growing to 24. Ormond College was unique amongst University of Melbourne colleges in welcoming students of all faiths and none, a philosophy built upon the Scottish Enlightenment tradition. Students of other Christian denominations, Jewish students and others were welcomed and this has become a cornerstone of the college's inclusive ethos.

In honour of the silver jubilee of 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 Master's residence (Allen House) were opened. The neo-Gothic dining hall is reminiscent of an Oxbridge building and is often compared to Hogwarts from J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter; indeed, a Hogwarts-themed episode of MasterChef was filmed there in 2013.

Rapid growth
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. John Dickson 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 6 July 1887, the portrait of Francis Ormond, which now hangs above the college's dining hall door, was unveiled by Sir James McBain.

In honour of the silver jubilee of 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.

Admission of women
From the beginning Ormond accepted women as non-residents, able to attend tutorials and participate in college life whilst living offsite with funding from the college. Female students were amongst its most notable early scholars. Later, from 1968 to 1972, female students were able to live in college in return for waitressing duties and attend tutorials; they were admitted as members of the Ormond College Students' Club in 1969. In 1973, Ormond accepted women students as residents for the first time. Women quickly rose to leadership roles in both the staff and student bodies including being elected chair of the students' club and appointed to the role of vice-master (deputy head of college). The college has a number of distinguished women alumni who have risen to prominence in their fields.

Post WWII expansion
The period after World War II saw great demands for accommodation; for the first time the college passed 150 students. 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, a squash court was built to commemorate the Ormond men who died in the Second World War. A new Master's residence was designed by the prominent architects Grounds, Romberg and Boyd and was completed in 1958. At the same time, a permanent residence was provided for the Vice-Master by the conversion of a rooms of the old lodge (Allen House) and the addition of a semi-circular cream brick building.

Innovation: the 1960s
During the 1960s the college continued to work with Grounds, Romberg and Boyd to create ground-breaking buildings. 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 octagon-shaped buildings that constitute Picken Court were built during 1961 and were ready for occupation in 1962, providing accommodation for around 100 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 former library became the chapel, the official opening of which took place on 19 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 College collections.

In 1968, a striking and bold building was opened in the south-east corner of the college grounds in the style later named brutalism. The chancellor of the university, Sir Robert Menzies, officially opened the southeast building and named it McCaughey Court after the master, Davis McCaughey. This building, which caused much comment, won awards for the architects Romberg and Boyd.

Sexual assault allegations
Ormond College was embroiled in controversy in 1991 over allegations that the master of the college had sexually assaulted two female students at a Valedictory party and that the college council had dismissed these complaints out of hand. The master was convicted of one charge of assault, however the conviction was later overturned on appeal, though he resigned his position. The events of this controversy were written into a 1995 book by Helen Garner, The First Stone, which itself was embroiled in controversy over bias toward the master, its criticism of third wave feminism and fictionalisation of various events and circumstances. Since this case, Ormond College has reformed its procedures in regards to sexual harassment and assault.

Innovation and development
In 2009, Rufus Black was appointed master of Ormond College. An ethicist and Rhodes scholar, Black ushered in a new era of change and development.

In 2009, Ormond launched an Indigenous program which supported Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to live at Ormond and study at the University of Melbourne.

In 2016, the college opened the Wade Institute. Established with a gift from entrepreneur Peter Wade, the institute delivers programs for investors, entrepreneurs and schools, including a new University of Melbourne Masters of Entrepreneurship. The degree is a collaboration between Ormond and the university's Faculty of Business and Economics and its School of Engineering.

The college also developed major new facilities during this period. In 2010 the junior common room was redeveloped into cafe style space and lounge. In May 2011 the college opened a $4m student academic centre. The building contains a wide range of formal and informal learning spaces along with the college library and information technology facilities. These facilities are complemented by refurbished tutorial rooms in McCaughey Court and library for the college historical collections in Main Building.

Since 2010 the college has expanded its undergraduate facilities by creating a series of loft rooms in its main building and McCaughey Court. The college has also developed a cohort of graduate students in its two dedicated graduate buildings opened in 2014 and 2015. Perhaps its most significant architectural addition for some decades has been the Wade Institute. The building is Australia's first passivhaus building, constructed to rigorous standards of sustainability and energy efficiency.

In 2018, Lara McKay became master of Ormond, navigating the college through a period of change in the Melbourne student accommodation landscape, enhancing the wellbeing services available to students and leading the college successfully through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

List of masters

 * 1881–1914 Sir John Henry MacFarland
 * 1915–1943 David Kennedy Picken
 * (J.C. McPhee, acting master, August 1943 – September 1944 )
 * (The Revd J. E. Owen, acting master, September 1944 – December 1945 )
 * 1946–1953 Sir Stanley L. Prescott
 * 1954–1958 Brinley Newton-John
 * (The Revd John S. Alexander, acting master, 1959 )
 * 1959–1979 John Davis McCaughey
 * 1980–1989 David Henry Parker
 * 1990–1993 Alan Gregory
 * (Kenneth Robin Jackson, acting master, September 1992 – December 1993 )
 * 1994–2008 Hugh Norman Collins
 * 2009–2017 Rufus E. R. Black
 * 2018–present Lara McKay

Politics and government

 * Neil Brown – politician, Commonwealth Attorney General
 * John Button – politician who served as a senior minister in the Hawke and Keating Labor governments.
 * Mark Dreyfus — Federal Member for Isaacs, Attorney General of Australia
 * Sir Littleton Groom — federal minister and Speaker in Federal Parliament
 * Greg Hunt — Federal Member for Flinders, Federal Minister for Health
 * Rod Kemp — politician and federal government minister
 * David Kemp — politician and federal government minister
 * John Langmore — Federal politician, academic and diplomat
 * Ian Macfarlan — Premier of Victoria
 * Richard Marles — Deputy Prime Minister of Australia
 * Sir Robert Menzies – Prime Minister of Australia (Menzies was a non-resident postgraduate law tutor)
 * Sir George Reid — MP and Cabinet Minister
 * Tim Smith — Victorian state politician
 * Haddon Storey — politician and Attorney General of Victoria
 * Alan Tudge — Minister for Education
 * Vernon Wilcox — Victorian State Transport Minister and Attorney General

Law

 * Sir Keith Aickin — Justice of the High Court of Australia.
 * Philip Alston — international law scholar and human rights practitioner. He is John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law at New York University School of Law.
 * Hilary Charlesworth — Melbourne Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne, director of the Centre for International Governance and justice at the Australian National University
 * Alex Chernov — Supreme Court Justice and Governor of Victoria
 * Rowan Downing — barrister and international jurist, member of the international judiciary of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
 * Sir Daryl Michael Dawson  — former Justice of the High Court of Australia.
 * Sir David Derham — lawyer and university administrator, expert in Australian constitutional law. Monash University Law School is called the David Derham School of Law in his honour.
 * Sir Wilfred Fullagar — justice who served on the High Court of Australia and previously the Supreme Court of Victoria.
 * Kenneth Hayne — former justice of the High Court of Australia and royal commissioner.
 * Kate Jenkins — federal sex discrimination minister
 * Sir John Latham — politician and judge who served as the fifth Chief Justice of Australia
 * Sir George Lush — Supreme Court Justice.
 * Timothy McEvoy - justice of Federal Court of Australia.
 * Clifford Menhennitt - Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria who delivered the landmark 1969 Menhennitt ruling.
 * Alastair Nicholson - retired Australian jurist who served as the Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia from 1988 until 2004.
 * William John Schutt — justice Supreme Court of Victoria.
 * Ross Robson — justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria
 * Ross Sundberg - former judge in the Federal Court of Australia from 1995 to 2010
 * Sir Henry Winneke — justice of the Supreme Court and Governor of Victoria
 * John Winneke — justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria and president of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria

Business

 * David Crawford - prominent businessman and company director.
 * Sir Peter Derham - business executive and philanthropist who was managing director of Nylex Plastics
 * Sir Archibald Glenn - industrialist and founding chancellor of La Trobe University and chairman of the Ormond College Council
 * Ben Gray - private equity investor who is a founding partner of the private equity firm BGH Capital and former head of TPG.
 * Sir Russell Grimwade – chemist, botanist, industrialist and philanthropist
 * Sir Ian McLennan HonFAusIMM — chairman of BHP
 * Andrew Michelmore - mining executive, company director and former chair of the Ormond College Council. He also won Australia's first rowing world championship gold medal in 1974.
 * Ziggy Switkowski - a business executive and nuclear physicist who was the chief executive officer of Telstra. He was also the chancellor of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University).

Academia

 * Sir Thomas MacFarland Cherry — mathematician, serving as professor of mathematics (pure, mixed and applied) at the University of Melbourne from 1929 to 1963
 * Sir Zelman Cowen – was an Australian legal scholar and university administrator who served as the 19th Governor-General of Australia, in office from 1977 to 1982.
 * Andrew Bruce Holmes  — research chemist and professor at the Bio21 Institute, Melbourne, Australia, and the past president of the Australian Academy of Science
 * Stuart Macintyre — historian, academic and public intellectual, president of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.
 * Neil McQueen — educational innovator, scientist, psychologist and medical doctor
 * Sir George Whitecross Paton – legal scholar and Vice-Chancellor of Melbourne University from 1951 until 1968.
 * Edwin James George Pitman —  Australian mathematician; made significant contributions to statistics and probability theory
 * Brigadier Sir Lindsay Tasman Ride  - physiologist, soldier, and vice chancellor of the University of Hong Kong.
 * Geoffrey Serle – was an Australian historian, who specialised on the colony of Victoria.
 * Peter Singer is a moral philosopher and Emeritus Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University.
 * John McKellar Stewart — professor of philosophy at the University of Adelaide and its vice-chancellor from 1945 to 1948
 * Hugh Stretton — historian
 * Sir Kenneth Wheare — vice-chancellor, Oxford University

Military

 * Colonel Sir Edward "Weary" Dunlop — Australian World War II hero, surgeon, Wallabies player
 * Major General "Pompey" Elliott — senior officer in Australian Army during WWI, senator, solicitor, VFL footballer, athlete
 * Brigadier General William Grant — engineer, Temporary Brigadier General in First AIF, commanded Australian Light Horse charge at Beersheba
 * General Peter Gration — Australian Army officer, served in the positions of Chief of the General Staff (1984–87) and Chief of the Defence Force (1987–93).
 * Lieutenant General Sir James McCay, — Australian general and politician, champion of women's suffrage and federation

Medicine

 * Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet  — Australian virologist known for his contributions to immunology; awarded a Nobel Prize in medicine.
 * Brigadier Sir Thomas Peel Dunhill — Australian thyroid surgeon and honorary surgeon to the monarchs of the United Kingdom
 * Hilda Esson — doctor and pioneer actress
 * Brigadier Sir Neil Hamilton Fairley   —  physician, medical scientist, and army officer who was instrumental in saving thousands of Allied lives from malaria and other diseases
 * Revd John Flynn — founded the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, featured on Australian $20 note, also known as "Flynn of the Inland".
 * Mary Glowrey — medical missionary, founder of the Catholic Health Association of India
 * Gordon Clunes Mackay Mathison — physician, medical researcher, and soldier; appointed the first director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, died from wounds received during the Gallipoli campaign before he could take up the position

Sport

 * Paul Sheahan – Test cricketer, president of the Melbourne Cricket Club
 * James Sutherland – CEO of Cricket Australia and Sheffield Shield cricketer for Victoria
 * Charles Littlejohn – Olympic silver medallist in rowing, Rhodes Scholar
 * Donald Duffy – chairman of the Melbourne Football Club
 * Chris Fogarty – Australian rules footballer for the Essendon Football Club
 * Joe Fogarty – Australian rules footballer for the Melbourne Football Club

Media and arts

 * Graeme Blundell - actor, director, producer, writer, playwright, lyricist and biographer
 * John Duigan – film director
 * Phil Harvey – manager of Coldplay
 * Elijah Moshinsky - opera director, theatre director and television director who worked for the Royal Opera House, the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal National Theatre and BBC Television
 * John Bernard O'Hara - poet and schoolmaster
 * Mark Seymour – singer and musician in Hunters and Collectors

Rhodes scholars

 * John Seitz (1906)
 * Charles Littlejohn (1909)
 * Neil MacNeil (1914)
 * Donald Sandral (1916)
 * Patrick Hamilton (1917)
 * William Hancock (1920)
 * Lindsay Ride (1922)
 * George Paton (1926)
 * Kenneth Wheare (1929)
 * Richard Latham (1931)
 * Ross Campbell (1933)
 * Alan Treloar (1940)
 * Zelman Cowen (1941)
 * Hugh Stretton (1946)
 * Alan Serle (1947)
 * Robert Shaw (1948)
 * Graeme Davison (1964)
 * Alistair Christie (1967)
 * Kenneth Hayne (1969)
 * Colin Norman (1970)
 * Graham Hutchinson (1971)
 * Martin Wardrop (1974)
 * Andrew Michelmore (1976)
 * Richard Caro (1978)
 * Michael Penington (1980)
 * Ralph King (1982)
 * Sharon Korman (1983)
 * Timothy Orton (1986)
 * Mark Moshinsky (1988)
 * Mark Chiba (1989)
 * Rufus Black (1991)
 * Catherine Anderson (1992)
 * Joanna Masel (1997)
 * Kate Brennan (2007)
 * John Feddersen (2008)
 * Kate Robson (2008)
 * Hamish McKenzie (2015)
 * Bede Jones (2017)
 * Rebecca Duke (2017)
 * Brigid O’Farrell-White (2018)
 * Mattea Mrkusic (2019)

Fulbright scholars

 * Zelman Cowen (1936)
 * Daryl Dawson (1951)
 * Charles Goode (1959)
 * Rodney Crewther (1964)
 * Bruce McKellar (1973)
 * Robert Bartnik (1974)
 * Hilary Charlesworth (1974)
 * Ted Gott (1981)
 * Greg Hunt (1985)
 * Fraser Cameron (1995)
 * Paul R. Burgess (2009)
 * Rachel Heenan (2015)