Trinity College, Melbourne


Trinity College is the oldest residential college of the University of Melbourne, the first university in the colony of Victoria, Australia. The college was opened in 1872 on a site granted to the Church of England by the government of Victoria. In addition to its resident community of 380 students, mostly attending the University of Melbourne, Trinity's programs includes the Trinity College Theological School, an Anglican training college which is a constituent college of the University of Divinity; and the Pathways School which runs Trinity College Foundation Studies and prepares international students for admission to the University of Melbourne and other Australian tertiary institutions, as well as summer and winter schools for young leaders and other short courses.

History

Trinity College was founded in 1870 by the first Anglican Bishop of Melbourne, Charles Perry. Students were in residence from 1872, the first being John Francis Stretch. The college was affiliated with the University of Melbourne in 1876. The Trinity College Theological School was founded by Bishop James Moorhouse in 1877, and the first theological student was Arthur Green.
In 1883 the college became the first university college in Australia to admit women when Lilian Helen Alexander was accepted as a non-resident student. With the establishment of the Trinity Women's Hostel in 1886, Trinity admitted women as resident students, making it the first university college in Australia to do so. Among the earliest resident women was Classicist Melian Stawell.
In 1989 the Trinity College Foundation Studies program was established to prepare international students for entry to the University of Melbourne.
Since 2001, Trinity has also offered summer school programs to high school age students from around Australia and internationally. In 2010 the college hosted its first Juilliard Winter Jazz School.

Architecture and main buildings

Situated to the north of the main University of Melbourne campus, as part of College Crescent, Trinity's buildings surround a large grassed area, known as the Bulpadock. Its built environment is a mix of stone, stone-faced and brick, in a variety of styles from the different periods of its history.
The college's main buildings include:
  • 1870-2: Leeper Building
  • 1878: Bishops' Building
  • 1880: Dining hall
  • 1883–87: Clarke's Building
  • 1914–17: Horsfall Chapel
  • 1933: Behan Building
  • 1958: Memorial Building
  • 1963–65: Cowan Building
  • 1995–96: Evan Burge Building
  • 2006–07: Gourlay Building
  • 2014–16: Gateway Building
  • 2019–20: Dorothy Jane Ryall Building

    College life

Clubs and societies

The Trinity College Associated Clubs provides leadership for the annual orientation week program at the beginning of the academic year and facilitates a multitude of social, cultural and sporting events throughout the year. Trinity's clubs and societies run many different functions and events throughout the year. The current student clubs include an art room and the E. R. White art collection, Beer Budlay, Billiards Room, Dialectic Society, a drama club, Environmental Committee, Games Society, Gender and Sexuality Alliance, Independent Dining Society, Racquet's Society, several music clubs and a wine cellar. Students also run an active program of social service and community outreach, including such programs as tutoring in local schools and educational visits to remote Indigenous communities.

Sport

Trinity College participates in many different sports in intercollegiate competition, including Australian rules football, soccer, netball, hockey, athletics, swimming, volleyball, squash, tennis and badminton. The college also has a particularly strong tradition in rowing and rugby. The college has its own multi-purpose synthetic court.

College song

The current college song was written by the fifth warden, Evan Burge, set to the hymn tune "Thaxted" derived from the "Jupiter" movement from Gustav Holst's The Planets.

Where Bishops' lifts its ivy'd tower and Clarke's long cloisters run.
The College Oak stands spreading forth its branches to the sun.
And here are joy and laughter and loyal friends as well;
The Bulpadock rejoices in our efforts to excel.
And whene'er we think on all these things wherever we may be,
We shall raise our voices higher and sing of Trinity.
Great God, your spirit fills this earth, your truth can make us free,
O lift us up beyond ourselves to be all we can be.
For you have made and love us, and guide us through all strife,
You gave your Son as one of us, his death's our source of life.
In friendship bind out hearts in one, a diverse unity,
And make us worthy of your name, O glorious Trinity.

Chapel and choir

The Choir of Trinity College has become known, especially but not exclusively, for choral music in the tradition of English cathedrals and the collegiate chapels of Oxford and Cambridge universities. The choir sings Evensong in the chapel during term. Choral Evensong at Trinity has become a well-known liturgical event in Melbourne. The choir also performs locally and tours internationally and have made a number of radio broadcasts and CD recordings, including five albums for ABC Classics.
From 1956 to 2016, the college provided liturgical hospitality to a dispersed Anglican congregation, the Canterbury Fellowship. The fellowship's choir sang for choral services on Sunday mornings and Evensong out of term time.

Wardens

;Subwardens
  • 1876–1882: John Winthrop Hackett
  • 1898–1904: Reginald Stephen
  • 1905–1912: Ernest Iliff Robson
  • 1915–1917: Charles Roy Lister
  • 1919–1925: Robert Leslie Blackwood
  • 1926–1933: David Gordon Taylor
;Residential deans
  • 1933–1946 Lewis Charles Wilcher
  • 1941–1944 Herbert Charles Corben
  • 1944–1946 Alan George Lewers Shaw, J. N. Falkingham
  • 1947–1951 Alan George Lewers Shaw
  • 1950–1951 Peter Balmford
  • 1951–1952 Peter Ernest Wynter
  • 1950–1951 Peter Balmford
  • 1953–1964 John Riddoch Poynter
  • 1959 Peter Balmford
  • 1965 David W. Bruce
  • 1966–1968 Kenneth Bruce Mason
  • 1968 James Donald Merralls
  • 1969–1971 Raymond William Gregory
  • 1972–1974 Roderick A. Fawns
  • 1975–1977 John Michael Davis
  • 1978–1984 Bryan Deschamp
  • 1984–1987 Peter N. Wellock
  • 1988–1990 Leith K. Hancock
  • 1991 James S. Craig, Michael R. Jones
  • 1992–1994 Mary Chapman
  • 1995–1996 Jan Jelte 'Wal' Wiersma
  • 1997 Damian Xavier Powell
  • 1998 John Adams
;Residential deans and deputy wardens
  • 2000–2004: Stewart D. Gill
  • 2006–2008: Peter J. Tregear
  • 2008–2013: Campbell P. Bairstow
  • 2014–2015: Sally A. Dalton-Brown
  • 2016–2018: Campbell P. Bairstow
;Dean of the residential college
  • 2019–present: Leoni Jongenelis
;Deputy warden
  • 2019–present: Scott Charles
;Theological deans
Leadership of theological education at Trinity was originally the responsibility of the college chaplains under the supervision of the warden. Since the 1970s there have been lecturers specifically appointed to teach in and lead the school, holding the positions of Stewart Lecturer, director and, more recently, dean.
  • 1971–1975: Max Thomas, Stewart Lecturer
  • 1976–1985: John Gaden Thomas, director and Stewart Lecturer
  • 1986–1997: Richard McKinney, director and Maynard Lecturer
  • 1998: Scott Cowdell, Maynard Lecturer and acting director
  • 1999–2003: David Cole, director and Woods Lecturer
  • 2003–2007: Andrew Brian McGowan, director and Munro Lecturer
  • 2007–2010: Timothy Gaden, dean and Stewart Lecturer
  • 2011–2017: Dorothy Lee, dean and Frank Woods Professor
  • 2018: Mark Lindsay, Joan F. W. Munro Professor and acting dean
  • 2019–present: Robert Derrenbacker, dean and Frank Woods Associate Professor
;Pathways School deans
  • 1990: Karel Reus
  • 1991–1998: Dennis White
  • 1999–2001: David Prest
  • 2002: Alan Patterson
  • 2003–2006: Diana Smith
  • 2006–2014: Barbara Cargill
  • 2014–2019: Denise Bush
  • 2019–present: Richard Pickersgill

    Notable alumni

Recognised alumni with existing profiles on Wikipedia, the Australian Dictionary of Biography or other verified biographies are arranged below by the category in which they are generally associated. Many alumni served during the world wars; however, unless they pursued a military career or were killed in action it is their later achievements in the field of endeavour in which they are listed.

Arts and music

  • Peter Bucknell – filmmaker, author and classical violist
  • Ronny Chieng – comedian and actor
  • Wu Chun – actor, singer and model
  • Sir Robert Fraser – journalist, civil servant and first Director General of the British Independent Television Authority
  • Gideon Haigh – journalist and author
  • Melissa "Meow Meow" Gray – actress, dancer and cabaret performer
  • Red Hong Yi – Malaysian artist
  • David Lyons – actor
  • Jennifer Peedom – documentary film maker
  • Nell Pierce – author, winner of the 2022 The Australian/Vogel Literary Award
  • Nicholas McRoberts – Australian composer and conductor
  • Rob Sitch – actor and film director
  • Geoffrey Simon – conductor
  • Angus Trumble
  • Jack Turner – non-fiction writer and television documentary host
  • Charles Zwar – songwriter, composer, lyricist, pianist and music director

    Business

  • Clive Baillieu – businessman and public servant
  • Sir Wilfred Deakin Brookes CBE DSO – Australian businessman, philanthropist, and Royal Australian Air Force officer.
  • Sir Roderick Carnegie AC – Australian businessman
  • Robert Champion de Crespigny – Australian businessman and founder of Normandy Mining Limited
  • SirAndrew Grimwade CBE – businessman and philanthropist
  • Sir Gordon Colvin Lindesay Clark – mining engineer and businessman
  • Ananda Krishnan – entrepreneur