Xavier College
Xavier College is a Roman Catholic, day and boarding school predominantly for boys, founded in 1872 by the Society of Jesus, with its main campus located in Kew, an eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Classes started in 1878.
The college is part of the international network of Jesuit schools begun in Messina, Sicily in 1548. Originally an all-boys school, the College now offers a co-education Kindergarten, and an all-boys environment from Foundation to Year 12. In 2011, the school had 2,085 students on roll, including 76 boarders.
The school is in the Archdiocese of Melbourne, and is affiliated with the Independent Primary School Heads of Australia formerly the Junior School Heads Association of Australia, the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia, the Australian Boarding Schools' Association, and the Associated Public Schools of Victoria.
In December 2010, The Age reported that, on the number of alumni who had received a top Order of Australia honour, Xavier College ranked equal tenth among Australian schools.
Grant Thomas described the school as "the best-connected school in Melbourne". Its notable alumni include one archbishop, two state governors, one deputy prime minister, one state premier, three deputy premiers, one High Court justice and numerous Supreme Court justices.
History
What is now called "The Senior Campus" is located on Barkers Road in Kew, 8 kilometres from the centre of Melbourne. The foundation stone of the campus was laid in 1872 and the school began formally in 1878 on land known originally as Mornane's Paddock. Founded as a Jesuit school, it was originally named St Francis Xavier's College. Construction continued during the school's early years, with the main oval added in 1883, and the West Wing and Great Hall in 1890. In 1900, Xavier replaced St Patrick's College in East Melbourne as the only Catholic institution among the six Associated Public Schools at that time. A Memorial Chapel on the Senior Campus was constructed in memory of Old Xaverians killed in World War I, opening in 1934.In 1993, a multi-purpose sports centre, the Stephenson Centre, was opened. A science facility and the Eldon Hogan Performing Arts Centre opened on the campus in 2008, with eleven science laboratories, a music rehearsal room, and a 500-seat auditorium.
At his appointment as principal in October 1997, Chris McCabe was the first lay head of a Jesuit school in Australia. On his retirement at the end of 2008, the post was filled by Chris Hayes, the former principal at St Edmund's, Canberra.
Some buildings on the Senior Campus, and Studley House at the Burke Hall Campus, are listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.
Xavier has a long-standing rivalry with St Kevin's College, in legal circles, an Old Xaverian Supreme Court judge quipping that 'You boys who were taught by the Brothers can never aspire to the Supreme Court. Positions on that Bench are reserved for those of us who were taught by the Jesuits'.
;Memorial Chapel
An Italian Renaissance style chapel was built in 1928 to celebrate the golden jubilee of Xavier College. From conception to completion, construction took around sixteen years and was led by Rectors Edmund Frost and Frank O’Keefe.
The foundation stone reads:
;Burke Hall
In 1920, Studley Hall, a gift from T.M. Burke, a Catholic businessman, was opened in 1921 as Xavier's first preparatory school. James O'Dwyer SJ, Rector of Xavier between 1908 and 1917, became Burke Hall's first headmaster, before the campus was renamed Burke Hall several years later in honour of its benefactor. Burke donated a classroom block in 1923 and, in 1926, Burke's wife provided funding for a construction of a chapel in memory of her deceased brother. The campus was extended in 1966 with the donation of an adjacent mansion from the estate of John Wren following his death. After renovations to the original ballroom, which in 1975 became the library, and the original hall had been converted to classrooms, a new classroom block was built in 1987. A multi-purpose hall was constructed in 1997 overlooking the main oval that was re-graded in 1998. In 2002, a co-educational Early Years Centre was opened on the Burke Hall campus for students up to grade 4. In 2011, a new classroom block, the St Mary MacKillop Building, was added and named after the first Australian-born saint, the St Mary MacKillop is a space for classes year 5 & 6.
;Kostka Hall
Following the request by Daniel Mannix, Archbishop of Melbourne, that the school should have a campus in the southern suburbs of the city, William Hackett SJ, Rector of Xavier opened the Kostka Hall Junior campus in Brighton in 1937 on the water of Brighton beach and near Brighton beach railway station. Classes were from Year 2 to Year 8 and by the end of the first year, the numbers of students had grown to 62, including 16 boarders. The Kostka hall boarding house didn't last long though, with the boarders being moved to Burke hall in the early 1940's after scares that the Japanese would wash up of Port Phillip bay leaving the students in jeopardy. With the addition of a second building, Marchwood. This was demolished in 1959 to make way for a major building project, including classrooms, tuckshop, and administrative buildings, and a chapel was built in 1967. Science rooms were added in 1969, and in the 1970s the Jesuits bought various adjoining properties to expand the campus. In 1996 a multi-purpose hall was completed with a new arts centre opened in 1998. In 2005 an Early Years Centre based on the one at Burke Hall was opened. After rumors of the campus closing for years In 2021, after 85 years, Kostka Hall campus closed its gates for the final time, due to a decline in enrollments and the substantial effect of COVID-19. Moving the students of Kostka hall to the newly built Manresa campus, a section of the school below the science wing. This was only used for the period of time in-between Kostka halls closing and the new joint middle years campus. In 2024 the new building called 'The Kostka Building' was built, behind the chapel oval on the senior campus. Primarily to be used by year 7 and 8 students, who in 2024 transitioned from Burke Hall and Manresa to the Senior school. Making Burke hall just a junior years campus.
;Buxton Campus
In addition to the three main campuses, the school has an outdoor education facility in Buxton, near Marysville, and a rowing shed on the banks of the Yarra River. It previously leased the historical mansion Billilla in Halifax Street, Brighton, from the Bayside City Council. In 2009, the Buxton outdoor education centre was temporarily closed due to extensive damage from the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, and was later sold in 2015.
Houses
Senior Campus
After existing in some form for several decades, in 1977, the system of inter-house sport and activities was restructured. Each house was assigned a housemaster and seven tutors. Boys are split up into these seven tutor groups within each house and the tutor group meets each day with the tutor acting as mentor during their four-year attendance. House meetings take place around once a week, lockers are organised according to house and several inter-house sporting events are held each year. In 1991, the houses, previously known by their colour, were given names. and in 2010, the new houses of MacKillop and Regis were added.| House | Named after | Motto | Premierships † | Number of Premierships |
| Bellarmine | Robert Bellarmine | Integrity In All | 1998, 2018 | 2 |
| Cheshire | Leonard Cheshire | No Call Ignored | 1992, 1997, 2021 | 3 |
| Claver | Peter Claver | To Serve Not Be Served | 1995, 2004, 2009, 2010‡, 2016, 2017 | 6 |
| Gonzaga | Aloysius Gonzaga | No Greater Love | 1991, 1993, 1996, 2006, 2010‡, 2011 | 6 |
| Ignatius | Ignatius of Loyola | To God Alone The Glory | — | — |
| MacKillop | Mary MacKillop | Virtue Conquers All | 2012, 2015, 2020, 2023, 2024 | 5 |
| Mannix | Daniel Mannix | Love One Another | 2000, 2014, 2022 | 3 |
| Regis | John Francis Regis | Courage Burns Within | — | — |
| Ricci | Matteo Ricci | To Understand The Unknown | 1994, 1999, 2001, 2015 | 4 |
| Spinola | Charles Spinola | Always and Ever Faithful | 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2013, 2019 | 6 |
Burke Hall
The six houses of Burke Hall had existed for many years as Hodgson, Ignatius, Studley, Surbiton, Trawalla, and Waverley. In 1987, two new houses were added and with the exception of Ignatius, the houses were renamed. Due to the Year Seven and Eights moving to the Senior Campus in 2024, new houses will be made for the Junior School and will be implemented at the start of the 2024 school year.| House | Named after | Motto | Premierships |
| Aloysius | Aloysius Gonzaga | No Greater Love | 1999, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2023 |
| Campion | Edmund Campion | The Expense Is Reckoned | 1987‡, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2006‡, 2013, 2018, 2019 |
| Claver | Peter Claver | To Serve Not Be Served | 1988, 2010, 2022 |
| Ignatius | Ignatius of Loyola | To God Alone The Glory | 1992, 2012, 2014 |
| Loyola | Ignatius of Loyola | And Not To Count The Cost | 2002, 2007, 2011 |
| Owen | Nicholas Owen | Unless The Lord Builds | 2003, 2004, 2006‡ 2014 |
| Regis | John Francis Regis | Your Word My Light | 1994, 1997, 2016 |
| Southwell | Robert Southwell | Who Least Hath Some | 1987‡, 1996, 2000, 2017, 2020 |