18/05/2025
Higher Education in Sandhurst by Rita Hull
HIGHER EDUCATION IN SANDHURST PRE 1910
From the days of the first gold finds on Bendigo Creek there were men of education walking the streets. There were many more men who could see the benefits of a higher education for their children.
Within the first decade there were private schools offering to tutor children in preparation for Civil Service exams and university entrance, but there was no control over the standards set until a Parliamentary Act of 1910.
The first purpose-built school to offer high school curriculum was the Corporate High School in Rosalind Park. It was built in 1869 by the municipal council and leased to John Moir, thereby giving the council some oversight without the day-to-day involvement. By 1874 there were 218 boys and 105 girls enrolled, and the nine subjects as prescribed by the Melbourne University for matriculation were taught.
Then in 1914 a new Bendigo District High School was built by the State Education Department beside the old Corporate high School which it soon swallowed up along with the Continuation School in the old Supreme Court buildings.
On our BFHG bookshelves we have a copy of the Annual report of the Corporate High School for 1874. In it are the prize and honour lists, class by class, subject by subject, giving several hundred names. Reference see BEN 269
In 1879 St Andrew’s College was established by the local church committee in Myers St. The church had previously been running a large popular primary school which had been taken over by the Education Department and closed when Gravel Hill school was opened. To make use of the empty buildings the church committee decided to open a college on the lines of Scotch and Wesley colleges in Melbourne, except that some girls were admitted.
In 1905 the college came under the umbrella of the wider church authorities and became the “St Andrew’s Presbyterian College”. A few years later as pupil numbers dwindled it merged with the Corporate High School, with the senior school housed at St Andrew’s and the junior school at the Corporate high School. By 1912 it had closed.
Girton Grammar School started in April 1884 as a small private school for young ladies, with only a few juniors. Within a few months it was moved to ‘Lister House’ in Rowan St., where it stayed for 20 years. By 1886 over 100 girls were enrolled from kindergarten up, but it was some years later that it came under the direct control of the Church of England.
In 1904 girls from St Andrew’s College and the Corporate High School were taking some of their lessons at Girton College. The move to Mackenzie St came in 1916 when the previously leased buildings were sold, and the school gradually took over the whole site of the old Horwood’s Foundry between Vine and Don Streets.
Reference see BEN 403 Through Hardship to the Stars.
HIGHER EDUCATION IN SANDHURST PRE 1910
The Sandhurst Grammar School was started at the same time as Girton, by Mr A J Pearce in temporary buildings in Forest St with 9 pupils, It soon moved into purpose built rooms in Barnard St but it never grew as envisioned, The classical Grammar school curriculum was not very popular and within twelve years the school was struggling for pupils. During the 1890’s depression it merged some classes with the Corporate High School and closed permanently in 1913.
Reference see BEN 356 “So Now you See It”.
The Continuation School was established by the Education Department in two rooms at Camp Hill School in 1907 but soon moved into the old Supreme Court buildings in Rosalind Park. It opened with 21 girls and 19 boys, but numbers increased rapidly. The pupils had to be at least 14 years old and hold a Merit Certificate. At first the main purpose was to prepare pupils to become junior teachers after a two-year course, but this scheme only lasted about five years as students with other goals enrolled. This was the nucleus of the District High School.
There was an earlier Sandhurst Grammar School established at the corner of Myers and Williamson Streets. It was conducted by Mr William Hughes from 1862 until his retirement in 1868, then it was taken over by his assistant Marcellus Moran until 1876. This was the year Mr Moran married and, presumably so that he could better support a family, he joined the State School system as a teacher in charge at Millers Flat.
Miss Sarah Alice Corr M.A. opened the Aachmys High School in 1901 when she moved her small school to Bendigo from Toorak. Her first classes were held in the ANA hall until 1906 when she built a schoolhouse at 102 Queen St. She was a dedicated teacher and strongly espoused the value a learning a language or two. She leased her school to Miss Acton in 1910 and spent four years updating her expertise before returning to Bendigo for another four years during the war. She taught boys as well as girls but was very selective. with the result that many of the most ambitious young men attended her school to gain their certificates. When she died in 1919 the school was disbanded.
St Mary’s College grew out of the convent school run by the Sisters of Mercy in Barkly Place. Formerly known as St Aloysius School the name change occurred when a substantial new building was erected in 1896 to cater for senior girls and boarders. Since then the college has grown and expanded to keep up with modern thinking.
Reference see BEN 206 “The Belles of St Mary’s”
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HIGHER EDUCATION IN SANDHURST PRE 1910
In 1872 an Act of Parliament was passed making schooling compulsory for all children aged 6 to 15 (this was later reduced to 13) and established a network of elementary schools State-wide that were to be free and secular. A massive building program was undertaken to provide enough new schools to cater for the sudden increase in pupil numbers, mostly primary schools up to grade eight, or Merit certificate.
In 1885 the Advertiser (29th April) stated the number of pupils presenting for the matriculation exams to be = 7 from the High School, 3 from St Andrew’s College, 3 from Sandhurst Grammar, 2 from Girton College, I from Camp Hill school, and 1 from North Sandhurst school. Many State school teachers held night classes to prepare young working people for the Civil Service and Matriculation certificates.
In 1910 the State government extended its control over all Independent schools in Victoria. From then on all schools and all teachers had to be registered and inspected to ensure necessary standards were being maintained.
Although the BFHG Bendigo group have made a data base of 95,463 pupil records, within the Greater Bendigo area, none of these relate to the above schools. The primary schools seem to be the only ones that have a continuous systematic registration of pupils, and even some of those have been lost.
