Swinburne: 75 Years of Distinction

1908 1983

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THIS BUJLDING WAS ERECTED IN THE YEAR 1917 :i~RI3~~G~N.SBY HADDON · ·· XRcmrEc

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An early crest Variation early crest A Swinburne family crest

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Swinburne: 75 Years of Distinction

Written by Bernard Hames Published by Swinburne College Press Contents

Foreword 17 Establishment 19 • Diversification 26 The Depression 33 Post-war Innovation 35 The Swinburne Vision 46

Published by Swinburne College Press Text Copyright © Bernard Hames 1982 Illustration of Swinburne campus Copyright © Peter Schofield 1982 Typeset by Swinburne Graphic Design Centre in Italia Designed by David Whitbread, Swinburne Graphic Design Centre Printed by Gardner Printing Co. (Vic.) Pty Ltd 36 Thornton Crescent, Mitcham, Victoria 3132 All rights reserved ISBN O 85590 550 6 Foreword George Swinburne took him to vmious construction sites in England and Austria. and within three years he became a partner in the firm. while his uncle sailed for Australia to seek business opportunities Within the year George Swinburne followed his uncle to Melbourne and became immediately engrossed in setting up gas plants and bringing gas­ light to the cities and towns. Though most installations were in Victoria. they ranged from Albany to The Swinburnes lived for many generations in Cairns. In 1924, he was appointed Chairman of the Northumberland. in the north of England. In early board of directors of the Mount Lyell Mine at times the family owned a castle on the bank of a Queenstown. Tasmania. small brook called the Swin Burn the brook of the Since his early days in Newcastle-on-Tyne. he boars: and by about 1245 the Swinburne coat of had been deeply interested in politics and hence, arms was ·Gules, three boars heads argent' Hence as his business stature increased, he entered State the origin of the crest today. Parliament and was appointed a minister. He was George Swinburne was born in 1861 al also a nominee of the Government on the Melbourne Newcastle-on-Tyne. His father had been appren­ University Council. ticed to a leading engineering firm and was With such a background, and his interest in the senior draughtsman at this time. Later his father welfare of people. he was perhaps predestined 10 opened a business as brass founder. engineer become the founder of a technical college. and coppersmith. This history has been compiled by Bernard Hames, At c1ge 13 young George was indentured to a firm who joined Swinburne in 1938 as a teacher of of chemical merchants at four shillings a week. He English and was instrumental in forming the first completed his apprenticeship after six years and library at Swinburne. He became Vice •Principal in then commenced evening classes in engineering 1956 and Director in 1968. a post which he retained because he decided this profession was more to until his retirement in 1970. His contribution his liking than a business career. to the development of Swinburne and technical He also studied shorthand and German before education in general. particularly during the late omg o wor m 1e mornm 5 an a essons m s, was enormous. IS mem c:rs 1p o t e singing, piano and organ - history does not tell us Council of the Victoria Institute of Colleges during how he had time for his music. but it does say he its early formative days was particularly notable. enjoyed it immensely. He continued to assist the VIC in an honorary He became interested in politics.joining the Liberal capacity until its dissolution. Party. taking part in local elections. and becoming an This book. commemorating 75 years of service admirer of Mr Gladstone. to education. has been designed and produced by A devout Methodist. he taught Sunday school. the Swinburne Graphic Design Centre. and started a church cricket club and a young man's Council expresses its grateful thanks to all who debating society. He beLieved his Christian en­ have assisted in th is work deavours on a Sunday kept him going through the week In 1882. at 21. he began his engineering career in earnest when he joined his uncl~.John Coates, who was a leading consultant in gas and mechanical engineering in London. The dynamic energy of B.R. Martin Presidem

Establishment 1909, less than a fortnight after the first Director was appointed, and · nearly two months before classes began, sums it up, Enrolment is far in excess of the number the rooms will hold. Applications have been received from ... as far away as Brunswick but many will perforce be shut out because oflocal preference - an effective commentary on an educational system which leaves young men striving to learn, neglected and uncared for. Established in 1908, Swinburne was the last of the That tens of thousands of those 'striving to learn' council schools. Two years later, the Government, were no longer to be neglected and uncared for was acting belatedly on the recommendations made in due to the vision and determination of George 1901 by the Fink Commission, passed the Education Swinburne, Minister for Water Supply and Minister for Act of 1901 that empowered the Education Depart­ Agriculture in the Government led by Sir Thomas ment to assume control of technical education. Bent, and a former Mayor of Hawthorn. He had long Consequently, technical schools established after . been interested in educational matters. His own Swinburne, such as Footscray which began seven education had been gained the hard way by many years later, came under the direct control of the years of study outside working hours, for he began Education Department. Forty years had passed since work at the age of thirteen. His daughter, Miss 1868, when the attention of the Legislative Assembly' Swinburne, says that her parents had considered 'was directed to the desirability of promoting technical establishing an institute of the type about which Sir education amongst the working classes of the colony·. Walter Besant had written in his powerful book All The Fink Report called that pronouncement the Sorts and Conditions ofMen. This book had led to commencement of technical education in Victoria. the setting up of what would now be called a com­ One result of the forty year lapse was that, unlike munity centre in the East End of London. Though this some of the earlier colleges, the Eastern Suburbs concept appealed to the Swinburnes, they rejected it Technical College (the title by which Swinburne in favour of a technical college, the latter being more College was first known) did not experience any definite and more likely to be properly staffed as the difficulty in attracting students. The Honourable years went by. The fact that his father had been •-••-f••--' •- .., __l.,._.. •-.-..f .-.A.,..,..-.••,....,..• ... ,•ur,...,..'...,.,< .-f.... ,..,.....,,,.. George Swinburr1e !v1LA and his tearn of prominent lllVUlV\::U Ill l\::l...lllU\..Ql IC::-UU\..QUVll Ul 'C.V'C-llUl~ \..10.::>.:>'C-::, and concerned citizens from the eastern suburbs, also influenced George Swinburne. realized correctly that a real demand for technical By April 1907 he was ready to put his ideas into education existed in Hawthorn and the surrounding practice. His technical college would be based firmly area. The Working Men's College in the heart of in ·the local community. He deplored a system where Melbourne had been operating for twenty-one years, ·the efficiency or inefficiency of a school is the concern but there was no technical college in the suburbs. of a far off, slow-moving department .. . with the (Mr C.A. Lawrence, later Head of Plumbing, tells how, parents and the organized manufacturing and even as late as 1919, he had to travel from Chelsea commercial interests holding aloof. An effective and each day, catching the 7.10 a.m. train, because there enduring link with the local community would best was no nearer technical school.) Proof of the accuracy be forged by enlisting the support of local municipal of their estimate of demand is seen in the enrolment councils who would feel a civic pride in the progress figures for the new college, eighty when classes of the college, and by ensuring that its council began in 1911; 947 in 1912. The mordant comment comprised local business and professional men of the Melbourne Argus newspaper on 13 January interested in the project. ... 19 jaw1horn &4amberwtll "G IT I ZEN." With wLicL is Iucorpomted _THE "BOROONDARA STANDARD.'' (Established 26 years.)

SATURDAY, JUNE 29. 1907. He had noticed that many students came from Box Hill, Camberwell, and adjacent districts to study in Melbourne, A Munificent Donation. therefore, they were put to considerable expense for travelling, loss of time,&c., and owing to the crowded state of the The Hon. Geo. Swinburne, who be.s college, often had to wait six or twelve for several yea.re past represented Haw­ months before they could secure thorn in the State Assembly, bas for admission into the classes they wi~hed some time pa.et been giving his particu­ to join. He considered, therefore,that lar attention to Technical Education. a local college would mean a great It has been apparent to any thinking saving of time, and !ilso pro'\'i:de person tbe.t for some time past the instruction for a large number of Working Mens' College bas been pupils, who, when properly instructed severely strained owing to the number in the rudiments, could proceed to the of scholars desirous of obtaining techni­ Central College to be instructed in the cal education on various subjects, and higher grades. The Hon.G.Swinburne the limited capacity of the college for at once set to work, and put himself in receiving same, owing partly to the communication with the Councils of lack of sufficient funds e.nd the paucity Hawthorn, Kew, and Camberwell, and of accommodation. Mr. Swinburne's a committee from each of these was father was an instructor in one of these appointed to take the matter into institutions on the Tyne, and the Hon. consideration. A committee from each gentleman himself and bis brothers municipality was appointed as follows passed through a course of instruction -Hawthorn, the Mayor (Cr. D1dley), there, and are well aware of the value and Crs. Russell and Burton ; Kew, of the education they then received. the Mayor (Cr. Wishart), and Ors. Having considered the matter for a few Argyle and H. Kellett ; Camber­ months he resolved on putting it to a well, the Mayor ( Cr. Mercy), and Crs. practical test,and to that end consulted Cattanach and Baillieu. The matter Mr. Campbell, who is the director of was duly considered by these gentlemen, the Working Men's College, as to the r.nd a committee of three was appointed advisability of opening an auxiliary to draw out a plan, and consider the branch of tbat institution in the East­ best means of putting same in to execu­ ern suburbs. tion.

20 Discussions with the mayors of the local councils - educational world, from the Minister and the Director Hawthorn, Kew, Camberwell and Booroondarah - of Education down, flanked by companies of cadets, led to the formation of citizens' committees. Generous senior and junior, entertained by the Kew Town donations from subscribers, about a thousand in Band, it was an occasion interrupted but not marred number, including massive gifts from Mr and Mrs by pelting hail and driving rain. Swinburne, together with the assurance of govern­ ment subsidy and the guarantee by the four municipal councils that they would make up any deficit up to £600 in the annual recurrent costs, ensured financial stability. The Melbourne Age reported that this was the 'first time in Australia that municipal councils had added technical education to their activities'. The advice of Mr F.A. Campbell, Director of the Swinburne campus 1982 Working Men's College, was sought, especially with (Original building of 1908, shaded) regard to the nature and probable cost of a building and its equipment. A block of land less than half a hectare in area was bought with a frontage of 38 metres to the western side of]ohn Street, just south of the railway-line and close to the Glenferrie Railway Station. The location was important because most students either rode bicycles or used public transport. The block was thought by some to be larger than would be needed and the Hawthorn City Council was asked to buy the part furthest from John Street where the McPherson Engineering School now stands. Fortunately, the council declined the offer. On 8July 1908 the Eastern Suburbs Technical College was registered as a company limited by guarantee. The following Monday, 13July, the inaugural meeting of Council was held in the Hawthorn Town Hall. The first business was to elect the Honourable George Swinburne as President, Mr G. G. Mercy as Vice-President, Sir William McPherson as Honorary Treasurer, and Mr H.R. Hamer as Honorary Director. Besides the three members nominated by the Governor-in-Council, the Council comprised six members elected by subscribers and life governors and seven nominated by the participating municipal councils. Thus Mr Swinburne's theory oflocal support was translated into action. Three months later, on 19 September, a stormy Saturday afternoon, Premier Sir Thomas Bent laid the foundation stone. Attended by notables from the

21 THE MAGAZINE OF THE SWINBURNE TECHNICAL COLLEGE Five months more and the building was ready for appointments as Art Master at Sale Technical School occupation. On Wednesday 10 February 1909, the and at the Working Men's Co!!ege and as Director at Governor ofVictoria, Sir Thomas Gibson-Carmichael, Horsham Working Men's Co!!ege. He then took a performed the official opening ceremony of the position as Art Master at the Gordon Technical Co!!ege, square brick building with the crests of the four Geelong, from which he was appointed to the Eastern participating municipal councils reproduced in plaster Suburbs Technical College with the exciting prospect over the front door. The local press commended the of appointing staff, enrolling students and.devising architects, Grainger and Little (Mr Grainger's son, Percy, courses for a new institution. was already a famous pianist and composer), for 'wisely putting utility ahead of ornamentation·. A few years later, the Scientific Australian was more flattering in describing the building as the first of a 'striking series of red brick buildings·. At the sixth monthly meeting of Council in December 1908 the important matter of the choice of the first Director of the College was decided. Mr JR. Tranthim-Fryer. selected from twenty-five applicants, had been recommended strongly by both the Director of Education, Mr Frank Tait, and the Principal of Melbourne Teachers' Training College, Dr John Smyih. Mr Tranihim-Fryer had been born in Hobart forty-eight years before, had studied Art there and subsequently for over four years at the Sydney Technical College. He returned to Hobart as Art Master at the Technical College for five years before spending four years in the United Kingdom and Europe, studying with distinction at the Lambeth Art School and practising as a sculptor. He prided himself on being 'the only Lambeth meda!!ist out of England'. When he and his wife, Charlotte (nee Bechervaise), returned to Australia he continued his practice as a sculptor while Charlotte taught singing at the Melbourne Conservatorium ofMusic. He also widened his experience of technical education by temporary MrJR. Tranthim-Fryer

23 It seems a daunting task, but perhaps it was not quite Mr Swinburne interviewed the prospective so fearsome as it appears in retrospect. Initially, the engineering instructor at Newcastle-on-Tyne in idea was 'to take young men into evening classes, August 1912 and cabled Council, 'Can engage suitable give them some knowledge of technical subjects in instructor £300 per annum second saloon mail wood and iron, then send them on to the Working fare to Melbourne'. (Incidentally, it was while Mr Men's College for more advanced training·. It was not Swinburne was absent from meetings of Council on to be many years before such a suggestion would be this, the fourth of his five visits to the United Kingdom received as a distinct anathema by Swinburne staff. that the Council moved to change the name of the The first classes were in Carpentry, Plumbing and College to Swinburne Technical College, though it Blacksmithing at an elementary level, since the took more than two years to have the change officially current need was to bridge the gap between the basic notified in the Government Gazette.) Mr F.W. Green, primary schooling of the day and the standard BE, took up his appointment in February 1913, the needed before a student could be given technical only classes being held in the evenings. Day diploma training. However, the range of subjects increased classes in Engineering began in 1915. The fu ll-time rapidly, Art, and Fitting and Turning in second term, courses lasted three years, after which a term of two 1909; Cookery, Dressmaking and Millinery in 1911. years' appropriate professional experience was It was not long before the College entered tertiary required before the candidate could receive his teaching, although that term was not used. It may be diploma. The wastage rate was high. Of the fourteen claimed that the decision, taken less than four years students enrolled in first-year studies in 1915 only after the College opened, to appoint an engineering three graduated in 1921. These were the first graduates graduate capable of establishing courses at diploma of the College to obtain a professional qualification, level was in itself an indication of how the Council the Institution of Engineers, Australia having just and, in particular, the Founder believed the College recognized the diploma as a qualification for member­ should develop. Such an appointment was no change ship. The numbers remained small for some time, of intention; the Memorandum of Association had the number of graduates reaching double figures stated as the second of the objects of the Company, only twice in the first fourteen years. Over thirty years were to pass before 100 diplomas and more To improve education generally, and especially to were awarded in one year. promote technical education, and to facilitate the attain­ The same year that Mr Green took up the task of ment of a knowledge of handicrafts, arts, sciences and establishing Engineering courses, a boys' junior languages, by the establishment of classes, workshops, laboratories, reading-rooms, libraries and museums, by school opened with forty-two students. Such schools the printing and publishing of any newspapers, periodicals, were still uncommon because they had developed books, monographs, articles or leaflets .. only a few years earlier from the preparatory year introduced at Working Men's College to help students A visionary future for the newborn infant in 1908. inadequately prepared for diploma courses. In 1913

24 there were only three other boys' junior technical schools in Melbourne. Swinburne Boys' School became immediately popular under Dr D. MacKay's headmastership. By 1916, competition for admission was so keen that 200 candidates sat the entrance examination for the eighty vacancies. The pressure on accommodation persisted. In 1929 a determined but vain attempt was made to buy land on the east side ofJohn Street. A few years later the Minister discussed with Council the proposed erection of a new school but by 1940 he had decided Box Hill could offer a better site. Council was advised to restrict enrolments ofjuniors and concentrate on its senior school, letting the Education Department cater for those juniors (i.e. secondary students) it could not place. Even with restricted entry, congestion remained a problem, especially after 1946 when a fourth year of the intermediate technical certificate was added to the junior school course. The influx of World War II rehabilitation students aggravated this problem but generations of students and their teachers had to endure it; no effective relief was given until 1962 when the Boys' School was transferred to its new site on Burwood Road, east of William Street.

Junior Boys· Metalwork Class c.1915

25 Diversification

The success of the Boys· School fired Mrs Swinburne with the determination to do something similar for girls. In May 1915 a house on the comer of Burwood Road andJohn Street was purchased. Education Department architects remodelled it for use as a school. In 19 16 the first technical school for girls in Australia began enrolment of seventy-seven pupils under Miss G.L. Blackmore. Miss Swinburne, who had just completed her diploma of Education after a Master's degree in History, taught Ovics in an honorary capacity two afternoons a week. Commenting on her reluctance to accept a salary in 1916, Miss Swinburne says, 'When we were brought up there was quite a strong feeling that women whose fathers were able to support them should not compete in the labour market'. Though even more cramped for space than the Boys· School. Swinburne Girls' School maintained a high standard of excellence. When the site was required for the hall built to commemorate the Girls'Junior School 1950 comer John Street and Burwood Road College Jubilee, the girls were moved to a row of Site of Ethel Swinburne Centre cottages in William Street; 'slum conditions· they were called by some, or ·cottage education· by those who Right: Ironing Class c.1920 prefer euphemisms. There they stayed, maintaining their standards in spite of formidable physical handicaps, until they merged with the Boys· School in 1968. Because the senior school was growing in com­ plexity of courses as well as in numbers, it was only a matter of lime before the secondary division would separate from the tertiary. In 1969 Council relin­ quished all control of its secondary school on the Burwood Road site. The Swinburne Boys· and Girls' Technical School continues to operate successfully as an Education Department school at the secon­ dary level.

26

Another division of the College that earned a high reputation rapidly was the Art School. The importance of art in the technical curriculum of the day is evidenced by the fact that council acquired as Director a man with art and craft training. This was not peculiar to Swinburne College but it was in line with the thinking of the founder, himself an art lover. lnjanuary 1910 George Swinburne wrote to Mr Tranthim-Fryer that trade students need not only isometric drawing but ·other art studies for their educational and elevating influence'. Classes in Art began in the second tenn of 1909. Some of them were held from 2.30-4.30 in the afternoon whereas all other classes were held in the evening, and they mark the first venture into daytime teaching. The Director, a noted sculptor, took Art classes himself at first, and even to the end of his career taught or worked in his studio as often as he could. Administrative pressures were not so heavy then. Even so, when acceding to his request for a readjustment of office responsibilities so that he might undertake more Art teaching, Council recorded a resolution that this was ·not to interfere with the Director's control of the whole College·. An assistant had soon to be found, and at the end of 1909 an advertisement for staff to teach Painting led to the inspired choice in 1910 of nineteen-year-old Stanley Tompkins from Balla rat. The Director of the Ballarat School of Art recommended Tompkins to Mr Tranthim-Fryer as a champion violinist and an artist 'with all-round qualities that make him ideal'. Council appointed him from February 1911 at £75 per year for three afternoons and evenings per week 'with plenty of time left for study, music, etc.· and voted £2 for materials with which the carpentry instructor should build him an office. Though not Head of the Art School till 1928 - Mr Tranthim-Fryer combined that position with his post as Director until he retired- S.W. Tompkins became the dominating force long before he was Connally appointed Head. Over forty-five years he built up a school of enormous prestige. Fonner students cannot speak too highly of Swinburne Art School as

28 they knew it, 'Swinburne had a sort of charisma! There wasn't another school could come.near it.' They remember Mr. Tompkins as a 'skilful teacher with infectious enthusiasm'; ·a handsome man, all presence and style'. The artist Nornie Gude (Mrs L. Scott Pendlebury) remembers that 'his little office had an atmosphere about it, an absolute holy of holies·. (This was not the £2 office but a rather better room on the first floor of the three-storey Art Building designed by Robert Haddon and opened in 1918) Especially in his younger days, S.W. Tompkins was a driving force in Art education, but the principles he introduced at Swinburne with such conspicuous success were not accepted readily by the establish­ ment. Education Department schools were more concerned with the training of art teachers, whereas Swinburne aimed at training artists for commerce and industry. At the time the only formal qualifications available in Art were teachers· certificates, oflittle relevance to a school whose students were not being trained for teaching. This did not worry Mr Tompkins who claimed an artist is measured not by the certificates he holds but by what he can do. In 1950 the four-year course for the Diploma of Art was introduced by the Education Department with a certificat·e qualification at the end of two years. Not merely a teaching qualification, it suited Swinburne's needs, and from 1952 onwards the Diploma ofArt Proposed relief sculpture panel figures largely in the annual awards of the College. for tower of Art Building 191 7 During the 1960s art and craft work extraneous to the diploma course was eliminated to enable staff to concentrate fully on the promotion of training in the Lelle Art Students c.1932 two fields of Graphic Design and Film and Television. That principle is still being followed, though some courses have been extended to include the qualifica­ tions of degree and graduate diploma.

29 Chemistry had been and the College was taught initially as a / merely a place"to teach subject in the diploma tradesmen. Some regret course in Engineering. that as it grew it came to The diploma course in dominate a residential Applied Chemistry did not area. Others cannot speak too begin until the late 1940s. Until highly of the splendid opportunity the Chemistry Building was opened it gave young people who were in 1949, the subject was taught in an inade- ·good with their hands'. No one doubts that quate room on the first floor of the Engineering from the beginning it was mainly concerned with Building. The first of the regular diplomas of Applied distinctly tradesmen's classes. Chemistry were awarded in 1950, a qualification The first man appointed after Mr JR. Tranthim-Fryer recognized by The Royal Australian Chemical Institute was Mr C.H. Wright - to teach Plumbing. This subject for admission as an Associate. This establishment of had not been envisaged in the original plan but the first diploma course, apart from that of Engineering, it originated from a chance conversation in the marked a significant development. street between Mr H.R. Hamer and Mr Wright. whose It is important to note that the early years of the enthusiasm soon made it one of the most important College saw the gradual development of day diploma courses. His museum. illustrating plumbing methods courses in Engineering and, later, in Chemistry; the through the centuries, was a feature of the College increasing demand for secondary technical education for many years. He was responsible for what might for boys and girls, and the rapid growth of a flourishing be called the first step towards a department of Art School. visual aids when, in August 1909. five months after All this time. what was considered to be the major the first class was held, he persuaded Council to function of the young College, that is the training of authorise the purchase of'apparatus for lantern for tradesmen, was being fulfilled steadily, mainly at lecturing purposes up to £5'. in 1920 his plan was evening classes. There was no doubt in the minds of approved for 'plumbing to be developed on progres­ contemporaries, that this should be the major sive lines by introducing heating and ventilation·. function of the College. People who have lived within sight of the College all their lives, when asked about their early memories of it, say they remember nothing about it for they did not want to learn a trade Right, Senior Plumbing Theory Class c.1915

30

Woodworking courses were immediately popular. Additional classes, in the evenings and then on Saturday mornings, were formed under the control of T.J Sledge. The imparting of'some knowledge of technical subjects in iron·, the second of the two immediate aims stated in the original prospectus, began with F.H. Anderson's Blacksmithing, but changing conditions phased these classes out in 1921.JE. Tilley·s course in Fitting and Turning soon complemented the work in iron. In 1910 he was given an assistant. A.E.'Percy· Page, who for more than forty years proved one of the most influential and deeply respected of College personalities. Hence, - from the start, three of the four main streams of the technical division were established. The fourth stream, Electrical Mechanics, developed along with the diploma course in Electrical Engineering and was taught by F.W. Green himself in evening classes in 1913. An unfavourable report on _the facilities for the instruction of repatriation trainees in 1919 led to such improvements that by 1921 the Director was able to report to Council his hopes that 'the College will become the chief centre in the State for electric wiring·. Until after World War II, Electrical Mechanics remained under the general supervision of the Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering.· The transfer of Electrical Mechanics and Plumbing and Gasfitting to the north end ofJohn Street in the late 1950s enabled a useful concentration and consolidation of activities which has continued with the expansion of Plumbing and Mechanical Services to Butwood Road in 1976 and its extension to River Street in 1982. Courses in Domestic Economy, introduced with much enthusiasm in 1911, included Cookery and Laundry work, Dressmaking, Needlecraft and Millinery. They provided a useful service for over fifty years but were phased out with the transfer of the secondary girls' section.

32 I,

The Depression II I I Outing the Depression of the early 1930s technicill education in general was in the doldrums. ,md Swinburne felt ii more th,m mo;;t. In 1928 it had suffered the double blow of losin!; its first Director and then its founder. Mr F.W. Green, the new Director, had done outsl

tlw numbers [ of Engineering diplom;, studenls J are sufficknl In lhe course of time the present numhc, may be doubled or lr<"bkd. 1~11\'r lh<" College ~lmuld gel s ome nppatJtus and equipnwnl. hut lh nl is 1101 nn immediiil<' nen,ssily

Mr Clork who could gene1,1lly foresee. with unnmny clarity, the role that ledmical educa1ion would come to pliiy in Australia's developmrcnt. WilS not at his most prophetic tlrnt lfoy. Consequently, as further accommodation became necessary, the College improvised from time to time .r with inadequate buildings on a restricted site and used its own funds to modify and rearrange rooms year by year to meet immediate needs. The indepen­ dence of this attitude was admirable but the results were often deplorable with students having to traipse through one classroom to get to another. The epithet 'rabbit warren· was used. not withoutjustification. After the social hall was built inJohn Street in 1912. the only adequate building erected for senior school classe·s in nearly forty years was the Chemistry School in 1949. All the rest were alterations and improvisations. When scores of rehabilitation students arrived after World War II. the Repatriation Department _ erected their workshop but the carpentry trainees had to put up the building in which most were then taught. This massive, square. wooden structure, devoid of architectural pretensions, designed by Vice-Principal D.D. Griffiths to stand till doomsday and christened Noah's Ark by the irreverent. still serves a functional if unornamental purpose, though the woodworking students have long moved out and since 1974 have been housed in George Street. In spite of shortage of funds and depressed condi­ tions the 1930s was a period of consolidation. In all divisions, Engineering and Art, trade andjunior schools, the reputation of the College was enhanced by solid achievement. In Engineering, in particular, many young men availed themselves of the oppor­ tunity to gain professional qualifications by evening study, a facility not provided by the universities. Scores of professional men now shouldering the ]Building most onerous responsibilities can thank the College for providing the opportunity they needed. Among so many it would be invidious to single out this man or that for specific mention but W.P. Brown who was awarded the Diploma of Civil Engineering in 1938 after years of evening study, may be named not only because of his distinguished achievements in his chosen profession, for others can share that distinc­ tion, but because he was the first and so far the only graduate of the College to become President of Council.

34

That change came when F.W. Green retired after thirty-seven years with the College, twenty-two as Director. The new Director, A.F. Tylee. the third to lead the College, had been Head of Engineering at Seddon Memorial Technical Institute in Auckland, New Zealand. Arriving in May 1950, he brought a new approach. great enthusiasm and the capacity to get the best out of his colleagues. Some of the developments of the next fifteen years would have occurred whoever had been Director, but the extent of the changes and the speed of their introduction owed much to his leadership. The diplomas of Commerce and Commercial Practice were introduced in 1953. Commercial sub­ jects had been taught since 1921. and evening Mr A.F. Tylee classes in Accountancy and associated subjects had long been provided up to the level required for the Right, Asian students at Swinburne final exams of the commercial societies. But a day diploma course leading to a professional qualification was something new that attracted not only young Australians seeking careers in business and in teaching but also many of the thousands of students from South-east Asia who were beginning to take advantage of the opportunities for higher education that Australia provided. The overseas students enrolled in all faculties, but the courses in Commerce attracted the greatest number.

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w FILM EVAPORATOR ··VACUUM EVAPORATION &CONCENTRATION· Other innovations included the setting up of a system of student counselling; the establishment of the department ofVisual Aids, rather more sophisticated even in the 1950s than Mr Wright's magic lantern, but in the ~;une tradition of improving the method of presenting learning material; the beginning of Swinburne Press, first known as the Publishing Department. In 1963 'sandwich' courses, as they were then termed. began in Production Engineering following Footscray·s efforts in this field during the previous year. Increased attention was paid to teaching of Humanities. From 1945 staff had been appointed to teach English to diploma students, Matriculation English Expression having been made compulsory in the Engineering diploma courses in 1944. Their function soon widened. It has been written of Mr Swinburne that ·a liberal course of general education associated with specific vocational training was the dynamic idea of every reform that he supported'. When the Humanities staff tried to liberalise the vocational training that was the College's specific objective. they were surely acting in conformity with the founder's idea. Though their activities were far removed from those of the present Faculty of Arts, they laid firm foundations for such development. They pioneered training in the use of a library, in the preparation of reports. in the study of social sciences, and they proved a unifying force as their work extended through all disciplines. The Library, which the newly appointed Head of Humanities had been struggling to establish since 1945 with insufficient funds (he was limited to £5 per month in the initial stages) was given more adequate financial support and, in 1952, a respectable reading room - the old chemistry laboratory refurbished for the part. Ten years later it was transferred to a better, but still makeshift, location in the old social hall sited on the west side ofJohn Street where a pleasant strip of lawn now grows, just south of the Administrative Building. Finally, in February 1972 the present library was opened by the Honourable Malcolm Fraser, MP.

38 I

Swinburne Library 1957 Old Engineering Building (Established 1946)

Swinburne Library 1964

Confronted by Asian students seeking higher educa­ not long ignore a community need merely because of tion in a foreign land with an alien culture and un­ a demarcation dispute within the Education Depart­ familiar language, the Humanities Department ment. Soon the Council of Swinburne Limited, with devised a familiarization course taken during the few the financial backing of the Technical and Further weeks before the beginning of first term, not only for Education Board, accepted responsibility for the students of Swinburne but for Asians studying at any classes which are conducted at Kew High School co!Iege in the State. These courses were so successful under an Evening Principal who is an officer of the that af1:er two years they were taken over by the Swinburne Technical Co!Iege. Education Department. The dramatic appearance of Sputnik I in 1957 was To their surprise, staff came to realize that evening proof positive that Russia led the world in technology. classes in Matriculation English Expression conducted This profoundly affected the Co!Iege along with other for diploma students were being attended by scores similar institutions in the western world, which now of people who sought not a technical diploma but a demanded a new emphasis and, consequently, university entrance qualification. People also began increased spending on technical education. In Victoria attending diploma classes in Mathematics, Physics this demand led to the establishment, by Act of and Chemistry, hoping that these studies would Parliament in 1965, of the Victoria Institute ofCo!Ieges, enable them to pass the corresponding matriculation with which Swinburne was one of the first to affiliate. examinations. With the Co!Iege·s characteristic As other colleges sought affiliation, Council-controlled readiness to try to meet community demand the Swinburne, which had fought so hard against deter­ Humanities Department organized evening classes in mined efforts by the Education Department to take it .-..1-L.-.- .....t..: ...... J.,.. r .... _ J.t.. ... ~.-.1--:...... f.-.i.:.-._.. .-...... J ..-..1-L ... - -. •• t..f;,...... 1 :-a...... 1-,...... _ .-...... -... ,..,... ~··--•-t-. n,.,, ...... ,_.,_,.,...,_,. ... , UllJfGl ::>UUJt:;Ll::> lVl Ul\::: 11J(ll11\..U1QUVII a11u Vlllt::l !-JUUUL vvt:.1. IUUHU 1l 1au111::.1 UVlU\.. lV WQl\..11 Ll't:.iJOlUJl't:.lllQl examinations. So overwhelming was the response co!Ieges forsake the Department for management by that the classes grew to the embarrassingly large councjls and, more recently, to adopt the principle, number of 1400 enrolments. Some other arrange­ without Swinburne's justification, of naming them­ ment was obviously needed. Moreover, the current selves af1:er notable people. As a college of advanced Director of Technical Education protested that such education, Swinburne now received the greatly classes should be conducted by the High Schools' increased financial support that the Commonwealth Branch, and refused extra payment for Swinburne's Government of Australia provided. Among many over-burdened organiser of evening classes in profound effects of such support were improved matriculation and public examination courses. buildings and better qualified staff. Gone was the After some years the High Schools, reluctant to rabbit warren; the McPherson Engineering School. saddle themselves with evening classes, were the Library and the Business and Arts Building set persuaded to accept their responsibility and the high standards in design and appointments - the classes were transferred to High Schools at Kew, Box more realistic salary rates meant that competition for Hill and, later, Prahran. However, the College could staff was not weighted so heavily against the College.

41 Above: Engineering and Plumbing Departments 1913

Lefl: The McPherson Engineering Building

Right, Swinburne Girls' School. site of the BA Building ------I Far Righi: Present Business Arts Building

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Many of the staff from Swinburne played a significant role in the development of the VIC. There was some diversity of opinion: older members rejoiced that the present conditions were so superior to the past; those who had not experienced the frustrations of earlier years chafed at obvious inadequacies. All three Directors of the College during the lifetime of the VIC were members of its Council and effected its development. As a member of the Interim Council, Mr A.F. Tylee helped shape its policies until his untimely death in 1966. The present Director, Dr W.R. Longworth, with dynamic approach and forceful manner, was an architect of the change through which the colleges gained increased autonomy. That the College now awards its own degrees, whereas ten years ago college degrees were awarded by the VIC, illustrates. this change.

44 Left Dr W.R. Longworth

Above: Swinburne staff 1968

45 The Swinburne Vision

The value of the contribution made to the College by successor, Mr T.W. Higgins. Council introduced its Councillors is too great ever to be estimated. For changes in its constitution befitting its altered status. the first twenty years Mr Swinburne so dominated Changes in the Articles ofAssociation were also made Council that it is easy - but would be utterly fallacious to allow wider representation on Council, which now - to overlook the importance of the contribution included staff and student members with full voting others made. When the founder died, Sir William rights. A later simplification of nomenclature made McPherson ('my father's closest friend', Miss Swinburne Limited the name of the Company, which Swinburne called him) became President until his comprises two teaching divisions: Swinburne Institute death four years later. Sir William, after whom the of Technology and Swinburne Technical College. Engineering School is named, was also a generous That the present complex institution was part of the benefactor of the College, as well as other public vision of its founder cannot be maintained, but the institutions in Melbourne. Mr Thomas Rust also series of changes that have brought it about have claims attention, partly because his family still firmly harmonised with his ideas. In an article published in believes, in spite of the evidence, that he was the true the Melbourne Herald on 24 May 1928, three months founder of the College and Mr Swinburne merely its before his death, Mr Swinburne exposed the futility of generous and distinguished figurehead. Certainly trying to resuscitate the old apprentice system. the Mr Rust was active from the start. He was already a Guilds. He wrote: prominent figure in the Australian Natives' Association To try to graft a system in many ways antiquated at a time when it was a real force in Australian life. onto the great complicated industrial and mechanical (Some eight years earlier its considerable influence evoll;tion of modern times is to show our lack of had helped materially in the introduction of Federa­ originality and to acknowledge our failure to grasp tion.) In 1907 Mr Rust was elected secretary of the the actual necessities of our age. Hawthorn Citizens' Committee formed to promote The determination to make changes that will the establishment of a technical college in the· enable the College to grasp the actual necessities eastern suburbs. He was chosen as subscribers· of this age, which motivate the concept of Swinburne representative on the first College Council inJuly Limited, would surely have appealed to the 1908, and remained for more than twenty-six years Honourable George. an active and energetic member of Council with an especial interest in apprenticeship training. He was elected President a few months before his death in 1934. Of the presidents who followed, mention must be made of Mr R.G. Parsons who, after serving as a Councillor for thirty-nine years and President for eighteen, became the first Life Governor of Swinburne College ofTechnology . During the presidency of his

46 Mr F.W. Green

Right, Miss Gwen Swinburne and the author M r B.R. Hames

It is not mere fantasy to claim Mr Swinburne's influence on the College has persisted over the generations. Naturally, all those members of staff who used to look forward so keenly to his frequent unscheduled visits to the College have long since disappeared. Yet the link with the Swinburne family persists. Mrs Swinburhe livedjust long enough to know that her name had been given to a hall built to commemorate the College Jubilee and to dictate on tape a message read when its foundation stone was laid in 1960. Her brother, Mr H.R. Hamer, served the College, mainly as Treasurer, for thirty-six years. His son, Dick (now Sir Rupert) was a member of Council for twelve years and Vice-Presi­ dent for thirteen until his duties as Premier and Treasurer of Victoria compelled him to resign. Mr H.R Hone, the founders' nephew by marriage, was Council Treasurer for twenty years. Miss Swinburne remains a witty, intelligent and enduring link with the earliest days. The current and twelfth President, Mr B.R. Martin, is the founder's grandson. With so strong anc;I persistent a family connection it is appropriate that the College of Heralds agreed in 1968 that the Swinburne family crest should be incorporated in the College coat of arms. It would be unrealistic to hope that this family connection could continue indefinitely but it is to be hoped that the principles on which the College was founded. which have brought it such distinction in the past, will continue to inform the minds and hearts of those called on to direct its future development.

Left, Mrs Ethel Swinburne and Mr R.G. Parsons

49 . --== ------Si Swinburne campus

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