HISTORY WALK 1886 TO
PRESENT
Camberwell Grammar School acknowledges the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of this nation and the traditional custodians of the lands upon which we live, learn, play, and work. In particular, we acknowledge the Wurundjeri people as the custodians of the land upon which our campus stands. Camberwell Grammar School commenced in 1886 in the grounds of St John’s Anglican Church in Burke Road. Since then, it has moved several times, before finally arriving at its present site in Mount Albert Road in 1935. The School has undergone significant transformation and renewal, and this continues in our commitment to provide each generation of our students with the best possible facilities. While looking forward, our school has always respected our history and traditions. This History Walk is intended to remind current and past students about significant places in the history of Camberwell Grammar School.
Dr Paul Hicks Headmaster
“It is fitting that we celebrate our past and the contributions of those who have gone before, while reflecting on how much we have changed.”
1 Contemplation Garden The Contemplation Garden provides students with a quiet place to sit and talk, but it also marks the three distinct phases of history of our school site, first under the custodianship of the Wurundjeri people, then European settlement in the nineteenth century, and finally occupation by our school since 1935. The garden reminds us of our past and provides a lovely setting to think about our future. The garden also serves as the starting point for a History Walk around our school.
2 Roystead
Constructed: 1885-86 | Purchased: 1934 Constructed for prosperous tea merchant Oliver Vial, Roystead is a fine example of the land‑boom Italianate architecture of the ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ period. The original property of fourteen acres extended to Whitehorse Road and featured orchards, fields, a pond, and a golf course.
Ironmonger Alexander Macneil owned the estate from 1902 and the School was able to purchase Roystead through the generosity of the Hon. William Angliss MLC. By 1935, when the School moved from Burke Hill, the property was restricted to seven‑and‑a‑half acres extending to Chatfield Avenue. The mansion has since been used for many purposes including a boarding school until 1950, as a headmaster’s residence, staff rooms, classrooms, administration, an art and craft studio, music room, library, chapel, photography darkroom, and cadet Q store. Now used solely for administration, Roystead continues to be the heart of the School.
3 The Outer Circle Railway As part of the railway network of an expanding Melbourne in the 1880s, the Outer Circle line was constructed to run from Oakleigh to Fairfield. By 1890 the line had extended to Boroondara and trains from Deepdene and Ashburton fed traffic to the new East Camberwell station and then on to the city. One station passed by the ‘Deepdene Dasher’, on this extension was ‘Stanley’ (renamed ‘Balwyn’ in 1902) on Mont Albert Road. The name of the station changed again in 1922 to ‘Roystead’, given its proximity to the then privately owned Italianate mansion. The trains were replaced by buses in 1927 and a section of the railway cutting was used to construct the Shenley playing field and Tennis courts in 1978, both used by the School.
4 The Old Gym
Relocated: 1935 | Demolished: 1972
Constructed in 1929 and moved to Mont Albert Road from the Burke Hill site in time for the opening of the new campus in 1935, the gymnasium was used for Gymnastics and some PE periods until it was demolished in 1972. Situated behind the William Angliss Building and near the KAO, the gym was a basic wooden structure, its exterior resembling a bush church. Pressure mounted for a replacement of ‘Our Gym’ over the decades and finally the new David Dyer Physical Education Centre, opened in 1974, included a new gymnasium.
5 The KAO – The Keith Anderson Oval
Constructed: 1935
The ‘large paddock’, the northern section of the Roystead estate, was converted into the School’s sole playing field from 1935, much funding being provided by Council member Ramsay Anderson; the oval was named after his son Keith, an outstanding cricketer and Past Grammarian. The oval suffered from drainage issues for many years, requiring expensive resurfacing. The north‑east corner of the KAO featured a cadet rifle range from 1945‑1960, the oval itself being used as the home ground of the XVIII Football team and the XI Cricket team. Resurfaced in 2017 as a new oval situated above the School’s underground carpark, the KAO continues to be used for sport, PE, and as a playing area for both Middle School and Senior School students.
6 The William Angliss Building
Constructed: 1935 | Demolished: 2017
Named in 1979 after one of the School’s benefactors, the Hon. William Angliss MLC, the ‘Main School Building’ (later the ‘Senior School Building’) was the first purpose‑built structure on the Mont Albert Road site. Angliss laid the foundation stone in December 1934, expressing confidence in the future of the School in his address. Still under construction when the school year began in February 1935, the building was subsequently used for classrooms, science laboratories, common rooms, cadet stores, and administrative offices. From 1959 much of the building was utilised for Middle School classrooms, with the Timpson Wing added in July 1966 expanding facilities for this section of the School. Although the building was demolished to allow the construction of the Sports Centre by 2017, the portal archway was preserved and is now a feature of the Contemplation Garden.
7 ‘H’ Block
Constructed: 1935 | Demolished: 2005
The newly‑sited school soon needed facilities for the younger students. Accordingly, the Preparatory School Building was opened in 1936 following further William Angliss funding, being constructed in a style to match the 1935 Main School Building. Located on the eastern side of the current driveway and to the west of the original East Gate main entrance to the estate, the building faced Mont Albert Road and was used for Senior School classrooms from 1959. Later additions to the original structure included two Geography rooms, the second‑ storey E.O. Romcke Senior Library at the southern end in 1963, and further upstairs classrooms. By 1979 the classrooms, old and new, were chiefly used for senior humanities and commerce, the Council determining that it be renamed the ‘Alfred Hall Building’ in commemoration of the headmaster from 1891‑1926. It was not long before most staff and students simply referred to the building as the ‘H Block’.
8 The Green Hut
Constructed: 1947 | Demolished: 1960
Formerly an old RAAF building, the Green Hut was transported from Nhil in 1947 to provide more classrooms. In Term 3 1950, a stage was built with lighting and curtains installed to provide an Assembly Hall and home for the Dramatic Society. A marquees was usually erected outside the western end to house props and a dressing room for the actors. When the Memorial Hall was completed in 1957, the Hut reverted to classroom use.
9 Memorial Hall
Constructed: 1957 | Demolished: 1995
Opened in February 1958 by the Govenor of Victoria, Sir Dallas Brooks, the Memorial Hall was situated approximately where the foyer of the Performing Arts Complex now sits. This hall had in its foyer a memorial to Old Camberwell Grammarians who had been killed in the Second World War, Korea, and Vietnam. In terms of relative size, the current PAC stage is the same size as the floor space of the auditorium of the Memorial Hall. As the first permanent structure at the Mont Albert Road site since 1936, the Memorial Hall’s construction marked a new phase in the development of the School.
10 Tara
Purchased: 1958 | Demolished: 1995
‘Tara’, once named ‘Banool’, at 63 Mont Albert Road, narrowly escaped demolition according to a 1960s Master Plan, but served as part of the Music School until 1967, then being utilised for many purposes including the Prep School Library, a staff common room, Foundation Office, and as a counselling centre. ‘Tara’ also provided a study for the School Chaplain from 1972, but not until 1984 was the ‘All Souls Chapel’ dedicated on this site. The house was demolished in 1995 to make room for the new Performing Arts Centre.
Constructed in two stages: Stage 1 - 3 classrooms: 1958 Stage 2 - 2 classrooms: 1961
11 The B.L. Bath Wing
Demolished: 1995
This building was named in honour of Mr Brian Bath (1931), a member of the School Council. With the purchase of Tara, the Preparatory School – Years Prep to Year 4 – took shape with the building of three classrooms in 1958, followed shortly afterward in 1960, by the addition of two more classrooms, and an extension to the Memorial Hall which housed a meeting room for the School Council, the P W Robinson Room, and a kitchen. The Preparatory School used the rooms until it moved to Norge in 1984, after which time, the ever‑nomadic Art Department occupied the area.
12 Tennis Courts The Roystead estate had featured Tennis courts on its eastern boundary, but drainage had been a problem for decades. Two en‑tout‑cas courts ran north‑south abutting the northern end of the Memorial Hall, until the construction of the Jack Tobias Oval in 1961, when the Mountain View Courts next to St George’s Hospital were the School’s ‘home’ courts.
13 The Buttery
Constructed: 1960 | Extended 1964 | Demolished: 2001
The Buttery was designed to house the School Tuck Shop, which the Ladies’ Auxiliary had operated from a room next to the headmaster’s garage since 1948. The Auxiliary provided furniture for the new ‘Tuck Shop Buttery’ following their relocation in 1960. The Buttery was later used as a Book Room, Printing Room, Clothing Shop, Prefects’ Study, and School Marshal’s Office. In later years it also served as a dining room for formal School occasions such as the annual Cadet Dinner and staff farewells.
14 H.L. Tonkin Science Block
Constructed: 1960‑62 | Demolished: 2006
The School underwent extensive construction and ‘modernisation’ under Headmaster the Reverend T.H. Timpson, 1955‑66, and the two‑storey Science Block was an important component of that program. Named after Henry Lycett Tonkin, Headmaster 1932‑49, following lobbying by the OCGA, the building was dedicated in 1960 by the Archbishop of Melbourne, Frank Woods; 1962 extensions were opened by Nobel laureate Sir Macfarlane Burnet. Biology and General Science laboratories occupied the ground floor with Physics and Chemistry laboratories on the first floor, as well as staff facilities. After all science facilities were shifted to the new Science, Art, and Design Building in 1991, the Block was rewired to accommodate Information Technology and served as classrooms for other subjects until its demolition.
15 The Observatory
Installed: 1965 | Demolished: 1994 The Astronomy Club – a Friday Activity – used a converted silo as its headquarters. Situated approximately midway on the southern bank of the JTO, the Observatory boasted a revolving roof and a refracting telescope.
16 Highton Tennis Courts
Constructed: 1966 | Demolished: 1996
Highton had a single Tennis court along its eastern boundary with Belmont Park, north of the main house. Two further courts were added to the west, and Tennis returned to the School, until the area was needed to provide some of the car parking spaces required by the building of the PAC.
17 The T.H. Timpson Wing
Constructed: 1966 | Demolished: 2017
The building was named after Reverend T.H. Timpson (1931), Headmaster from 1955 to 1966. The top floor of the building was completed first, providing three additional classrooms, the lower level for Middle School being completed twelve months later. New Senior School changing rooms were constructed in 1967 on the southern bank of the KAO with a ‘breezeway’ linking the Angliss Building and the Timpson Wing.
HISTORY WALK
18 Rooms V and W
Moved: 1970
This portable block of two classrooms served as the Commerce Cente until 1970 when they were relocated adjacent to the north‑east corner of the newly completed PE Centre. There they were first used as the Year 6 classrooms, later as Middle School Art rooms, as a Friday Activity area, and finally for the storage of the bicycles used in PE.
19 L.W. Weickhardt Library
Constructed: 1971 | Demolished: 2006
Named after Dr Len Weickhardt, a member of the School Council from 1955 to 1979, the building housed the Senior Library, the Audio Visual Department, and the HH Wight Tutorial Rooms. It was officially opened by the Hon. Lionel Bowen, the Federal Minister for Science and Education. With the inclusion of a new Library in the M Building, the Weickahrdt facility was converted into study areas for Information Technology and a Table Tennis centre.
20 The Cage
Constructed: 1971 | Demolished: 1997
With its concrete floor, iron roof and cyclone‑wire walls, this noisy sound shell was built as a Middle School locker area, but also served as an assembly area and Table Tennis venue. The site had previously been occupied by three portable classrooms placed there in 1953.
21 Highton
Purchased: 1966
The connection between ‘Highton’ and the School extends back to the First World War when it was Red Cross ‘Rest Home No. 3’ for wounded soldiers, receiving substantial funds from Camberwell Grammar’s ‘patriotic fetes’ in 1914 and in the following war years. The property was variously owned by the Doery family, the Rye family, and the Holymans, with many children of those families attending the School. Acquired in 1966 with the intention of demolition intended to allow expansion of the school site, ‘Highton’ was saved to serve as the permanent home of the Music School from 1967. It also housed a Clothing Store and a remedial office. The building now serves as the administrative centre of the expanded Music School.
22 Kingussie
Constructed: Late‑1880s | Purchased: 1973
Originally part of an extensive property that included a vineyard extending to Whitehorse Road, ‘Kaleno’, later ‘Killegran’, was renamed ‘Kingussie’ by the McPherson family who acquired the property in 1928. Several family members attended Camberwell Grammar and the McPhersons gave the overcrowded School access to the house for Kindergarten classes in 1944. This fine example of Victorian architecture was opened as the Asian Studies Centre in 1977 and today houses the staff common room, administrative offices, and the Community and Development Office.
23 The Rifle Range
Established: 1946
The Cadets’ Rifle Range ran parallel to the eastern boundary fence at the northern end of the School’s two Tennis courts. Cadets fired live rounds from a wooden platform erected adjacent to the Keith Anderson Oval at target butts some thirty meters to the south. The Range began to fall into disuse from 1954 and was closed in the early‑1960s.
24 Norge
Purchased: 1981 The Gunnersen family of timber merchants migrated from Norway in the late‑nineteenth century and three of their sons attended Camberwell Grammar at Camberwell Junction and on Burke Hill.
Family members moved in 1919 into a newly constructed home on nine acres of land adjacent to the Outer Circle railway between Barnsbury Road and Mont Albert Road – the property then extended to Whitehorse Road. The house was named after their ancestral home. By the 1960s the swimming pool on the property was used by the swimming team of the adjacent school for training and following the sale of the School’s property at Blackburn, a down‑sized ‘Norge’ was purchased in 1981 as the site of the Junior School. This new site was officially opened in February 1984.
25 45 Walsh Street
Purchased: 1982 | Demolished: 1993
The Gunnersens began to subdivide the ‘Norge’ property during the Great Depression and one part of that process led to the creation of Walsh Street. Used immediately after its purchase as the Headmaster’s residence until mid‑1987, it then housed the Senior School Art Department until it moved temporarily into 38 Walsh Street, and subsequently into the Science Art and Design Building, which opened in 1991.
26 38 Walsh Street
Purchased: 1982 | Demolished: 1993
The house was situated close to the Outer Circle Railway cutting at the end of a long driveway at the top of Walsh Street. Its purchase linked Norge and 45 Walsh Street. In 1989 and 1990 it served as the Art Department, awaiting the completion of the Science, Art and Design Building in 1991.
27 63 Mont Albert Road
Purchased: 1986 | Demolished: 1993
Serving as the Dominican Republic’s Consulate until its purchase by the School, the house had two unusual features – a dining room table which could be lowered to the floor level to provide greater open space for entertaining, and a nuclear fall‑out shelter. It was the Headmaster’s residence from 1987 to 1993.
28 The Centenary Quadrangle In 1986, at the Centenary Open Day, Alumni, present students, parents, staff, and friends of the School were given the opportunity to purchase and inscribe unfired bricks with names or initials. These were subsequently fired and laid in the quadrangle formed by the breezeway, the Angliss Building, and the Timpson Wing. When the Angliss Building was demolished, these inscribed bricks were relocated to an area behind the new Sports Centre near the KAO and to the forecourt between the Wheelton Centre and ‘Kingussie’. The Centenary Time Capsule previously immured in the northern doorway of the Angliss Building was relocated to the Sports Centre and will be opened in 2036 when the School observes its 150th year.
29 59 Mont Albert Road - The Crawfords Purchased: 1993 | Demolished: 1995 The Crawfords, complete with its Tennis court and swimming pool, was demolished to make way for a car park and a number of demountables, the latter to house a music rehearsal area, Student Counselling offices, and general classrooms following the demolition of the Memorial Hall and Tara.
30 Jack Tobias Oval The oval was named in honour of Jack Tobias (1993), a parent and member of the School Council. He supervised the oval’s construction, organised working bees, and gave generously of his time to ensure its completion. It was converted into an all‑weather playing area in 1995 and is used for PE classes, general recreation, Hockey and Tennis matches, and parking spaces for PAC functions.
31 The Wheelton Centre
Opened: 2013
Through the generosity of Past Grammarian and philanthropist Mr Paul Wheelton OAM joint‑Humanities (Dux of Camberwell Grammar: 1973), the School has been able to incorporate the existing Art and Science Building from 1991 within the structure of a new, three‑storey Wheelton Centre. This building includes twenty‑one classrooms, eleven Science laboratories, four Arts Studios, a Year 12 Common Room, Laboratory preparation rooms, the School Archives, and a Lecture Theatre. This theatre is also utilised for video conferencing and is named for Past Grammarian Mr Lindsay Quinn (1938), whose generous bequest assisted the School to obtain such a facility. The Wheelton Centre provides a well‑lit, transparent, volumetrically exciting, and accessible environment for the entire school community. The background of the Centre’s planning and construction encourages all Grammarians to look at our society through philanthropic eyes.
32 The Sports Centre
Opened: 2017
The Old Gym was relocated from Burke Hill to Mont Albert Road in 1935 and served as the School’s sporting facility until 1972, although it had long been acknowledged as inadequate. More extensive sports facilities were opened in 1974 adjacent to the JTO, the David Dyer Physical Education Centre, serving for the following four decades. A new century demanded a new Sports Centre constructed on the site of its predecessor and of the old William Angliss Building. The Centre features swimming pools, a fitness centre, basketball courts, Table Tennis area classrooms, and underground parking.
33 All Souls’ Chapel
Established: 1984 | Relocated and Opened: 2017
The School’s All Souls’ Chapel is situated within the Sports Centre. The School did not have its own chapel in the early years up to 1926 when the association with the Church of England began. Thereafter, St Mark’s fulfilled this function although there were calls from 1944 onwards for a chapel on the school site. Finally, in 1984 an All Souls’ Chapel was established in ‘Tara’, relocated to ‘Roystead’ in 1994, to the old Angliss Building in 2006, and then to the Wheelton Centre in 2013. A permanent chapel was established in the Sports Centre in 2017 according to an impressive architectural design, serving as the physical and spiritual centre of the campus. The chapel features three striking stained‑glass windows representing the themes of Creation, Renewal, and Regeneration.
34 The (New) Angliss Building
Opened: 2007
The Middle School was consolidated from 1959, utilising the ‘Old’ William Angliss Building supplemented by the Timpson Wing from 1966, transferring to the ‘New’ William Angliss Building in 2007 and thereby continuing the tribute to Camberwell Grammar’s early philanthropist, Sir Willian Angliss. The Gateway to Learning project of this period led to the replacement of the 1936 ‘H Block’ with a new, double‑storey building reserved for the Middle School alone. Constructed on the site of the 1936 Preparatory School Building, the building has a curtain wall glass facade facing Mont Albert Road. The structure is distinctive, allowing the accommodation and promotion of individual learning styles through flexibility in teaching and learning spaces. Sixteen general‑purpose classrooms, a VCE Centre, and administration offices are situated besides a large courtyard roofed in transparent material providing a sheltered recreation space. The complex allows Middle School students to maintain a separate, although integrated, identity within the School as a whole.
35 Dorset House
Purchased: 2019
In 2019 the School purchased 43 Walsh Street, Deepdene – ‘Dorset’. Constructed in 1927 by the well‑known local builder J.A.E. Humphries, father of alum Barry (1952). It is unclear whether Mr Humphries designed ‘Dorset’ for its owners George (a businessman) and Amy Chilvers, but if so, the quality of his work was outstanding. Camberwell Grammar was still located on Burke Road and did not become a near neighbour of ‘Dorset’ until the move to Mont Albert Road in time for the beginning of the 1935 school year. In the following decades, ‘Dorset’ was inherited by George (known as ‘Leonard’) and Amy’s daughter, Patricia (Williams), where she lived until her death, having raised her two sons Anthony and Peter there in a happy, family home in the 1930s. The School has renovated ‘Dorset’ and is utilising the restored building as a gallery to house the generously donated art collection of Dr Josh Xipell (1949), a Patron of the Camberwell Grammar School Foundation and past OCGA Committee member. This very extensive collection of Australian art from many periods was acquired by the School in 2022 – it warrants separate housing and careful curating, which the acquisition of ‘Dorset’ allows. ‘Dorset’ will also house accommodation for any scholar‑in‑residence visiting the School.
36 Music Pods
Constructed: 2022 The Music Pods were craned into place over the top of the Wheelton Centre in early 2022 to assist with housing the ever‑expanding music program at the School.
There are six individual or small group teaching spaces and one large rehearsal area and they are all acoustically treated. The pod installation also included an extensive landscaping project which was undertaken to transform an underutilised storage area into a central hub for Junior School music lessons.
History Walk Map
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26. 1982 38 Walsh Street
2. 1886 Roystead
14. 1962 HL Tonkin Science Block, the ‘J’ Block
3. 1890 The Outer Circle Railway
15. 1965 The Observatory
27. 1986 63 Mont Albert Road, Rudi Ungar’s
4. 1934 The Old Gym
16. 199 HIghton Tennis Courts
28. 1986 The Centenary Quadrangle
5. 1935 The Keith Anderson Oval (KAO)
17. 1966 The Timpson Wing
6. 1935 The William Angliss Building
18. 1970 Rooms V and W
29. 1993 59 Mont Albert Road - The Crawfords
7. 1935 ‘H’ Block
19. 1971 L W Weickhardt Library and Resource Centre
30. 1995 Jack Tobias Oval
20. 1971 The Cage
32. 2017 Sports Centre
21. 1976 Highton
33. 2017 All Souls’ Chapel
22. 1976 Kingussie
34. 2007 The (New) Angliss Building
23. 1976 The Rifle range
35. 2019 Dorset House
24. 1980 Norge
36. 2022 Music Pods
1. 2006 Contemplation Garden
8. 1947 The Green Hut 9. 1957 Memorial HAll 10. 1958 Tara 11. 1958 The B L Bath Wing 12. 1961 Tennis Courts 13. 1962 The buttery
25. 1981 45 Walsh Street
31. 2013 The Wheelton Centre
HISTORY WALK
55 Mont Albert Rd Canterbury 1935 TO PRESENT