Trinity College

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 (which later became Janet Clarke Hall) 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 (formerly the Lodge)

1878: Bishops' Building (named after Charles Perry and James Moorhouse, the first and second bishops of Melbourne)

1880: Dining hall

1883–87: Clarke's Building (designed by Edmund Blacket and listed on the Victorian Heritage Register)

1914–17: Horsfall Chapel

1933: Behan Building (named after John Clifford Valentine Behan, a former warden)

1958: Memorial Building (commonly called "Jeopardy")

1963–65: Cowan Building (named after Ronald Cowan, a former warden)

1995–96: Evan Burge Building (college library)

2006–07: Gourlay Building ("Woodheap")

2014–16: Gateway Building

2019–20: Dorothy Jane Ryall Building ("Dorothy")

College life

Clubs and societies

The Trinity College Associated Clubs (TCAC) 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 (formed in 1877), 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 (1974–1996), set to the hymn tune "Thaxted" derived from the "Jupiter" movement from Gustav Holst's The Planets.

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.

The current chaplain of the College is the Reverend Dr Luke Hopkins.

Wardens

1872–1875: George William Torrance (acting principal)

1876–1918: Alexander Leeper

1918–1946: John Clifford Valentine Behan

1946–1964: Ronald William Trafford Cowan

1964–1965: John Poynter; Barry Marshall (joint-acting wardens)

1965–1973: Robin Lorimer Sharwood

1974–1997: Evan Laurie Burge

1997–2006: Donald John Markwell

2007–2014: Andrew Brian McGowan

2014–2015: Campbell P. Bairstow (acting warden)

2015–2026: Kenneth William Hinchcliff

2026–present: Russell Goulbourne

Subwardens, deputy wardens and deans

Subwardens (vice wardens)

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 (acting dean)

1944–1946 Alan George Lewers Shaw, J. N. Falkingham (acting deans)

1947–1951 Alan George Lewers Shaw

1950–1951 Peter Balmford (acting dean)

1951–1952 Peter Ernest Wynter (acting dean)

1950–1951 Peter Balmford (acting dean)

1953–1964 John Riddoch Poynter

1959 Peter Balmford (acting dean)

1965 David W. Bruce

1966–1968 Kenneth Bruce Mason

1968 James Donald Merralls

1969–1971 Raymond William Gregory

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 (TC 1986) – filmmaker, author and classical violist

Ronny Chieng (TC 2004) – comedian and actor

Wu Chun (TC 1997) – actor, singer and model

Sir Robert Fraser (TC 1924) – journalist, civil servant and first Director General of the British Independent Television Authority (ITV)

Gideon Haigh (TC 1984) – journalist and author

Melissa "Meow Meow" Gray (TC 1988) – actress, dancer and cabaret performer

Red Hong Yi (TC 2004) – Malaysian artist

David Lyons (TC 1994) – actor

Jennifer Peedom (TC 1995) – documentary film maker

Nell Pierce (TC 2008) – author, winner of the 2022 The Australian/Vogel Literary Award

Nicholas McRoberts (TC 1995) – Australian composer and conductor

Rob Sitch (TC 1980) – actor and film director

Geoffrey Simon (TC 1965) – conductor

Glenys Tomasetti (TC 1947 – singer-songwriter, author and political activist.)

Angus Trumble (TC 1983 – art curator and gallery director)

Jack Turner (TC 1986) – non-fiction writer and television documentary host

Business

Clive Baillieu (TC 1909) – businessman and public servant

Sir Wilfred Deakin Brookes CBE DSO (TC 1925) – Australian businessman, philanthropist, and Royal Australian Air Force officer.

Sir Roderick Carnegie AC (TC 1951) – Australian businessman

Robert Champion de Crespigny (TC 1969) – Australian businessman and founder of Normandy Mining Limited

SirAndrew Grimwade CBE (TC 1949) – businessman and philanthropist

Sir Gordon Colvin Lindesay Clark (TC 1919) – mining engineer and businessman

Ananda Krishnan (TC 1956) – entrepreneur

Church and religion

Thomas Armstrong (TC 1879) – Bishop of Wangaratta (1902–1927)

Phillip Aspinall (TC 1985) – Archbishop of Brisbane (2002–present); Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia (2005–2014)

Peter Carnley AC (TC 1962) – Archbishop of Perth and Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia (2000–2005)

John Chisholm (TC 1940) – 10th Anglican Bishop of Melanesia (1968-75) and first Archbishop of the Province of Melanesia (1975)

Horace Crotty (TC 1904) – 4th Anglican Bishop of Bathurst in Australia, 1928–1936

Andrew Curnow AM (TC 1968) – 9th bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Bendigo

Robert Dann (TC 1943) – 9th Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne

Peter Elliott (TC 1962) – Australian bishop of the Catholic Church

Kay Goldsworthy AO (TC 1981) – first woman ordained as a bishop in the Anglican Church of Australia

James Grant (TC 1950) – Anglican bishop and Dean of Melbourne (1985–1999)

Arthur Green (TC 1878) – Bishop of Grafton and Armidale, and later of Ballarat

William Hancock (TC 1883) – Anglican priest and Archdeacon of Melbourne (1928–1935)

Peter Hollingworth (TC 1955) – Archbishop of Brisbane, Governor General of Australia (2001–2003)

Culture, education and society

Geoffrey Badger (TC 1935) – Scientist and educationalist, Vice Chancellor, University of Adelaide (1967–1977)

Arnold Buntine (TC 1919) – Educationalist, headmaster, military officer and Australian rules footballer

Manning Clark AC (TC 1934) – Australia historian

Frederick Sefton Delmer (TC 1889) – Australian linguist, university lecturer and journalist

Peter Dodds(TC 1989) - Australian applied Mathematician

Francis Barrington 'Barry' Hall (TC 1940) – Diplomat and ambassador

Keith Hancock KBE (TC 1917) – Australian historian

Peter Karmel AC CBE (TC 1940) – economist and professor

Frank Cameron Jackson AO (TC 1961) – analytic philosopher and Emeritus Professor, School of Philosophy (Research School of Social Sciences) at Australian National University (ANU)

Sir Harold Knight (TC 1948) – Australian economist and third governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia (1975–1982)

Dame Leonie Kramer(TC 1942) – academic, educator and professor

Gia Kuan (TC 2005) - entrepreneur, publicist and creative consultant

Richard Larkins AC (TC 1961) – former vice-chancellor of Monash University

Peter McPhee (TC 1966) – historian, former provost of the University of Melbourne

Law

Will Alstergren AO KC (TC 1985) – Australian jurist, Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia and Chief Judge of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia

John Batt AM (TC 1954) – Australian jurist and Court of Appeal justice, Supreme Court of Victoria

Sir Charles Frederic Belcher OBE (TC 1894) – Australian lawyer and British colonial jurist

George Dethridge (TC 1888) – inaugural Chief Judge of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration

Charles Leonard Gavan Duffy (TC 1899) – soldier and judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria (1933–1961)

Philip Lewis Griffiths KC (TC 1898) – King's Counsel, jurist and Solicitor-General of Tasmania

David Harper QC (TC 1963) – Queen's Counsel and Court of Appeals justice, Supreme Court of Victoria.

Sir Edmund Herring(TC 1911) – Chief Justice of Victoria (1944–1964)

Christian Jollie Smith (TC 1906) – solicitor and co-founder of The Communist Party of Australia

Walter Langslow (TC 1919) – solicitor, mayor and soldier

Julian McMahon AC (TC 1986) – barrister

Kenneth Marks AM QC (TC 1941) – Queen's Counsel, former judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria and royal commissioner

Chris Maxwell (TC 1971) – president of the Victorian Court of Appeal

Military and intelligence

Edward Frederic Robert Bage (TC 1905) - polar explorer and military officer

John Balmer (TC 1931) – senior officer and bomber pilot, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).

Peter Barbour (TC 1947) – Director-General of Security, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO)(1970–1975)

Sir Roy Burston KBE (TC 1905) – Australian soldier, physician, and horse racing identity

Richard Edmond Courtney CB VD (TC 1988) – military officer

Norval Dooley (TC 1914) – Australian Army officer and solicitor

Herbert 'Harry' Gibling Furnell (TC 1916) – Australian rules footballer, gynaecologist and Australian Army officer

William Wallace Stewart Johnston (TC 1908) – military officer and medical practitioner

Basil Morris (TC 1908) – military officer and Australian military administrator at Port Moresby, New Guinea

Sir Frank Kingsley Norris (TC 1913) – military officer and physician

Michael Thwaites AO (TC 1934) – poet, writer and intelligence officer

Hugh White (TC 1971) – defence and intelligence analyst, author, and academic

Politics and government

Sir Stanley Argyle (TC 1886) – 32nd Premier of Victoria (1932–1935)

Austin Asche (TC 1946) – Administrator of the Northern Territory of Australia, third Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory

Charles Atkins (TC 1905) – Australian politician, Nationalist member for Denison, Tasmania.

Llewellyn Atkinson (TC 1885) – politician

Sir John Bloomfield (TC 1921) – Australian lawyer and politician

Sir John Bunting (diplomat) AC KBE (TC 1937) – Australian public servant and diplomat

Thomas Joseph Byrnes (non-res) – Premier of Queensland (1898)

Richard Casey (TC 1909) – Governor General of Australia (1965–1969)

Adrienne Clarke AC (TC 1955) – Lieutenant Governor of Victoria, botanist

William Lionel Russell Clarke (TC 1895) – grazier and politician

Sir Alan Currie (TC 1887) – politician

Fred Grimwade (TC 1952) – politician

Sir Rupert Hamer (TC 1935) – 39th Premier of Victoria (1972–1981)

Ralph Gibson (TC 1924) – communist organiser and writer

David Hawker AO (TC 1968) – politician, Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives (1983–2010)

Science and medicine

Yvonne Aitken AM (TC 1930) – Australian agricultural scientist

Lilian Helen Alexander (TC 1883) – the first female resident of the college and one of the first women to study medicine at the university

Lucy Bryce (TC 1915) – Australian haematologist and medical researcher

Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny (TC 1903) – medical practitioner

Peter Choong AO (TC 1979) – Australian doctor and Director of Orthopaedics, St. Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne

Alistair Cameron Crombie (TC 1935) AC – zoologist and historian of science

Derek Denton (TC 1943) – scientist

Suzanne Duigan (TC 1943) – Australian paleobotanist

Warren Ewens AO (TC 1955) – Australian-born mathematician, Professor of Biology, University of Pennsylvania

Mavis Freeman (TC 1925) – Australian bacteriologist and biochemist

Konrad Hirschfeld CBE (TC 1925) – Australian medical practitioner and surgeon

Susan Lim (TC 1977) – Singaporean surgeon

John Freeman Loutit (TC 1929) – haematologist and radiobiologist

Dame Ella Macknight (TC 1923) – obstetrician and gynaecologist

Sydney Fancourt McDonald (TC 1905) – paediatrician and army doctor

Sport

Ted à Beckett (TC 1927) – Australian Test cricketer

Geoff Ainsworth (TC 1965) – Australian rules footballer

Edward Cordner (TC 1906) – Australian rules footballer

Harry Cordner (TC 1904) – Australian rules footballer

Derwas Cumming (TC 1911) – Australian rules footballer and soldier

William Denehy (TC 1907) – Australian rules footballer

Colin Douglas-Smith (TC 1938) – Olympic rower

Thomas Drew (TC 1899) – Australian cricketer

Simon Fraser (TC 1906) – Australian sportsman, 1912 Olympian (rowing) and Australian rules footballer

Eric Gardner (TC 1900) – Australian rules footballer

John Neville Fraser (TC 1910) – Australian first-class cricketer, pastoralist and father of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser

Mark Gardner (TC 1904) – Australian rules footballer

Herbert Hunter (TC 1903) – champion athlete, Australian rules footballer and dental surgeon

Frank Langley (TC 1901) – Australian rules footballer

Gillon McLachlan (TC 1994) – CEO of the Australian Football League

Chris Mitchell (TC 1965) – Australian rules footballer

Rhodes scholars

Students

1904: John Behan (Victoria), Hertford College, Oxford – Second Warden

1905: Harvey Sutton (Victoria), New College, Oxford

1912: Edmund Herring (Victoria), New College, Oxford

1920: Keith Hancock (Australia), Balliol College, Oxford

1930: John Freeman Loutit (Western Australia), St John's College, Oxford

1937: Michael Thwaites (Victoria), New College, Oxford

1972: Christopher Cordner (Victoria), University College, Oxford

1980: Elsdon Storey (Victoria), Magdalen College, Oxford

1994: Lisa Gorton (Australia), Merton College, Oxford