Scotch College

The James Forbes Academy is open for performance

Michael Robinson, AO

The James Forbes Academy is open for performance

Set out below is the address given by the Chairman of the School Council at the opening of Stage II of the James Forbes Academy on 10 February 2005:

The opening of the James Forbes Academy is a very special occasion in the life of Scotch College. It is the fulfilment of a dream brought to fruition by the generosity and extraordinary effort of many people.

Before addressing the importance of the James Forbes Academy to Scotch College, it is appropriate to put its completion in historical context.

First, who was James Forbes? Why have we honoured his name above all others? James Forbes, the son of a farmer, was born in Aberdeenshire in 1813 and arrived in Melbourne in 1838 as its second Presbyterian Minister. Rev. Forbes has been described as the father of education in Victoria. He immediately established his first parish school – and followed with others soon thereafter – but his dream was the creation of an Academy for instruction in the higher branches of science and literature. In 1850 he asked the Free Church of Scotland to send out an accomplished teacher and Robert Lawson from Edinburgh was chosen as the first Principal of Scotch College.

To pay Lawson’s salary, the Misses Mure provided £200 for the first two years and with Scottish prudence, economised by retrenching their footmen.

As is well known, the Scots placed great value on higher education. Following the Scottish Enlightenment in the latter part of the 18th century, a person in Scotland was ten times more likely to have attended university than if he lived in England. Scotland was the home of scholastic and scientific advances and its influence spread throughout the English speaking world and particularly in North America. James Forbes and Robert Lawson brought that influence to Australia.

Lawson arrived in Melbourne in September 1851 and Scotch College opened its doors in Spring Street shortly thereafter on 6 October. As such, it is the oldest surviving secondary school in Victoria.

Sadly James Forbes had died on 12 August 1851 at the age of 38 and before seeing his dream finally come to fruition. There is a chilly similarity with the death of Campbell McComas several weeks ago.

The School expanded rapidly and, after a few years, Scotch moved to a site in East Melbourne. In time, that site became too restricted.

‘Each generation of Scotch students has received the benefit of the foresight, vision and generosity of those who have gone before them.’

In 1913 in an act of extraordinary vision (and I should add with commendable courage) the then School Council, under the pressing influence of some distinguished former students, purchased this Hawthorn Glen property as the future home of Scotch College.

One of the early buildings to be completed at Hawthorn was the Memorial Hall and Senior School Quadrangle, which to me is still the heart of Scotch College. It was built as a memorial to those former students of the School who gave their lives for their country in the Great War. Their names are inscribed on the tablets beneath the stained-glass windows. The whole of the cost was provided by the Scotch Family – by those former students who did return from the War and by the family, friends and loved ones of those who did not.

This set the scene for all of the future development at Scotch College.

In substance, the total cost of providing the physical facilities which we enjoy today, from the acquisition of the site itself through to the completion of the James Forbes Academy, has come almost entirely from the philanthropy of the Scotch College community and from other wonderful friends who value highly what we do here at Scotch.

With two minor exceptions some 30 years ago, nothing has been provided by State or Federal Governments. Nothing has been provided by the Church. Nothing has been provided by the local Council.

As a consequence of the misleading posturing by those engaged in the politics of envy, you could be forgiven if you had not previously understood the true position. The recurrent grants made by the Federal and State Governments are simply a modest subsidy to parents in respect of the fees they pay to meet the School’s annual running costs. Those grants have no bearing whatsoever on the School’s physical facilities.

Each generation of Scotch students has received the benefit of the foresight, vision and generosity of those who have gone before them. It is pleasing that so many current parents have contributed to the cost of the James Forbes Academy, which will benefit not only their sons but future generations of Scotch Collegians.

I wonder what James Forbes would think if he gazed around Scotch today and saw the consequences of his dream 155 years ago. He would reflect, no doubt, on the extensive playing fields, on the beautiful gardens on the Boarders’ Hill, on the Chapel and the new James Forbes Academy. He might also reflect on the achievements of former students of the School and their contribution to the wider community. In Who’s Who, Scotch College Old Boys appear more often than those of any other school in Australia and in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, more than any other school except Sydney Grammar. I hope James Forbes would be pleased.

I wonder also what the retrenched footmen might think. Could they possibly have imagined the consequence of their involuntary sacrifice?

When Ron Bond retired as Vice-Principal in 1986, he said at his farewell, ‘Let us not be too bashful but rather let us quietly and confidently give notice to all and sundry that we intend to be in business 500 years from now.’ There are still 481 years to go!

To put that in a balanced historical context, I might mention that 481 years ago Henry VIII was still married to Catherine of Aragon but Eton College had existed already for 80 years. While I do not expect the James Forbes Academy necessarily will last for the whole of those 481 years, it will be here for the benefit of those at Scotch well into the 22nd century. We are here for the long haul.

The initiative of the School Council to embark on the construction of the James Forbes Academy some six years ago was the boldest individual decision made at Scotch since the move to Hawthorn early last century. It resulted from the compelling case made by the Principal over many months that the further development of the Arts at Scotch was our foremost priority.

The construction of the James Forbes Academy is a statement, in the strongest possible terms, of the importance of a wide range of educational experiences for the development of the students entrusted to our care. It is a statement, in the strongest possible terms, of the importance of the Performing Arts, both as ends in themselves and as part of the total education of our students. It is a statement, in the strongest possible terms, of our confidence in and our commitment to the future of our School. To name the Academy after Rev. James Forbes is a testimony to our heritage and to our Founder.

Scotch always has seen education as involving much more than classroom teaching. Our co-curricular program through adventure activities, through sport, through the Arts and through the services is a program of extraordinary breadth. It is fundamental to what we do. It is fundamental to the development of those characteristics of adaptability and versatility which are essential to the future success and fulfilment of our students.

As I have said on earlier occasions, we have been left a wonderful heritage from the generosity and vision of earlier generations. We are blessed with fine buildings and unequalled playing fields and grounds, but in themselves, they are not Scotch College. They are simply the physical facilities in which the dynamic life and purposes of our great School are fulfilled. It is not the facilities but what happens in them which makes Scotch what it is.

The James Forbes Academy will add to the great fabric of School life through the Performing Arts. It will help us to attract and retain the very best school teaching staff in the Performing Arts. It will provide inspiration and encouragement for all that they do. It will provide inspiration and encouragement for every boy at Scotch to experience the joy and personal development that comes from strong and continuing involvement with the Arts. It will add further to our goodly heritage and to our enthusiastic commitment to learning and to enterprise, ingenuity, imagination, creativity, innovation and curiosity – the attributes of the Scottish Enlightenment, the attributes which drive human advancement, the attributes which underpin our nation’s prosperity.

MICHAEL ROBINSON

Michael Robinson, AO

Donors assemble on the Geoffrey McComas Theatre stage at the special preview in November