Celebrating 100 years of the Mair Street campus

23 August 2026 marks 100 years since the official opening of the Mair Street campus, home to our current Early Learning Centre and Junior School.

To mark the occasion, our Junior School students gathered to recreate a photo from a CPLC Sports Day, where students assembled behind the iconic building.

The celebration also recognises more than a century of educational service for Ballarat, regional and rural families. We are incredibly proud of our connection to the land and our service to the community, providing generations of students with a Clarendon education.

The buildings were a significant undertaking for the school, and their purchase and development were made possible through the support of several significant figures in Clarendon’s history.

In 1922, the School Council agreed to purchase three adjoining properties, providing almost four acres with frontages to both Mair and Webster streets. Alongside securing bank and private loans, the Council launched a major fundraising campaign. An outstanding £1,576 (approximately $160,000 in today’s value) was raised through an Oriental-themed fair featuring stalls, entertainment and music. Council Chairman, Reverend John Walker, raised a further £4,000, while £1,000 was donated by John Leishman, whose daughter was among the first pupils at Mrs Kennedy’s original school.

Plans for the new campus were announced by June 1924. Architects were engaged to design a modern school accommodating around 300 students and 50 boarders. The boarding house plans included enlarged dormitories, a dining hall for 100 guests, bathrooms and staff accommodation. The vision for the school also included classrooms, science and music rooms, staff facilities and a large assembly hall, now known as Watson Hall.

Later that year, more than 80 students gathered to farewell the old school, representing the final Old Collegians’ event at the original Clarendon campus. In the Touchstone that year, Old Collegians shared memories and poems about their allegiance to their old school. One wrote:

Good-bye, old School, I cannot let you go
Without one word: a newer school will rise
Stately and fair, and yet, in many eyes,
Not half so dear to us who loved you so.
We will remember (how could we forget?)
The lessons that we learned; not all booklore;
The deeper things which Life shows more and more,
And we look back and hear your message yet.
All that we knew, the laughter and the tears,
Comes back to us; the sound of hurrying feet
Echoes throughout the rooms, and clear and sweet,
Voices of friends we loved speak through the years.
Good-bye, old School; we hear your last clear bell,
And though we give allegiance to the new,
Our love and memories we keep for you;
You cannot pass from hearts that love you well.

While boarders relocated to the new accommodation in 1925, classes were conducted at St Andrew’s Institute (formerly the old Ballarat College building) for 18 months while construction continued.

In November that year, the Governor General laid the foundation stone of the new building. By 1926, boarders watched from their vantage point as the school rose rapidly. Constructed of brick with cement dressing, the buildings were designed to provide ample light and air. The Ballarat Courier reported:

The general ensemble will possess a charm that will have a direct appeal to the aesthetic sense, and its 150 feet front elevation to Mair Street is most distinctive and will be a notable addition to the architecture of Ballarat […]. Nothing is being left undone that will assist in the efficiency of the college, while the spacious grounds will be a most valuable and popular adjunct.

On 23 August 1926, a formal opening ceremony, officiated by Sir John MacFarland, attracted more than 500 guests. Gifts from Old Collegians and friends furnished the new buildings, including chairs, desks, trophies and commemorative items.

By the end of 1926, Clarendon students had settled into their new Mair Street home. Today, more than 600 students and staff across the Early Learning Centre and Junior School walk its halls each day, learning, playing and embracing every opportunity a Clarendon education provides.

The Clarendon community is proud of its history and of the many people, including alumni, past staff and local community members, who helped shape the school we are today.

These notes were compiled by Archivist, Hugh McKenzie-McHarg. If you attended the Mair Street campus and have memories to share, we would love to hear from you. Please contact Hugh at archives@clarendon.vic.edu.au.