Education in Melbourne

Hopefully some of this will be a review, because when I did the biography posts, I encountered a lot of schools.

Lord Wiki says that in the book Who's Who in Australia, many of the famous people listed went to Melbourne schools. If I'm understanding this right, the book ranks the schools that produce the most renowned individuals.

For boys, Scotch College is number one in Australia. It was founded in 1851. That's sixteen years after Melbourne was settled by the white Batman people.

I'm looking at the school on a map right now. It's about fifteen minutes east of the CBD–unless you hit bad traffic. If you hit bad traffic, it will probably take you much longer to get there.

Alumni names I recognize: John Monash, Peter Singer, Jesse Spencer, Jim Bacon, and Andrew Peacock. There's a ton of names I don't recognize; lots of sport people.

Melbourne Grammar School is second on the list. It was founded in 1858. They have a couple of campuses around Melbourne. One is right near the Royal Botanical Gardens. Maybe we'll see it when we're there.

Alumni I recognize from that school: Stanley Bruce, Julian Burnside, Alfred Deakin, and Barry Humphries.

The third school on the list is a government one. That's pretty cool. This is Melbourne High School. It was founded in 1905. Lord Wiki says it was Victoria's first state secondary school.

It's in the South Yarra area which is south-east of the CBD.

Alumni names I recognize: Lindsay Fox, Bruce Woodley, Simon Crean, and Max Gillies.

It's time for more Geelong confusion. Lord Wiki lists Geelong Grammar School as a top Melbourne school. But I THINK it's because their Toorak campus is in Melbourne.

Lord Wiki says the Toorak campus is for preschool through year 6 kids.

Alumni I recognize: James Fairfax, Rupert Murdoch, Kerry Packer, Peter Carey, Portia De Rossi, Helen Garner, Missy Higgins, Joan Lindsay, John Marsden, Alexander Downer, and John Gorton.

For some reason, Lord Wiki skips the fifth school on the list. He jumps to the sixth which is Wesley College. This school is on St. Kilda road, and was founded in 1866.

Alumni names I recognize: Holt and Menzies. That's all.


The number one girl's school in Melbourne (According to the Who's Who in Australia) is Presbyterian Ladies' College. It was founded in 1875, and it's out east in a place called Burwood.

Alumni names I recognize: None. That's sad. Although Alfred Deakin's sister went there. So at least I recognized a last name.

Oh wait. Dame Nellie Melba went there. I know of her. I missed her name at first.

Okay. Now I understand why the fifth boy school was missing. These are not the top schools in Victoria. They're the top schools in Australia period. So Melbourne has the first, second, third, fourth, and sixth top Australia schools for boys. That's impressive. They have the top first, third, fifth, sixth, and tenth girl's schools.

Methodist Ladies College is the third. It was founded in 1882, and is also east of the CBD. I think these renowned schools tend to be in the east. I haven't encountered any schools to the west yet.

Alumni names I recognize include: Cate Blanchett and Nicola Roxon.

School number five is Melbourne Girl's Grammar School. Ah...I guess this is in conjunction with Melbourne Grammar School. It's also near the Royal Botanical Gardens.

The only name I recognize in the alumni is Portia De Rossi. I guess she went to multiple schools. I did too.

School number six is Mac.Robertson Girl's High School. This government school was founded in 1905, and is in the north area of Albert Park. It's also south of Royal Botanical Gardens. That might be a fun school to go to. You'd be near all these parks.

The only name I recognize is from their alumni is Alice Garner.

The University High School is the tenth on the list. The school is celebrating it's 100th birthday this year, so I guess it was founded in 1910.

It's a public school, and is NOT east of the CBD. This one is north of the CBD, and slightly to the west.

Alumni names I recognize: Elizabeth Blackburn, David Williamson, Noah Taylor, and John So.

I guess when they say girl's school or boy's school, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a gender specific school.

Wow. This has gotten a bit long.

I think I'll put the universities in the next post.