The Women's College building is the heritage-listed building of The Women's College. a residential college for women students at the University of Sydney, located at 15 Carillon Avenue, Newtown, City of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by architects Sulman & Power and built from 1892 to 1924, with Bignell and Clark responsible for the initial construction. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 1 April 2005.
History Aboriginal associations with the site now known as the University of Sydney
Material in rock shelters reveals that Aboriginal people inhabited the Sydney region at least from 20,000 years ago. About 3,000 years ago there appears to have been a major population increase of Aboriginal people in the area (and elsewhere throughout Australia), suggested by the evidence of many camp sites that seem to have come into use from that time.Haglun, 1996 The traditional owners of the Sydney city region are the Cadigal people.
The foundation of the British penal colony at Sydney Cove in 1788 allied with the effects of a smallpox epidemic in 1789–1791 caused a massive disintegration of Aboriginal social structure around Sydney within the first decade of colonisation. Although there are accounts of some of the interactions between the early British arrivals and the indigenous people by writers such as Collins, Tench and Dawes, Aboriginal concepts of the cultural meanings of the Sydney landscape and its features were not recorded in detail. Other information about Aboriginal culture in Sydney before colonisation is embedded in physical traces left from their activities in the daily round of getting, preparing and eating food. No such traces have yet been recorded by the National Parks and Wildlife Service within the grounds of the University of Sydney, which is sited just four kilometres from Sydney Cove. The cleared land policy for the edge of the stockade meant that much evidence of Aboriginal occupation in this part of Sydney is long buried.
Further information is held within the oral history traditions of surviving Aboriginal families from the area. Dennis Foley from the University of Sydney's Koori Centre points out that the University of Sydney is situated between two Aboriginal tracks which were paved over to become Parramatta Road and City Road. According to family stories he has been told, the land in the corner where these tracks met, now known as Victoria Park, was an important "sit down" site for indigenous people because of the fresh water provided by its natural springs. That land, now adjacent to the main campus of the university, continued in this function as a meeting place for some years even after the British occupation until Aboriginal people were forcibly removed around 1820. There are several archaeological studies planned for different heritage sites within the university and these are likely to uncover further evidence of the Aboriginal occupation of the land. For example, Foley considered that there might be some indigenous women's sites in the vicinity of the Women's College.
The University of Sydney and its affiliated colleges The University of Sydney was the first university in the Australian colonies. The preamble to its 1850 Act of Incorporation enunciated the social and non-sectarian context in which its educational objects were to be promoted: 'to hold forth to all classes and denominations of Her Majesty's subjects resident in New South Wales, without any distinction whatsoever, an encouragement for pursuing a regular and liberal course of education'.
The University of Sydney had features of both the University of London and the Queen's Colleges in Ireland, combining secular teaching by the university with provision for independent denominational colleges. It was a system never tried anywhere before. An 1854 Act to provide for the establishment and endowment of colleges within the University of Sydney specified the colleges' role: to provide "systematic religious instruction, and domestic supervision, with efficient assistance in preparing for the University lectures and examinations". In 1855 the university was granted 126 acres at Grose Farm, as a site for its own buildings and to enable it to make sub-grants for affiliated colleges of the four major denominations (Church of England, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian and Wesleyan).
In 1881 the University of Sydney Senate resolved to open the university to women "on an equal basis with men", following the lead of the University of Adelaide in 1877. Melbourne did likewise in the same year and quickly provided residential accommodation for women when Dr Alexander Leeper, the Warden of Trinity College, persuaded his Council to establish the 'Trinity Women's Hostel', the first university hostel for women in Australia, which opened in 1886. A permanent building was opened in 1891 but it was not until 1961 that Janet Clarke Hall (as it was renamed in 1921) became an independent affiliated college of the University of Melbourne.
A college for women When moves began in Sydney to provide accommodation for women students it was on a different basis from the University of Melbourne model. A collegiate residence for women was proposed by a group of University and professional men and in May 1887 a public meeting resolved that a "College for Women" should be established under the terms of the 1854 Colleges Endowment Act but that it would be not be attached to any religious denomination. No change to the 1854 Colleges Endowment Act was necessary to accommodate such a college but because of the Act's requirement for "systematic religious instruction", the new college was subject to the provision that "no religious catechism or formulary distinctive of any particular denomination" should be taught. The college was to be non-denominational, but not without religion.
The proposal was practical (it was unlikely that there would be enough women students to support separate denominational colleges), was in accord with current educational philosophy, exemplified in Parkes' 1880 Education Act and was financially astute. As an affiliated college of the university, the College for Women would be eligible for a government building subsidy (matching public subscriptions) and for an annual endowment for the principal's salary. In 1889 the "College for Women" was established and endowed by the New South Wales legislature and being named in its Act as 'The Women's College' had to use this name thereafter. By 1891 sufficient funds had been raised to meet the conditions of the Endowment Act and the first College Council was elected. Louisa Macdonald, a Scot and classical scholar, was appointed principal at the end of 1891 and arrived in Sydney in March 1892 when the college opened in temporary premises in Glebe. Australia's first university was now home to the first University college for women in Australia. It had just four students.
The site and building designs In July 1891 the College Council requested a site for the college within the university grounds and eventually accepted a treeless paddock with a frontage to Bligh Street (later Carillon Avenue) next to St Paul's College. Like the other colleges, the Women's College would be located at the furthest remove from the university and without any direct means of access to it.
In October 1891 a sub-committee of the council invited plans for the new building in a limited architectural competition and four months later recommended designs by the firm of Sulman and Power. Opposition from fellow Councillors and public criticism from members of the architectural profession for conflict of interest in its selection procedures caused any decisions to be held over until the arrival of the new principal, when, working with a new committee, Sulman and Power were formally appointed the college's architects. Work began in December 1892 and the new building was officially opened in May 1894.
The new building The building committee broke away from the sandstone Gothic Revival architecture of the university, choosing instead the "Federation Free Classical" style, appropriate to the climate and to the college's finances. Essentially domestic in style and arrangement, the building was more akin to a large family residence than an educational institution. Even the principal's quarters were comparatively modest for her rank (thanks to the College Endowment Act) as the highest paid woman in New South Wales. As originally built, the college housed twenty-six students, the principal and five domestic staff. The design owed much to that of the Thomas Walker Convalescent Hospital at Concord, recently completed by Sulman and Power, and an obvious and much commented on connection between the firm, the Women's College Treasurer James Walker and one of its major donors, Eadith Walker.
The grounds Work began on the grounds began in 1893. The main element of the landscaping was contributed by the architects whose design accommodated the sloping site by creating four levels linked by steep banks: an upper level to the east of the main building; the platform for the main building; the entrance drive; and the lower garden. These terraces and banks created a dominant but entirely artificial setting for the college in an otherwise featureless landscape, facing west towards St Andrew's College and ignoring the street frontage.
The first trees, a long row bordering the lawn on the western boundary, were "ceremonially planted by a number of men and women whose names were more or less closely connected with the history of the University and the College" in the winter of 1893. Plants, shrubs, bulbs and flower cuttings were provided by well wishers, including James Walker and his wife from their home, Rosemont in Woollahra while trees and shrubs were supplied from the Thomas Walker Convalescent Hospital.
Slow progress and plans for the future When the new building opened in 1894 the college had six students and it was not until about 1906 that it was fully occupied. The earliest students came mainly from Sydney and its suburbs and from Queensland and it was not until about 1911 that the college began to accommodate a significant number of country students. From the beginning, its academic stance was serious and scholarly but not without other diversions. In its earliest years, College students comprised 10-20% of all women in the university and made a substantial contribution to University sports teams and other student organisations.
In 1909 the council was considering the future and the college was granted an additional piece of land to the north of its existing grounds. By 1914 there was enough in the Extension Fund to request the remainder of the government endowment and a small "garden pavilion" ('Cottage') was built in 1916. In 1918 a house on Bligh Street (The Maples) was rented and was purchased the following year.
When Louisa Macdonald retired in 1919, after twenty-seven years as the college's founding principal, the council resolved to erect an additional building 'in recognition of Miss Macdonald's services to the college and to the cause of women's education in Australia'. The proposal prompted consideration of what form any additions to the college should take. After a period of acute indecision the council finally decided to forgo a master plan for future development based on the original design but instead to build more student rooms on the east side of the existing building and then to build a new dining hall as the Louisa Macdonald Commemoration. Joseph Porter Power, now in partnership with John Adam, continued as the college architect.