Prince Alfred College

History

Prince Alfred College was named after Prince Alfred during his visit to Adelaide in 1867. Prince Alfred was one of the four sons of Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The school has attracted many royal visitors since its foundation, including Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 1954.

The founders of PAC were determined that the religious traditions of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, should be indoctrinated in the school. Young Methodist men of the colony and PAC were encouraged to live disciplined, hard working and predominantly Christian lives, even though they were mocked facing society's temptations.

By the year of PAC's foundation in 1869, the population of Adelaide was estimated to be the second highest in the continent. No South Australian country town, however, had a population greater than 10,000. At the same time, nearly all the land in the city of Adelaide, laid out by Colonel Light, had been occupied. Across the parklands that surrounded the city were well established residential suburbs such as Kent Town and Norwood to the east and industrial precincts such as Hindmarsh and Thebarton to the west. The suburb of Kent Town, along with the city itself, formed a consolidated urban area in which the school was located.

In September 2005 it was revealed that the College held 70,000 shares in Coopers Brewery, received in a bequest. At the time, Coopers were the subject of an unsolicited takeover bid by Japanese-controlled brewer Lion Nathan, and the shares were valued at between $18 million and $22 million. At the same time, the College was involved in a $15 million redevelopment project and was appealing to parents and former students for $3.5 million to enable building to begin. Although Coopers made a "counter offer" of a share buy-back (with attractive tax benefits) to those shareholders who may be wishing to sell, the college chose not to sell any of its holding.

At one time, Princes was the only college in Adelaide to offer the IB Diploma at all three stages; the PYP and MYP are compulsory units of work for Preparatory and Middle school students, enabling its students to continue to complete the Diploma in year 11 and 12, or to be recognised locally with the SACE.

List of headmasters

Campuses

The original school campus is in the Adelaide suburb of Kent Town. The school also owns two other campuses, one for outdoor education in Scott's Creek, and the other in Point Turton named 'Wambana', developed specifically for boys to spend extended periods of time away from home to experience all of the responsibilities adults have to face like; cooking, cleaning, time management and food shopping.

Kent Town

The original and main campus is located in Kent Town, approximately 2 km east of the Adelaide city centre. The land, originally leased by Dr Benjamin Archer Kent from 1840 to 1859, then bought by Charles Robin, was bought at auction from Charles Robin for £2750 on 18 September 1865. However, it was not until 22 June 1969 that the college celebrated its inauguration, two years after the laying of the foundation stone by H.R.H. Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh.

A feature of the college is the Main Building, which was built in three sections. The central section was ready for use in 1869 and housed offices, teaching areas, a residence for the Headmaster, and accommodation for boarders, who have been an important aspect of the College's history. The Waterhouse Wing (south) was added in 1877, and increased the boarding accommodation, as well as providing an assembly room, and a science laboratory. The Cotton Wing (north), added in 1881, further expanded boarding space and teaching areas. The science hall was opened in 1891, and the Main Building was completed in 1889. The cast iron fence and railings around the front of the grounds were erected by 1905 by the NCP. The former residence of Alexander Dowie became the preparatory school in 1911.

The school campus is divided by the main building, with the preparatory school on the Flinders Street (south) side of the school, and the middle and Senior schools on the Capper Street (north) side. Some of the facilities within the Kent Town Campus include:

Eric Freak Memorial Chapel (34°55'23.73"S 138°37'9.92"E) was built in 1972 as a memorial to Eric Freak (1916–34, PAC 1929-33), an outstanding tennis player who succeeded in schoolboy championships and promised a brilliant career in the game before his premature death. The Chapel contains a number of instruments including a grand piano and an organ.

ANZAC Hall (34°55'20.29"S 138°37'4.59"E) was relaunched in September 2010 after renovation works which turned it into a fully equipped theatre facility with audio and lighting capabilities. The building provides extensive facilities for music, drama, workshops, seminars and associated events. ANZAC Hall seats up to 800 people.

The Piper Pavilion (34°55'21.07"S 138°37'5.45"E), adjacent to ANZAC Hall, is a venue for exhibitions, trade shows, seminars, conferences, cocktail receptions and flow on events from ANZAC Hall.

The John Dunning Sports Centre (34°55'25.03"S 138°37'11.27"E) is a facility for the preparatory school's students. It seats approximately 700 people, and can also be used for hosting theatrical performances, art shows, luncheons, alumni events and presentation evenings.

The Sports Centre (34°55'16.68"S 138°37'8.68"E) is a flexible multi-purpose sporting and health facility, including a two court basketball stadium, an indoor swimming pool, change room facilities, squash courts, and a number of multi-purpose teaching and function spaces. It was redeveloped, and was completed in early 2013. It also houses a health and fitness studio.

Scotts Creek Campus

Scotts Creek campus (34° 5'30.81"S 139°40'2.70"E) is the college's Murray River retreat. The Scotts Creek Outdoor Centre is located near Morgan, approximately 165 km from Adelaide. It provides a mix of environmental education, adventure and personal development activities.

Wambana Campus

Wambana Campus (34°57'5.58"S 137°21'45.77"E) is an off school ground recreational camp. The primary purpose of Wambana is to foster growth by helping adolescent boys better manage the transition to adulthood through immersion in community, academic, spiritual and outdoor adventures.

Wambana is a six-acre (approx. 2.5 hectares) property situated on the coast of southern Yorke Peninsula, bordering the township of Point Turton and rural farming land. Students and staff live in a small village in which residential accommodation and a classroom are clustered around a central meeting facility. The property consists of six accommodation buildings known as "Wardlis" (aboriginal word meaning "dwelling"). Wambana accommodates up to 28 students for four week periods.

Houses

Since its inception, the college has used a "House" system – all students belong to a House. It is the school's aim that activities that are part of the House system continue to build the strong community feel that the founding fathers envisaged in 1869.

Over the course of each year, students participate in inter-house competitions for the Wesley Cup – competitions include swimming, athletics, rowing, chess, debating, music and drama performances, and year level lunchtime sports. The "Academic Effort" grades earned by students also contribute to the House points tally.

Currently, the PAC Houses are Taylor (Green), Cotton (Blue), Watsford (Orange) and Waterhouse (Yellow), however, at the time of the school's centenary (1969), the houses were Bayly (Red), Cotton (Blue), Waterhouse (Yellow) and "School"; at that time all boarders were members of School House.

Rowing

Rowing began at PAC in 1883 and has played an important part in the school's sporting culture since that time. The school has two boat houses, at West Lakes and by the Torrens Lake in the City of Adelaide's parklands. The school employs a full-time Director of Rowing, (currently James Hammond). Although competition in local and national regattas forms an integral part of the rowing programme, the main event for each year is the Head of the River. 2008 marked the 125th year of rowing at Princes. The school has recently won the Head of the River in 2012, 2013 and 2014, captained by Jack Kelly '12, Nicholas Parletta '13 & William Burfield '14. These years marked the first time the college has won three consecutive titles at the Schoolboys Head of the River.

Intercol

Each sports team at Princes has an annual fixture against traditional longtime rivals Saint Peter's College, known as the "Intercol" (Inter-collegiate). These are considered by the two colleges to be the most important games of the seasons, and the fiercely fought matches of the more popular sports draw big crowds of students and old scholars from both schools. The Intercols have been played for over 100 years. At one time, the Australian rules football and the Cricket intercols were both played on Adelaide Oval. The Cricket Intercollegiate match has been competed since 1878. According to Richard Sproull this is "the oldest unbroken annual contest in the history of cricket" (Weekend Australian 5/6 December 1992).

Outdoor education

The Prince Alfred College Outdoor Education programme provides a variety of integrated activities designed to allow boys to face challenges beyond those possible in a suburban day school. Current activities are focused on the Scotts Creek Outdoor Centre at Morgan on the River Murray.

In 2008, the college opened its Wambana Campus at Point Turton on the Yorke Peninsula. Year 9 students spend 5 weeks at the new facility, learning field science and mathematics along with other subjects and life skills as well as community service.

Year 11 students undertake practical leadership training and are encouraged to nominate for trips to Nepal, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Kangaroo Island.

Notable alumni

Notable old scholars of Princes include:

Rhodes Scholars

The Rhodes Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for study at Oxford University. South Australian recipients who attended PAC include:

Academia

Business

Education

Entertainment, media and the arts

Exploration

Medicine

Military & defence

Music

Politics, public service and the law

Science

Cricket

Australian rules football

Association football

Rowing