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Located 14 kilometres east of Melbourne City, the Elgar campus can be found on Elgar Rd in Box Hill.

Located 14 kilometres east of Melbourne City, the Nelson campus is the second location in Box Hill situated on Whitehorse Road.

Located 15 kilometres east of Melbourne City, the Whitehorse campus can be found on Whitehorse Road in Box Hill.

Our CBD campus is co-located with the Centre for Adult Education in the heart of Melbourne&rsquo;s Central Business District.

Our Lakeside Lilydale campus serves the local community as an active learning centre with a range of vocational and higher education courses. The campus is also home to the Yarra Ranges Tech School.

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Celebrating 100 Years | Centenary Timeline | Box Hill Institute

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In 2024, Box Hill Institute is celebrating 100 years of connecting people to life-changing learning. But we weren’t always known by this name! 

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Box Hill Institute are a leading Victorian provider of TAFE courses, vocational training and international degrees in Melbourne CBD, Box Hill and Lilydale.

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The Department of Education began discussing the need for a technical school in Box Hill. The nearest school at the time was in Hawthorn and while it accepted women, it focused on skills related to the home arts. This article from The Age sheds light on discussion at the time:

&quot;Technical School for Box Hill.

SENIOR GIRLS&#39; SCHOOL PROPOSED

The Director of Education, accompanied by Mr. Smythe (art inspector), visited Box Hill on Monday afternoon, and conferred with representatives of local organisations concerning a proposal to establish a junior technical school in the old buildings which have been vacated since the erection of a new State school in Box Hill. Nunawading council have promised to contribute £250 per year for five years towards the project.

Mr Tate pointed out that the residents would have to decide whether they preferred a boys or girls&#39; junior technical school. It could be reasonably expected that the former could be started with 70 or 80 pupils for the first year, and the latter with 100 pupils. The Box Hill Boys&#39; Technical School, however, would only be a feeder for the Swinburne Technical College at Hawthorn, whereas a senior girls&#39; school could be established at once with a full three years&#39; course. 

This would provide for women&#39;s specialised industries, with a full range of subjects, and there would be no other school so elaborate in that direction in Australia. He strongly recommended the acceptance of the girls technical school, and after inspecting the old buildings, which are beginning to fall into disrepair, he urged the local bodies to come to an early decision. If his recommendation were agreed to an immediate start would be made in the establishment of the classes.&quot;

Victoria&#39;s first girls technical school, Box Hill Technical School for Girls and Women, opened its doors to the public in 1924, taking over the building for Box Hill Primary school with eight classrooms, a principal&#39;s office and a small staff room. 

There were eight teachers as well as the headmistress, Miss R. A. Evans. The school began with 65 students in the junior school, later adding 151 senior students spread across day and night classes.

The subjects available reflected the education and training priorities of the early 20th century. Core subjects included Housewifery, Cooking, Dressmaking, and Millinery. Through these courses girls gained skills to equip them for the role of wife and mother. However some students chose vocational courses aimed at securing paid work, including bookkeeping, secretarial work and professional dressmaking.

This article from The Age on Friday 13 December 1929 gives us an insight into the popularity of the school and how much education was valued just five years after it had opened to the public.

BOX HILL GIRLS&#39; TECHNICAL SCHOOL.
The annual speech night of the Box Hill Girls&#39; Technical School was held in the Rialto Theatre, Box Hill, last night. Cr. A. G. Proudfoot presided. The mayor (Cr. W. F. Young) presented the prizes. A programme of folk songs and dances was given by pupils of the school.

Presenting the annual report, the principal (Miss W. Nash) said:— It is with much pleasure that I present the sixth
annual report of the Box Hill Technical School. The school has greatly increased during 1929 in its senior department, so that at present we have six evening cIasses in dress making. This year has been a particularly busy one, as we spent some days providing working exhibits for the Royal show. In addition, our own school exhibition was held in November. This was most successful and well attended afternoon and evening, especially by some hundreds of primary school children. We were particularly successful in obtaining a large percentage of passes in senior examinations last year.

EXAMINATION PASSES FOR 1929.
Intermediate certificate, 28; 
junior technical certificate, 27; 
dress making (plain),21; 
dressmaking (advanced). 4; 
plain needlework, 34,
cookery (grade I), 32; 
cookery (grade II) 14;
cookery (grade III.), 3; 
millinery, 8; ladies&#39;
tailoring, 1; 
commercial arithmetic, 19; 
bookkeeping, 1; 
art examinations, 44; 
mothercraft; 9.

During the year inter-school matches were played here and at Wonthaggi. We were fortunate enough to win the inter-technical cup for senior basketball, the final being played at Maryborough. In our own school sports the inter-house match was won by Osborne.

The junior school is holding its annual picnic tomorrow at Sandringham. Diploma courses in cookery and needlework are to commence here next year. There are vacancies in the full-day vocational classes for 1930, in which the student specialises in a home or trade subjects such as dress making, millinery, white work
and cookery. In addition, there are afternoon and evening classes for all home and trade subjects. The entrance examination for the junior school was held a week ago, and successful applicants will be enrolled within the next few days. The Blackburn Shire council has most generously given us a grant of £20 for scholarships. We are still urgently in need of extra land and buildings and cloak rooms. The Box Hill city council donated money for scholarships to this school, and the holders for 1929 were Olive Williams and Lena Simmons in the day school, and Bessie Wheeler for the evening. I wish to thank the council and staff for their hearty cooperation.

This advertisement published in The Argus on 1 February 1930 shows how Box Hill Technical School for Girls and Women furthered education for women. Alongside traditional &quot;women&#39;s studies&quot; such as dressmaking and pattern cutting, they also taught leatherwork, stained wood work, science and physics.

Box Hill Technical School for Girls and Women was highly regarded for the quality of its training. Annual work showcases such as this wedding cake demonstration, allowed the public to view the skills and competency of the students.

After school had finished for the day, Box Hill Technical School for Girls and Women commonly also ran short courses and information sessions for the community. This ad from The Sun, published on 13 June 1934 advertised an evening cookery course for community members who were looking to improve their cookery skills.

Strong demand for Box Hill Technical School for Girls and Women led to issues with overcrowding and many girls were turned away. 

Recognising that the school needed more resources, a new site was acquired and the first of many new buildings was opened by the Minister for Public Instruction, Dr. John Harris on 7th October. The new building cost £8000 and was built to accommodate 250 students.

On 2 February 1943, the Box Hill Boys&#39; Technical School welcomed 470 junior students seeking technical education. Subjects included Carpentry, Sheetmetal, Machine Shop Practice and Technical Drawing.

Former Principal Howard Beanland remembered:

&quot;In the form meetings, the teachers told the students about the &#39;modus operandi&#39; of technical schools. They explained that it was different to their primary schools where they had one teacher...Here they would be moving around the building to a timetable that would mean they could have up to eight different types of subjects, rooms and teachers in one day.

A freshly duplicated copy of the book list was given out to take home. The nature of the items on it were explained. Aprons, for instance, were to be worn to keep clothes clean and for safety reasons in all practical classes such as woodwork, sheet metal, machine-shop practice and in the clay-modelling room.&quot;

Former student Geoffrey Garrett recalled the first day of class at his new school:

&quot;On the first day, I rode my bicycle to the new technical school wearing a new grey suit with short pant. I got there just before eight o&#39;clock, but there must have been a hundred or more kids already there. I put my bike against one of the gum trees and looked around to see if I could find somebody I knew. There were kids coming from everywhere, some got off buses, but most came across the paddocks from the railway station.

There were 11 and 12 year old kids arriving from Ferntree Gully, Lilydale, Gembrook and townships further east.

It was, for some of them, their first trip by themselves on a train. When they arrived, they would have to ask, &quot;Which way is it to Box Hill Technical School?&quot; Lots of them got lost trying to find the place. Others had to walk two or three miles from home, but a fair percentage of them were like me and came by bike. At least I didn&#39;t have to have my mother bring me along like some kids.

Nobody knew the ropes, so I just walked around the building materials and stuff in the area that was to be the quadrangle. I found some of my old mates who were in last year&#39;s seventh grade at Kew State School, but some kids didn&#39;t know a soul. They just stood around waiting for someone to tell them what was going on.&quot;

Opening in 1947, the Council of Adult Education (later changed to the Centre for Adult Education) was established under Victorian Government legislation with a broad charter to provide adult education.

CAE’s founding director was Colin Badger (1906–1993), was driven by his mission to educate.

After many years of learning, he found his calling as an adult educator when he became a lecturer at the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) of South Australia. He found that adult learning gave people a &#39;second chance&#39;, and a means of self-improvement. 

After travelling the world and helping hundreds of adults connect with education through his work and research, he became convinced of the need for an independent adult education board, responsible to government and not to a university. 

In 1946, following the election of the reformist Cain Labor government, he seized the opportunity to reinvent and transform Victorian adult education by establishing the Council of Adult Education (CAE). Appointed as the council’s director, The Act established the CAE as a statutory authority responsible for coordinating and delivering Victorian adult education. Its innovatory structure was claimed as a &#39;world first&#39;.

Badger promoted education for city-based adults by employing such academic luminaries as Manning Clark and Sir Zelman Cowen. For rural adult learners, he drew on his experience in Western Australia and reshaped the innovative ‘Box Scheme’ (the original CAE book groups), under which reading groups were sent sets of books with accompanying questions and notes to prompt discussion.

In an effort to improve public interest in technical education and the skills it provided, the Department of Education coordinated a city-wide skills showcase. Both Box Hill Technical School for Girls and Women and Box Hill Boys&#39; Technical School participated, along with other schools and even the newly-established CAE.

Name: Richard W

Enrolled: 1949

I started high school (Grade 7) at the age of 10 years old. There were around 400 students in those days and the campus was much smaller. Our Woodwork teacher was Mr Patton, nickname Basher Bow Patton. I stayed until 4th form.

Name: Joan S

Enrolled: 1949

My mum didn’t want me to go to high school as she hadn’t been allowed. My father was on my side and said, “She can go until she fails an exam.” I was determined to make a go of it, so I worked hard.

My most influential teacher was Shirley Lawson, the Home Economics teacher. She encouraged me to study for a diploma in food and become a teacher. In 1958, I was sent back to Box Hill Technical School for Girls and Women for my teacher training. In 1959, I started teaching at Ringwood Technical School and started the Home Economics department at the school.

Box Hill Technical School for Girls and Women had an almost clean sweep of awards in the Junior Dressmaking category at the 1952 Royal Melbourne Show.

Student, Claire Fox, won the skirt category, with the judges proclaiming her work &quot;&quot;near perfect&quot;&quot;, with fellow Box Hill students taking out second and third place.

Another Box Hill student, Miss Jean Bennett, took first prize in the sun frock category with her creation of a colourful cotton frock and bolero.

Name: Eric D
Enrolled: 1954

I remember my years of schooling at Box Hill well and despite my unwillingness to submit homework or study due to a difficult home life, I did well academically. I went on to work as an electrician and had a long, varied and successful career spanning many different industries such as heating and cooling, plumbing and even printing.

Box Hill Technical School produced some brilliant leaders including Peter Godfrey who went on to study overseas and became a world renowned Chemistry Professor. We had CEOs of at least two international companies, a space scientist and other significant contributors to this country&#39;s history. I believe Box Hill Tech contributed to this nation.

A famous London milliner, Mrs Patricia Penrose, taught adult classes in millinery, glove and bag-making at Box Hill Technical School for Girls and Women. A graduate of London Polytechnic, employed by Harrods millinery department and having made tiaras and headdresses for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, she brought considerable skill and experience to our shores.

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