Ormond College is one of the largest residential colleges of the University of Melbourne located in the city of Melbourne , Victoria , Australia. It is home to around undergraduates, 90 graduates and 35 professorial and academic residents.
The University of Melbourne was established by an act of the Parliament of Victoria in The Presbyterian allotment became Ormond College. At the end of August , Alexander Morrison, headmaster of Scotch College and convener of the Presbyterian Church assembly's committee to "watch over the land", received a letter from the director of the Victorian Education Department, proposing that if the church did not mean to take the land for a college, that it be sold and the proceeds divided, half to the church and half to the state for university purposes.
This spurred Morrison into action. Immediate steps were taken to raise the money. The formal opening of the college took place on 18 March At this ceremony it was announced that Francis Ormond had offered to bear the whole cost of the remainder of the planned buildings.
On opening there were 20 students, soon growing to Ormond College was unique amongst University of Melbourne colleges in welcoming students of all faiths and none, a philosophy built upon the Scottish Enlightenment tradition. Students of other Christian denominations, Jewish students and others were welcomed and this has become a cornerstone of the college's inclusive ethos. In honour of the silver jubilee of Queen Victoria in , Francis Ormond funded the building of the Victoria Wing which came into use in In the dining hall, kitchens, staff quarters and the original Master's residence Allen House were opened.
The neo-Gothic dining hall is reminiscent of an Oxbridge building and is often compared to Hogwarts from J. The rapid growth of the college soon outstripped the available accommodation and Francis Ormond provided funds for the southwest wing, together with a temporary building which was, however, stone-walled and tin-roofed where the cloisters now are, which served as kitchens and a dining hall.
