Our history

A tradition 150 years in the making

Tradition. Amalgamation. Evolution. From its origins in Geelong in 1855 with just 14 boys, Geelong Grammar School has always had a distinctive character.

The GGS Crest features the stars of the Southern Cross constellation, a Bishop's Mitre and the Royal Lions of Great Britain, confirming the School’s foundation as an Australian Church School in the Anglican faith.

After outgrowing several Geelong locations the School moved to its new 245-hectare site at Corio in 1914. The move provided a learning and living environment in a 'village community' which was relatively isolated and could accommodate rapidly increasing numbers, particularly of boarders.

No longer the local School, and with easy road and rail access, Melbourne, country and interstate enrolments flourished. The first overseas student arrived in 1947.

The Toorak Campus (formerly Glamorgan) had its own 60-year education history before becoming part of GGS in 1947.

Bostock House, (the Junior School campus) was located at Aberdeen Street in Geelong from 1933, until resettling at Highton in 1962 and then to Noble Street, Newtown in 1998 (for Years ELC to 4).

In 1953, the Timbertop Campus was established in the foothills of the Victorian Alps near Mansfield to offer a year-long academic and outdoor education experience. Perhaps the School's most famous Old Geelong Grammarian, HRH, the Prince of Wales, attended Timbertop in 1966.

In the early 1970s, GGS became co-educational through amalgamation with The Hermitage and Clyde Girls’ Schools.

The GGS history (and that of the Toorak Campus, Clyde School and The Hermitage) is recorded in the School’s Archives.

Today, Geelong Grammar School remains faithful to many of the characteristics that defined its origins more than 150 years ago.