Working Men's College, Melbourne
Working Men's College was a Melbourne college of further education founded in 1887 by Francis Ormond, a wealthy philanthropist and former parliamentarian. He donated £5,000 to start the college, and the Melbourne Trades Hall Council matched his gift. The college opened on 4 June 1887 in a purpose-built building at the corner of Bowen Street and La Trobe Street.
Construction happened in two stages. The Bowen Street Wing (Stage 1) included the main lecture hall, workshops, classrooms, and a caretaker’s quarters. It cost £10,600 and was funded by Ormond’s donation and Trades Hall. Stage 2 added the La Trobe Street Wing and a tower in 1890, completed in 1892, at a cost of £13,700. This new wing housed offices, council rooms, larger classrooms, and laboratories for photography and chemistry, funded by Ormond’s bequest after his death and some government funds.
Adjacent to the college in the 1890s were the Supreme Court of Victoria and Melbourne Gaol, which are now part of the RMIT campus.
Today the Working Men’s College is best known as the predecessor of today’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University). The original building is now RMIT Building 1, the Francis Ormond Building. In 2008 the building was listed on the Victorian Heritage Register and recognised as a notable Melbourne building. A refurbishment completed in 2011 added modern eco features—rainwater harvesting, solar heating, intelligent lighting, a new lift, and glazed stairways—while restoring period details and creating a university lawn with underground rainwater tanks.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 18:45 (CET).