The Gordon Institute of TAFE is the Technical and Further Education institute predominantly servicing the wider Geelong area. The Gordon opened in 1887 and celebrated 130 years of providing education in 2017. The Gordon provides education to 13,500+ students annually and with 500+ staff members, it is one of the largest employers in Geelong. The Gordon offers 350+ courses across several campuses located in Geelong City, East Geelong, Werribee and Hoppers Crossing. Sixty percent of The Gordon students live in the wider Geelong region.
History
The Gordon Institute of TAFE was opened in 1888 as the Gordon Memorial Technical College. The college had its beginnings in 1885, when 500 people met at the Geelong Town Hall to decide upon a memorial to General Charles George Gordon, who died at Khartoum in January 1885. William Humble and George link decided that a school of art be erected in his honour. The foundation stone was laid in July 1887 for the first building, Davidson Hall. The land selected for the school was originally part of Johnstone Park, Geelong. January 16, 1888 saw the first term at the Gordon Memorial Technical College commence. There were 63 students enrolled, in subjects ranging from mechanical drawing, to architecture, and languages. In 1890 the two storey trade engineering and chemistry buildings opened on Fenwick Street. April 1891 saw the three storey administration building open next door. Behind this building a time capsule was laid. Opened in 1987, the capsule contained copies of Geelong and Melbourne newspapers of the time, as well as reports from the city council. The northern Fenwick Street building was added in 1916, and the Hitchcock art studio in 1910. In November 1921 the college changed its name to the Gordon Institute of Technology. It was also at this time that the Lascelles chemistry laboratory opened on Gordon Avenue, followed by the Bostock lecture hall next door in 1928. 1927 saw the first buildings at the Moorabool Street campus built, and in 1941 the trade workshops were the first college buildings erected on the Latrobe Terrace side of the railway line. The 1960s saw the first of the modern multi storey buildings built on the site. In 1969 the Gordon expanded yet again, with land being purchased at Waurn Ponds. A building for the Applied Sciences was first built, followed by a library and student lodgings in 1975. On 1 April 1976, Deakin University was established by merging the Gordon Institute of Technology's higher education courses and Waurn Ponds site with the State College of Victoria at Geelong. The Moorabool St campus and the vocational courses now became Gordon Technical College. At this time this campus was expanded, and the East Geelong campus opened.
