Hale School

History

Part of Australia's colonial history, Hale School educated many sons of the Swan River Colony. The school was originally known as Boys High School and the inaugural chairman was Archibald Paull Burt, a notable jurist.

Modelled on England's public schools, it has been accused of being elitist. For example, in his biography of explorer and politician Sir John Forrest, Frank Crowley described the school's values throughout the 1870s as "a heady compound of social snobbery, laissez-faire capitalism, sentimental royalism, patriotic Anglicanism, benevolent imperialism and racial superiority".

In contemporary social commentary, for example Mark Peel's study of class and schooling in Australia, Hale School was identified as one of the most rigorous and selective schools for boys. There is a scholarship program, including the first full boarding scholarships in Western Australia for Indigenous students.

Since at least 1930, Hale School has misrepresented its association with Bishop Hale's School, falsely claiming for instance that it was initially known as "Bishop Hale's Collegiate School", and later as "The High School". However the two were always completely separate legal entities that coexisted for 10 years - from 1876 until 1885 - under their own separate Acts of Parliament.

Bishop Hale's private school commenced in 1858 and was known variously as "Bishop’s College", "Bishop Hale's School" and "Bishop’s Collegiate School". In 1863 the Church of England established the "Church of England Collegiate School" under an Act of Parliament Ordinance 26 Vic. No. 12, of 1863. Two years later on September 7, 1865, "Bishop Hale conveyed the school property to the Governors of the Church of England Collegiate School and their successors and assigns for ever—viz., Perth Building Lots H1, and H7. Bishop Hale’s School then became the Church of England Collegiate School, but was better known and spoken of as Hale’s School."

A decade later in 1878 the taxpayer funded secular state "High School" opened its doors "across the road" from the Collegiate School. The latter could not compete when its fee paying students re-enrolled at the new taxpayer sponsored "High School". The secular "High School" effectively and immediately put "Hale's School" out of business by taking away so many of its students, if not all of them, that it was no longer viable. Nevertheless "Hale's School" persisted as a legal entity for another 8 years until 1885 when the Act under which the original Bishop Hale's School had been incorporated was dissolved.

Exactly 100 years later, in 1958, persistent historical misrepresentations by former "High School" students were used to convince the Parliament of Western Australia into renaming "High School" to "Hale School" - in supposed honour of its purported founder - and the "High School Act (1876)" became the "Hale School Act (1876)", converting the secular school into a religious school under the auspices Governance of the Anglican Archbishop as Visitor.

Controversies

According to Edith Cowan, Western Australia's first female member of Parliament, the Act that evolved out Bishop Hale's School – the Church of England Collegiate School Act – co-existed with a public secular school instantiated under its own Act – the High School Act, creating two independent and theologically opposed legal entities. The latter then took the name "Hale School", the commencement date of 1858, and other propaganda associating itself with Bishop Hale, about which Cowan laments:

Locations

Bishop Hale's Collegiate School occupied buildings designed by Richard Roach Jewell in 1858 and situated on St Georges Terrace. The buildings eventually became known as The Cloisters. In 1914, the school moved to a more spacious site at Havelock Street, West Perth, opposite the Parliament of Western Australia. Finally, in 1961, the school relocated to its current 480,000 m2 premises in Wembley Downs.

Headmasters

Campus

Hale School's campus is a 48-hectare site located in Wembley Downs. The administration building, Memorial Hall, Tom Hoar Dining Hall, Cygnet Theatre, Forrest Library and the Chapel of St Mark are all located on the southwest corner of the campus near the main entrance.

The John Inverarity Music and Drama Centre is located on the western side of the campus facing Unwin Avenue. This building separates the Senior School from the Junior School, along with the middle school boarding residence, Brine House. The Peter Wright Technology Building, which houses the Design and Technology Workshop, as well as Computer and Design Suites, sits adjacent to the Doug Peake Pool. Adjacent to the swimming pool are the gymnasium and change-rooms.

The senior boarding house is located on the eastern side of the campus while the sports playing fields occupy the north to south-east.

Forrest Library

The new Teaching and Learning precinct on the site of the old boarding houses near the south entrance to the campus was officially opened on 1 July 2009. The main feature of this project is a new Library and Resource Centre. This includes a dedicated Year 12 study area and Curriculum Support rooms facing a central courtyard. The project also includes a Languages and English block. Beneath the library is a clothing store, IT department and the Old Haleians' Boardroom.

While the library was open for student use from February in the 2009 school year, the official opening ceremony was not held until 1 July 2009, when the facility was officially opened by Andrew Forrest and unveiled as the Forrest Library. It honours members of the Forrest family, from Sir John Forrest to Alexander Forrest, and on to Andrew Forrest himself, who had been educated at Hale.

In 2010 the Australian Institute of Architects awarded the Forrest Library an Architecture Award for Public Architecture.

John Inverarity Music and Drama Centre

The John Inverarity Music and Drama Centre comprises a large auditorium/theatre, backstage holding rooms, two main rehearsal studios, percussion and string studios, two large music teaching rooms and 19 music practice rooms. It was first opened for use in January 2001.

The centrepiece of the complex is the timber-lined recital auditorium which accommodates 353 patrons on stepped tiers with a flat performance area 17 m wide and 12 m deep. The auditorium design has been dictated by the requirements to have natural acoustics for music. This has been achieved through the use of a traditional 'rectangular box' design with a maximum ceiling height of 8 m. The auditorium can be tuned for different instruments and various music/drama performances to achieve desired acoustic qualities. This is accomplished by a system of moveable full-height wall reflectors, suspended ceiling reflectors and rotating wall panels with differing degrees of absorptive linings. The ceiling loft is mechanised with 27 variable-speed automatic winch lines which give a great degree of flexibility for a range of shows.

Middle School

The construction of a new middle school facility commenced in January 2009 and was completed in January 2010. The middle school site is located adjacent to Unwin Avenue, between the John Inverarity Music and Drama Centre and the Memorial Hall. The building contains 16 classrooms primarily for Year 7 students. The main entrance, reception and administration offices are located on a separate intermediate level, which is at street level with Unwin Avenue. Other staff facilities are located on the ground floor.

In addition, the facility incorporates one of the school's existing buildings ('L-block' classrooms) which were refurbished as music, drama and science classrooms for Middle school. The ground level of this building was refurbished as a middle school science classroom (and store room), with the upper level refitted to house a drama classroom, music classroom (with store room) and four music practice rooms.

The refurbishment of this building commenced in October 2009 but was not completed in time for the commencement of the school year in February 2010. The new building replaced the 'C-block' classrooms and Senior School Library that previously occupied the site and were demolished in December 2008.

Junior School

The Hale Junior School was originally built when the Wembley Downs campus was opened. Today, it has classes from pre–primary up to Year 6, with around 400 students enrolled. It was renovated in 2017. It features a modern design with the year groups split up into a 'Lower Junior' (PP to Year 2), 'Middle Junior' (Year 3 and Year 4) and 'Upper Junior' (Year 5 and Year 6). All buildings have open areas, called 'breakout spaces', where students can work together in small groups or presentations can be held.

Awards include 'Architecture Award for Education Architecture, Western Australia 2019' and 'Learning Environments WA Chapter, Category 2: New Construction / New Individual Facility over $8m'.

Sporting facilities

Hale School campus includes various sporting facilities, including:

• an eight lane 25-metre geothermally heated swimming pool

• a ten lane 50-metre heated swimming pool

• a gymnasium, with basketball, badminton, volleyball, squash and rock climbing facilities

• weights room

• rowing ergo room

• 16 tennis courts: 12 plexipave, 4 grass

• 4 football fields

• 4 plexipave outdoor basketball courts

• 5 cricket ovals with turf wickets

• 32 cricket practice wickets: both synthetic and turf

• 4 soccer fields

• cross country tracks

• 2 rugby fields

• track and field facilities

• aquaturf surface hockey field with clubrooms

• 3 additional grass hockey ovals

• a rowing fleet housed at Cygnet Hall on the Swan River (off campus)

In 1885, the school entered a team into the West Australian Football Association (WAFA) for its inaugural season, but were forced to withdraw two rounds into the season due to a lack of players.

Hale School has hosted important teams over the years, including the English rugby team on occasions, namely for training during the 2003 Rugby World Cup. The school hosted the English Cricket Academy, including international cricketers Michael Vaughan, Owais Shah, Stuart Broad, Rikki Clarke and Jon Lewis for nets sessions and practice matches, as seen on the front page of The West Australian on 29 November 2006.

Academic standing

Since 2000, Hale School has won five of the Beazley Medals, awarded to the student obtaining the highest marks in the state administered tertiary entrance examinations.

The school appears regularly in the top 10 schools for the Western Australian Certificate of Education rankings.

Sport

Hale is a member of the Public Schools Association (PSA).

PSA premierships

Hale has won the following PSA premierships.

• Athletics (14) – 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1928, 1934, 1939, 1941, 1992, 2001, 2002, 2017
• Badminton (6) – 2005, 2007, 2008, 2019, 2020, 2025
• Basketball (13) – 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1994, 1995, 2008, 2017, 2022, 2024, 2025
• Cricket (30) – 1905, 1906, 1907, 1909, 1911, 1916, 1922, 1925, 1933, 1934, 1938, 1947, 1948, 1950, 1956, 1961, 1966, 1967, 1976, 1992, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2011, 2019, 2020, 2025
• Football (23) – 1921, 1939, 1941, 1947, 1966, 1973, 1978, 1984, 1985, 1989, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2025
• Golf (7) – 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2024
• Hockey (8) – 1980, 1990, 2012, 2014, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023
• Rowing (17) – 1933, 1939, 1944, 1945, 1947, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1971, 1983, 1991, 2000, 2018, 2024
• Rugby (26) – 1964, 1965, 1969, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2022, 2025
• Soccer (12) – 1993, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2023
• Surfing (5) – 2006, 2016, 2017, 2024, 2025
• Swimming (40) – 1919, 1923, 1925, 1926, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1944, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1991, 1992, 1998, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016
• Tennis (18) – 1965, 1966, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1985, 1986, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2014
• Volleyball (5) – 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025
• Water polo (4) – 1997, 2008, 2014, 2015

Publications

Hale School's main publication is the school's official book, The Cygnet, which is released at the start of each year and includes about 250 pages of the previous year's major happenings, school photos and sports results. The school also publishes an alumni magazine, The Haleian, twice a year, usually around June and November.

• History of the School: W. J. Edgar (2008), From Slate to Cyberspace (Hale School, 150 years), Hale School, Wembley Downs, Western Australia
• Book: W. J. Edgar (1994), From Veldt to Vietnam, Haleians at War, Old Haleians' Association, Wembley Downs, Western Australia

Hale School and the Australian Defence Force

Former students have served in all conflicts since the Boer War with many having distinguished military careers.

War criminal, Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith, Hale Class of 1995, son of Major General Len Roberts-Smith, is currently Australia's most decorated soldier, having been awarded the Victoria Cross and Medal for Gallantry.

124 Old Haleians have died in conflicts since the Boer War. A Memorial Grove at the school site honours these men with 124 plaques and a sculpture with an "eternal flame" theme. The great hall of the school has also been named Memorial Hall. The Hale School Museum contains important military and civilian records relating to the school and the state of Western Australia. A small museum display is also located at the Old Hale School, now the Constitutional Centre of Western Australia, on Havelock Street, West Perth.

Image gallery

File:Hale pool.JPG|Old Olympic length 8 lane pool, now the location of two basketball courts File:Hale chapel.JPG|Chapel File:Hale memorial.JPG|Memorial grove and eternal flame sculpture File:Hale boarding.JPG|Senior boarding house File:Hale health centre construction.JPG|New health centre being constructed next to the senior boarding house (photo from January 2007) File:Hale nets.JPG|Artificial cricket nets. Turf nets are available in summer File:Hale tennis.JPG|Plexipave tennis and basketball courts File:Hale craig.JPG|Craig Oval (1st football & cricket team ground)

Notable alumni

Main article: List of Old Haleians

An alumnus of Hale School is called an Old Haleian. Notable Old Haleians include:

• Hugo Armstrong – flying ace of the Second World War
• Luke Burton – rugby union player
• Darcy Cameron – AFL footballer
• Alex Condon - basketball player
• Christian de Vietri – artist
• Robert Drewe – author
• Matthew Ebden – professional tennis player
• Jy Farrar – AFL footballer
• Andrew Forrest – entrepreneur
• Sir John Forrest – first premier of Western Australia
• Michael Gardiner – AFL football player
• Mitch Georgiades – AFL footballer
• Lang Hancock – businessman
• Kyron Hayden – AFL footballer
• Dane Haylett-Petty – rugby union player
• Ross Haylett-Petty – rugby union player
• Ryan Hodson – rugby union player
• Lawson Humphries – AFL footballer
• Tunku Ismail Idris – crown prince of Johor
• David Irvine – head of ASIS 2003–09, head of ASIO 2009–14
• Nick Jooste – rugby union player
• Robert Juniper – painter
• Matthew Lutton – theatre and opera director
• Geoff Marsh – cricket player and coach
• Shane McAdam – AFL footballer
• Sam McEntee - Olympic Distance Runner
• Daryl Mitchell – cricketer (New Zealand Blackcap)
• Tom Mitchell – plays AFL football for Hawthorn, 2018 Brownlow Medallist
• Sir Stephen Parker – Chief Justice of Western Australia
• Todd Pearson – Olympic swimming medallist
• Melvin Poh – entrepreneur
• Christian Porter – state and federal politician
• Benjamin Roberts-Smith VC – war criminal, Victoria Cross recipient
• Sam Roberts-Smith – operatic baritone
• Paul Royle – World War II pilot and Stalag Luft III Great Escaper
• Edward Russell – television presenter
• Sharafuddin Idris Shah – Sultan of Selangor, Malaysia
• Marcus Stoinis – cricketer
• Rolly Tasker – sailor
• Justin Turner – rugby union player
• Peter Wright – mining magnate
• Meyne Wyatt – actor, writer
• Basil Zempilas – Lord Mayor of Perth

References

References

1. "Our board of governors". Hale School.
2. "Headmaster's welcome". Hale School.
3. (1993). "Young Hearts Run Free". Hale School, Perth.
4. Frank Crowley, Big John Forrest, University of Western Australia Press (2000)
5. Professor M Peel, 'Who Went Where: the Schooling of the Australian Elite', Melbourne University History Research Series no. 1. Melbourne Melbourne University Press (1992), p 103 and following
6. "Scholarships".
7. [https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/legislation/prod/filestore.nsf/FileURL/mrdoc_27692.pdf/$FILE/Perth%20Anglican%20Church%20Of%20Australia%20Collegiate%20School%20Act%201885%20-%20%5B03-a0-02%5D.pdf?OpenElement Perth Anglican Church of Australia CollegiateSchool Act 1885]
8. Cowan, E. D. [Edith Dirksey] OBE 1930, 'Bishop Hale and secondary education', Early Days, vol. 1, part 7: Heading 3. sourced online from https://fremantlestuff.info/earlydays/1/cowan3.html
9. Hale School Act (1876) (WA)
10. Cowan, E. D. [Edith Dirksey] OBE 1930, 'Bishop Hale and secondary education', Early Days, vol. 1, part 7: 1-11. sourced online from https://fremantlestuff.info/earlydays/1/cowan3.html
11. [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/602591/pdf "Dr K. G. Tregonning 1923–2015"], ''Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society'', Volume 88, Part 2, No. 309, December 2015. pp. 157-159. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
12. "Forrest Library". Hale School.
13. [http://www.hale.wa.edu.au/News-And-Events/Publications/Pages/haleianmagazine.aspx The Haleian] {{webarchive. link. (18 January 2012 , Volume 21, No. 2, November 2009, pp. 8–9)
14. "2010 WA State Architecture Awards: Full List of Winners". Australian Institute of Architects.
15. Hale School, FAQ – Middle School Development http://www.hale.wa.edu.au/Development/Documents/Middle%20School%20-%20Frequently%20Asked%20Questions%20FINAL.pdf {{Webarchive. link. (12 September 2009)
16. City of Stirling, Minutes – Council Meeting 16 December 2008 (pg 53) http://www.stirling.wa.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/71ABBAB2-C609-42AB-A23F-A79538BC3E3E/0/CouncilMinutes16December2008.pdf {{Webarchive. link. (16 June 2011)
17. "Hale Junior School".
18. "Sporting Facilities". Hale School.
19. (2013). "Halean Volume 25 No.1 July 2013". Hale School.
20. (2013). "Halean Volume 25 No.2 December 2013". Hale School.
21. {{usurped
22. (29 November 2006). "page 1". Western Australian Newspapers Limited.
23. "Christopher Mofflin, 17, of Hale School at Wembley Downs, northwest of Perth, has won the 2006 Beazley Medal for the best result in the Tertiary Entrance Examination, with a score of 98.69." The Australian Newspaper (Online) 31 December 2006
24. "Globe-trotting TV star wins Beazley Medal" The Sunday Times (Online) 4 January 2008 http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,24868527-2761,00.html
25. (2014). "Year 12 Student Achievement Data". [[Government of Western Australia]].
26. (2013). "Year 12 Student Achievement Data". [[Government of Western Australia]].
27. (2012). "Year 12 Student Achievement Data". [[Government of Western Australia]].
28. (2011). "Year 12 Student Achievement Data". Government of Western Australia.
29. (2010). "Year 12 Student Achievement Data". Government of Western Australia.
30. (2009). "Year 12 Student Achievement Data". Government of Western Australia.
31. "Records – Public Schools Association".
32. See generally, William Edger, ''Veldt to Vietnam: Halians at War'' (2001)
33. "Alex Condon 2025 Draft Profile".
34. (4 February 2011). "VC hero Ben Roberts-Smith urges students to strive for excellence".