History
Waverley College celebrated its centenary in 2003. The school was founded in Ireland, pioneered by the Christian Brothers in Australia and more recently led by Edmund Rice Education Australia.
The school opened with 20 students in 1903. In 1938, the school started accepting boarders in 1938. The school's boarders came from rural Victoria, Queensland, New Guinea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Norfolk Island, Nauru, New Caledonia, Saigon and Singapore as well as country areas of New South Wales. The school stopped taking boarders in 1979.
The College is now staffed entirely with lay staff, including the first lay Headmaster, Ray Paxton, who was appointed in 2010.
Two of the College’s major buildings, the Chapel and the College Hall, date back to the 1950s. The latter, which includes stained-glass window displays dedicated to the armed services, has a vestibular Lady Chapel, focusing on the school's Marian tradition. Every year in May, the school hosts an annual May Procession in honour of Our Lady, which is the longest-running Marian procession in Australian history.
The Senior School and Middle School ‘quads’ were added in 1963 and 1970 respectively. In 1970, an Olympic-sized swimming pool was also built, and in 1980 the school underwent massive renovations in which one of the halls was transformed into a music centre and a modern gymnasium was built.
In 2003, the college built a $6.5 million Performing Arts Centre. The centre includes a 300-seat proscenium arch theatre with state-of-the-art lighting options; an 80-seat drama studio and a six-seat recital room. It was opened on June 15, 2003, by New South Wales Governor, Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir. The occasion was also commemorated with a Mass for past and current students and families at the Hordern Pavilion led by Bishop David Cremin, and the publication of The Crest of the Wave, a history of the school written by Justin Fleming.
In 2005, the college refurbished the area surrounding Ludlow Hall, clearing the way for a playground, and in 2007 the school started its million-dollar plan to develop classrooms into the 21st-century facilities that students and teachers enjoy today.
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