From Classroom to Boardroom: Cultivating Talent at MHS

Melbourne High School has long been a place where creativity, intellect, and ambition converge. From these halls have come leaders in science, business, and the arts—people like Sir John Eccles, Max Gillies, John Gandel, Raimond Gaita, Peter Singer and Jon Faine—who credit the school with sparking their journey.

Now, we’re building on that tradition through the Artists, Writers & Entrepreneurs in Residence program.

This initiative connects students with creative professionals and entrepreneurial leaders who mentor, inspire, and expand their view of what’s possible. It’s a chance for the artist-in-resident to give back, share their story, and create something meaningful in a dynamic educational setting.

With your help, we can ensure the next big idea starts here.

Reviving a Tradition of Intellectual Discovery

Melbourne High’s legacy includes more than academic success. For decades, the school has hosted some of the world’s sharpest minds—from Nobel laureates like Sir John Eccles to beloved educators like Ben Munday—who’ve inspired generations of students through lectures and residencies.

We’re bringing this tradition forward.

Our Artists, Writers & Entrepreneurs in Residence program will revive signature events and add new experiences designed to challenge and expand student thinking. Through live talks, mentoring sessions, and student-led projects, this initiative will help young people turn passion into purpose.

Support the return of bold ideas. Join us in funding this next chapter.

A Pool with a Purpose: The Story Behind Melbourne High’s Swim Legacy

In the aftermath of World War I, Brigadier George Furner Langley returned to Australia with a powerful mission—ensuring no young person would lose their life for want of swimming skills. As Principal of Melbourne High School, Langley fought for a swimming pool that would offer more than recreation. It would be a life-saving legacy.

Completed in 1960 and designed by renowned modernist Kevin Borland, the pool stood as a symbol of compassion, vision, and holistic education. The pool was replaced in 1992, but its legacy and purpose remain unchanged. Today we seek your support in honouring that legacy, by donating to help us replace the pool heater.

Empowering Every Student: Inclusive Swim Education at MHS

Since the 1960s, the MHS pool has taught thousands of students to swim, including many first-generation Australians for whom it was their first introduction to water safety.

Through programs like the Year 9 Outdoor Education water safety sessions, the school has used the pool not only to teach skills, but to foster confidence, courage, and community. It’s education at its most inclusive.

This quiet legacy has transformed the lives of many MHS students and members of our community. 

Lane of Champions: From School Championships to Olympic Games

The Melbourne High School pool has long been more than a place to learn to swim—it’s been a launching pad for champions.

Take Julian Tan (Class of 2001). He began as a novice swimmer, struggling with freestyle in Year 9. With persistence and the support of the MHS swim program, he went on to win multiple freestyle events for the school by Year 12. His story is one of quiet determination and local triumph—proof that the right environment can turn potential into achievement.

Then there’s Lachlan Edwards, whose journey began in the same pool. As swim captain and water polo leader, he helped secure MHS victories before heading to the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games as part of Australia’s national water polo team. His talent also took him to the University of Southern California, one of the top collegiate athletic programs in the US, and then into a professional career as an NFL punter.

These stories—one local, one global—are united by a single starting point: the MHS pool. Built on vision, care and opportunity, it continues to shape students into athletes, leaders and role models.

Today we seek your support in creating our next first-time swimmers and champions, by donating to help us replace the pool heater.

Thank you to the MHS VCE Media Team for the videos and artwork below, with special thanks to:

Dillon Maltzis
Ivan Trinh
Michael Chandler
Shawn Lam
Josh Holtz
Wyn Hughes
Paul Morton
Sonya Mulholland
Nixx Hertzong
Ronin Chingshubam
Ryan Ng
Eugene Tu
Kriston Norris
George Karpathakis
Isaac Ho
Siddhu Potiuri
Brendan Liang
David Ngo
Khoi Tang

A Century Through These Doors

A Century Through These Doors

Since 1927, the main entrance of Melbourne High School has stood as one of the school’s most recognisable and symbolic features. Facing north across the oval with a view toward the Melbourne skyline, the doors represent more than an architectural threshold—they mark a rite of passage for generations of students.

The entrance was designed by Evan Smith, a senior architect with the Public Works Department who contributed to several prominent interwar-era buildings in Victoria. His work blended functional civic design with classical motifs, evident in the MHS entrance’s formal symmetry, carved stone scrollwork, and use of locally forged iron fixtures. The doors themselves are crafted from Tasmanian Oak, selected for both its strength and aesthetic character.

For over 30,000 students, these doors were their first experience of Melbourne High. From the moment they stepped through them in Year 9 to the day they walked out as Year 12 graduates, the entrance bookended a period of profound growth and transformation.

"Walking up those stairs and through the MHS doors felt like entering a world where anything was possible."

The doors have welcomed some of Australia’s most respected public figures—alumni such as philosopher Peter Singer, comedian and social commentator Nazeem Hussain, Nobel Prize–winning neurophysiologist Sir John Eccles, and former Foreign Minister Gareth Evans AC. For them, as for so many others, this entrance marked the beginning of something greater.

The symbolic importance of the doors has remained constant over the decades. That first walk up the stairs has long held opportunity for students and their families. The act of stepping inside signalled not only entry into a school, but into a shared legacy of aspiration, scholarship, and opportunity.

The school’s commitment to inclusivity and diversity is evident in its history of educating students from various cultural backgrounds. In the post-World War II era, Melbourne High School became a place of learning for many children of migrants and refugees who had fled war, famine, and persecution. 

The school’s dedication to supporting exceptional students from diverse backgrounds continues today, ensuring they thrive academically and socially.

Today, as Melbourne High approaches its centenary, these doors stand in need of restoration. Time and weather have taken their toll on the timberwork, stone surrounds, and iron features. While minor repairs have occurred over the decades, the upcoming restoration will be the most significant conservation effort to date.

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