Historical information

The first building at the Mt Helen Campus was opened in October 1970. Students first starting using the campus in the same year.

The programme includes the following historical information:

"On 26th October, 1870, Sir Redmond Barry officially opened the first venture into formal technical education in Australia - the Ballarat School of Mines. Over the preceding year a small group of Ballarat citizens interested in mining had conceived and brought into being the idea of creating such a school. They leased a derelict Court House next to the Ballarat Gaol in Lydiard St., at a nominal rental for15 years, and started classes with 4 students and an honorary lecturer.
The School developed its courses beyond the initially intended range of studies related to mining, increased in enrolments, took over neighbouring properties and buildings and developed three levels of education - tertiary, trade and secondary. From the latter part of the 19th Century, even though remaining under the control of its own autonomous Council, it developed close links with the State Education Department.
From the earliest times the School achieved widespread recognition and a particularly high reputation, and its graduates spread across Australia and the world. For several years it was affiliated with Melbourne University. In the last decade its scope has been further broadened by the introduction of new tertiary courses.

During 1965 the State Government created the Victoria Institute of Colleges - a non-teaching body empowered to award degrees and directed towards the task of co-ordinating and developing tertiary education in Victorian in institutions other than universities. the tertiary division of the School became affiliated with the V.I.C. at the end of that same year.
Subsequently the Council of the School decided that, whilst retaining for the whole establishment the time honoured title - The School of Mines and Industries, Ballarat - it should more distinctly sub-title the three divisions. the tertiary division then became known as the Ballarat Institute of Advanced Education.
On receipt of substantial Commonwealth-State Grants, made to it as a college of advanced education, the Council was enabled at the start of 1967, to purchase for the Institute the 20 acre campus at Mt Helen.
A master plan has been produced to develop this beautiful and spacious site as a tertiary institution enrolling, in due course, some 3000 full time students. the first sod was turned, to initiate this development, by the then Governor General of Australia, The Right Honourable Lord Casey, on 19th October, 1967.
The first building group, now completed and occupied, has involved an expenditure approaching $1,000,000. It contains the departments of Mechanical, Civil and Mining Engineering, Metallurgy and Geology. it also contains the Computer Centre, a temporary Library and temporary student amenities.
Over the next two years a further four buildings, costing about $2,500,000, will be erected, and a further major portion of the Institute will move to Mt Helen. these buildings, in addition to one for direct teaching work, will include a Library, a Union and the first stage of a Hall of Residence."

Physical description

White, folded, paper programme printed on the occasion of the official opening of the Ballarat Institute of Advanced Education (BIAE) Mount Helen Campus on the occasion of the centenary of the Ballarat School of Mines