St Laurence's College


St Laurence's College is a private Catholic school for boys located in South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was founded by the Christian Brothers in 1915. The school currently has an enrolment of over 1900 students from Year 5 to Year 12. St Laurence's is a College in the Edmund Rice Tradition. St Laurence's is currently associated with the Associated Independent Colleges sporting association.
Some of the college's historic buildings are listed on the Brisbane Heritage Register.

Property

The school's main campus is located in the inner-city Brisbane suburb of South Brisbane and houses a playing field, library, chapel, monastery, hall and six buildings with classrooms and support rooms. Three of the teaching buildings are largely subject specific as they house the visual and performing arts, manual arts and science and computing specific classrooms and laboratories.

History

The college was officially opened and blessed on Sunday 11 July 1915 by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane James Duhig. The school was operated by the Christian Brothers. On the first day there were 270 students and a staff of five teachers. The monastery for the Brothers was built in 1917.
Since 1961, the school has also operated sporting fields in the southern Brisbane suburb of Runcorn, which contains 8 playing fields and a function centre.
In 1977 the school established an outdoor educational facility, Camp Laurence, at Lake Moogerah, to the west of Brisbane.
In 1994 a College Board was established as an advisory group for the principal. In 1996 the first lay principal, Mr D Frederiksen, was appointed with the Christian Brothers retaining ownership and control of the College. The last of the brothers left the monastery in 2009, and the building was converted in 2010 into tge school's administration building.
In 2010, as part of an agreement with the adjacent Mater Hospital Brisbane, the school's land was leased for 25 years to build a six-storey car park, which now houses the college's synthetic oval on top along with a new 1500 seat auditorium.
In 2016, construction finished on a new $3 million chapel adjacent to the old monastery.
In 2017, construction finished on a $14 million sporting and science centre, which houses a gym, 2 basketball courts, a 250-seat viewing area, along with 12 science and engineering laboratories and staff rooms. Which is named after the previous principal Ian MacDonald who approved the construction of the building. This building is called the STEM building located behind the monastery.

Sports

The college is a founding member of the AIC sporting association along with Marist College Ashgrove, St Edmunds College, Ipswich, St Patrick's College, Iona College, Padua College, St. Peters Lutheran College and Villanova College. The sports played in the AIC include rugby union, soccer, cricket, basketball, Australian Rules Football, volleyball, tennis, swimming, chess, Water Polo, athletics and cross country.

Notable alumni

of St Laurence's College are known as "Old Boys" and may elect to join the school's alumni association, the St Laurence's College Old Boys Association. Notable alumni include:
;Rhodes Scholars
;Business
;Entertainment, arts and the media
;Politics, law and public service
;Science and medicine
;Sports