Billanook College is a

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co-ed school with an early learning program through to Year 12, located in

Mooroolbark Mooroolbark is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 37 km East of Melbourne's central business district, located within the Shire of Yarra Ranges local government area. Mooroolbark recorded a population of 23,059 at the . Mooroolba ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

, Australia. It operates in association with the

Uniting Church in Australia The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) is a united church in Australia. The church was founded on 22 June 1977 when most Wiktionary:congregation, congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church o ...

(but is not governed or managed by the Church) and is a member of

Round Square Round Square is an international network of schools, based on the educational concepts of Kurt Hahn, and named after a distinctive building at Gordonstoun. Founded by a group of seven schools in the late 1960s, by 1996 it had grown to 20 member ...

. It was founded in 1980 by the founding principal Peter Harris. The college's current principal is Roger Oates. Billanook College is named after the name the local Wurundjeri people called the area, on which the college now stands. Billanook College is a member of the Eastern Independent Schools of Melbourne. EISM member schools in the same area regularly play each other in sporting activities ranging from

Cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

Tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

Soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

Field Hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

and

Australian Rules Football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

Badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

and

Table Tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

. Billanook College hosts the local VET Media and Music course as it has since 2004.

Facilities

The college has recently begun an ambitious building program and since 2009 have constructed several new buildings, including The Alan Ross Centre (The ARC), a 475-seat auditorium named after the college's long-serving former principal, Alan Ross, who served from 1997 to 2009. The new Junior Early Learning Centre was opened in 2010 and four new fully equipped science laboratories were also opened in mid 2010. On 28 January 2016, Billanook College opened its $1.8 million Discovery Centre building. About a year later Billanook opened the Mastery Centre for students from Year 7 to 9. They're now looking into refurbishing Senior School, and then the Performing Arts Section of the college.

Grounds

Billanook College has expansive grounds including two full sized ovals, one half size oval, a large gym, three basketball courts and a volleyball court. In conjunction with Yarra Valley winemakers Billanook College has developed its own working vineyard and Viticulture Skills Centre on the school property, which first produced 68 bottles of their first vintage in 2004.

Sport

Billanook is a member of the Eastern Independent Schools of Melbourne (EISM).

EISM Premierships

Billanook has won the following EISM senior premierships. Combined: * Swimming (2) – 1998, 2000 Boys: * Badminton – 2013 * Basketball (4) – 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006 * Football (3) – 1998, 1999, 2003 * Handball – 2004 * Hockey – 2019 * Indoor Soccer – 2005 * Swimming (3) – 1999, 2000, 2001 * Table Tennis – 2000 * Tennis – 2005 * Volleyball (16) – 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018 Girls: * Basketball (4) – 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005 * Cricket (2) – 2000, 2006 * Cross Country – 1999 * Football (5) – 2004, 2005, 2013, 2015, 2016 * Hockey (3) – 1998, 1999, 2000 * Indoor Cricket (6) – 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2021 * Soccer (2) – 1998, 2009 * Softball (6) – 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2013, 2019 * Volleyball (10) – 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2018, 2019, 2020

Notable alumni

* Simon Clarke – Professional

road bicycle racer Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most com ...

Tony D'Alberto Antonio Alvano "Tony" D'Alberto (born 9 December 1985) is an Australian professional racing driver. He currently drives the No.17 Ford Mustang S650, Ford Mustang GT for Dick Johnson Racing as a co-driver in the Supercars Championship. Racing ca ...

– Professional race car driver * Julian de Stoop –

AFL AFL may refer to: Education * Angel Foundation for Learning, a Canadian Roman Catholic charity * Ankara Science High School, a high school in Ankara, Turkey, natively referred to as ''Ankara Fen Liesi'' * Assessment for learning Military * ...

journalist *

Daniel Hargraves Daniel Hargraves (born 6 December 1975) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Western Bulldogs and Fremantle in the Australian Football League. He was originally drafted by the Bulldogs from the Eastern Under 18 side in th ...

– Former AFL player *

Trent Lowe Trent Lowe (born 8 October 1984, in Melbourne) is a professional road bicycle racer from Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continen ...

– Professional road bicycle racer *

Daniel Merriweather Daniel Paul Merriweather (born 17 February 1982) is an Australian R&B singer-songwriter and record producer. Merriweather's debut solo album, '' Love & War'', was released in June 2009. It entered the UK Albums Chart at number two. It was ...

– R&B artist *

Damian Monkhorst Damian Monkhorst is a former Australian rules football player who played in the late 1980’s, 1990’s, and early 2000’s with the Collingwood Football Club and St Kilda Football Club. Playing career During his playing career with Collingw ...

–

player * Stephanie Payne – Writer, blogger,

public servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

, charity fundraiser and

activist Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...

* Paul Sanderson – Australian volleyball player

References

External links

* {{Authority control Round Square schools Educational institutions established in 1980 Private schools in Victoria (state) Eastern Independent Schools of Melbourne Junior School Heads Association of Australia Member Schools Uniting Church schools in Australia Private schools in Melbourne 1980 establishments in Australia Buildings and structures in the Shire of Yarra Ranges