Griffith Duncan Building (V)

Griffith Duncan Building (V)

Mr Griffith Hammond Duncan

1914–1988

This building commemorates Mr Griffith Hammond Duncan, a pioneering educator whose vision and leadership helped lay the foundations of the University of Newcastle. As the Founding Principal of Newcastle Teachers’ College in 1949, Mr Duncan played a central role in establishing teacher education in the region. Under his stewardship, the College evolved into the Newcastle College of Advanced Education and later the Hunter Institute of Higher Education, which formally amalgamated with the University in 1989.
 
Mr Duncan, born in Kurri Kurri and educated at the University of Sydney, was a scholar of distinction, awarded First Class Honours and the University Medal in Mathematics. His career spanned teaching, military service in the RAAF, and academic leadership.
 
Together with Professor James Auchmuty, the University’s first Vice-Chancellor, Mr Duncan is recognised as one of the two foundational figures of our Callaghan campus. His legacy was first honoured in 1975 with the naming of the Griffith Duncan Theatre, a beloved space for learning and performance.

As the Hunter Building and its theatre are decommissioned, the naming of this building ensures Mr Duncan’s enduring contribution to our University and to education in Australia is remembered and celebrated by future generations.

Newcastle Teacher's College

Griffith Duncan MA, Dip Ed, MEd, FACE, OBE (1914-1988) was the Principal of the Newcastle Teacher's College, later to become the Newcastle College of Advanced Education (N.C.A.E) in 1974.

His early education was at Kurri, his secondary at East Maitland Boys' High School, and tertiary at the University of Sydney where he pursued his love of English and his bent for Mathematics and Science. Griff, as he was known, completed his own professional training year at Sydney Teachers' College and was eventually appointed in 1935 to the N.S.W. Teaching Service at Newcastle Junior High School. In 1940 he was triumphantly awarded his Master of Arts degree in mathematics, with First Class Honours, and the University Medal.

After five and a half years in the R.A.A.F., he returned to teaching at Sydney Technical High School. He was then appointed to Balmain Teachers' College as a Lecturer in Mathematics, and part-time at the University of Sydney, before going to Wagga Teachers' College as Vice-Principal for two years.

A State decision was made to open a Teachers' College in Newcastle in 1949, and Griffith Duncan was appointed to be the Principal. Originally opened in the Manual Arts Room of what was to be part of Newcastle Technical High School, the institution began with 13 staff and 182 students. He supervised the growth of the Teacher's College from an institution housed in a half-finished High School at Broadmeadow, offering two-year courses in Primary teaching, to one housed at Callaghan, offering courses in Secondary education with a wide range of specialisations.

He retired on the 27^th March, 1975 after twenty-six years of guiding teacher education in Newcastle. 

IMAGE: Griffith Duncan with staff of the Newcastle Teachers' College, 1949
IMAGE: Griffith Duncan addressing the first assembly at the Newcastle Teachers' College, 1 March 1949
(Images scanned from photographs held by the University of Newcastle Special Collections)

Griffith Duncan Theatre

Named in his honour in 1975, the Griffith Duncan Theatre was located in the Hunter Building of the University of Newcastle, Callaghan Campus, and was recognised as one of Newcastle's premier full performance venues in its time.

IMAGE: East view of the Griffith Duncan Theatre, the Hunter Institute of Higher Education, Newcastle, Australia
(Images scanned from photographs held by the University of Newcastle Special Collections)

LINKS

Hunter Living Histories and Special Collections, the University of Newcastle Library