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Ellen White: Woman of Vision

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Starting A College From Scratch

Because of the light given to Ellen White, there had never been any doubt in her mind that Cooranbong was the right place for the new school. WV 321.1

But several members of the locating committee hesitated and questioned. Even A. G. Daniells, influenced by the reports rendered by the government experts, had not taken a positive stand. WV 321.2

Since no decisive action had been taken at the close of the Ashfield camp meeting, Ellen White thought it was time for something to be done. She called WV 321.3

W. C. White, chairman of the locating committee, and Elder Daniells, president of the Australian Conference, and repeated her strong convictions, ending her talk with a challenge: “Is there not a God in Israel, that ye have turned to the god of Ekron?” WV 321.4

In response to her firm convictions in the matter, the committee decided to return to Cooranbong and take another look at the Brettville estate. WV 321.5

In the meantime members of the Foreign Mission Board in America found it difficult to put out of their minds the fact that Ellen White was firm in her stand that the Brettville estate was the place for the school. By formal action they removed their objection to plans to establish the college there. WV 321.6

Word to this effect brought courage to the committee on the school location in Australia. On November 20, 1894, the Australian Union Conference committee took the following action: WV 321.7

Whereas, The Foreign Mission Board has withdrawn its objections to our locating the Australasian Bible School in the Brettville estate at Cooranbong, and ... WV 321.8

Whereas, We believe that the Brettville estate can be made a suitable place for our proposed school.... WV 321.9

Resolved, That we proceed to the establishment of the Australasian Bible School on the said Brettville estate (minutes of the Australasian Union Conference, November 20, 1894, in 5 WCW, p. 197). WV 321.10

Returning from Tasmania and the wedding of W. C. White and May Lacey, Ellen White spent the month of June (1895) at her home, Norfolk Villa, in various activities: assisting in the work with the new companies of believers being raised up, planning for the evangelistic thrust in Sydney, and writing energetically. She felt much worn and was eager for a change that could come by being in Cooranbong. WV 321.11

So Monday morning, July 1, with W. C. White and his family, she took the train for Cooranbong, and stayed for three weeks, at first in the home of Herbert Lacey, newly come from America. They found 26 boys and young men living in the rented hotel building, and some sleeping in tents. They were clearing the land and building roads and bridges, making a beginning for the school. On February 25 Professor Rousseau had sent a letter to the churches announcing plans and inviting young men to come to the school and engage in a program of work and study. Each student would work six hours a day, which would pay for board, lodging, and tuition in two classes. WV 322.1

When Ellen White and W. C. White and his family came onto the school grounds, Metcalfe Hare was there managing a team of a dozen or more young men, Rousseau was managing a similar group in their work on the land, and good progress was being made. WV 322.2

Very early in the project to build a college at Cooranbong the idea of making it an industrial school, using students in manual training classes, and following the part-time-work, part-time-study plan, had been recognized as profitable and beneficial to the students both financially and healthwise. WV 322.3

Two years previously, when W. C. White was at the New Zealand camp meeting, he had scouted for young men interested in the industrial department. WV 322.4

On March 5, 1895, the manual training department opened, but it was without much support at first. In his efforts to get things moving at the school, WV 322.5

W. C. White had been talking of such a plan for several months, and he wrote: WV 322.6

You would be surprised to learn of the criticism, the opposition, and the apathy against which the proposition had to be pressed. The board said it would not pay, the teachers feared that it would be for them much labor with small results, and in many cases, the friends of those for whom the department was planned criticized severely, saying that young men would not feel like study after six hours of hard work (8 WCW, p. 32). WV 322.7