Ellen White: Woman of Vision

A Start With Buildings For Avondale College

Land had been cleared on a high rise in the ground with the hope that when funds were available, a beginning could be made in putting up school buildings. The master plan worked out by W. C. Sisley and adopted by the union conference committee called for three structures as a beginning—the central building for administration and classrooms, flanked on either side at a distance of 100 feet (30 meters) by dormitories for the young men and the young women. These were to be erected on what L. J. Rousseau described in his letter to the churches, dated February 25, 1895, as “one of the prettiest elevations that could be found in the whole vicinity” (DF 170, “The Avondale School, 1895-1907”). WV 323.1

But before there could be buildings, there had to be lumber, milled from trees cut from the forest. This called for a sawmill. W. C. White, writing to his brother Edson on August 3, described plans for the building to house the mill. He reported: WV 323.2

Brethren Rousseau and Metcalfe Hare have been in Sydney for two weeks buying building materials, horses, wagons, farming implements, fruit trees, et cetera, et cetera.... Last night we advertised for a boiler, engine, circular saw, planer, turning lathe, and for a brickmaking plant (8 WCW, p. 31). WV 323.3

He commented, “We shall have very busy times at Avondale for the next few months.” WV 323.4

Progress in erecting the school buildings was steady. Professor Rousseau, who had been connected with the school enterprise from the start of the Bible school in Melbourne, had returned to the United States. The chairman of the school board, W. C. White, who also served as president of the Australasian Union Conference, had been sent to America to attend the General Conference session and to take care of Australian interests, among them the production of health foods. Being on the grounds, Ellen White was expected to lead out. She felt quite alone in having to make decisions concerning the school enterprise. There was one ordained minister of experience in the whole colony of New South Wales, whose time was much taken up with the general interests of an advancing work. WV 323.5