History
St Andrew’s College Act No 15, 1998
An Act to constitute the Council of St Andrew’s College as a corporation and to confer functions on that corporation; to repeal the St Andrew’s College Incorporation Act 1867; and for other purposes. [Assented to 1 June 1998].
The St Andrew’s College Act of Parliament is available for download here.
By-Laws of St Andrew’s College
Shortly after the St Andrew’s College Act was proclaimed to commence in August 1998, the College Council met to make and give immediate force and effect to new By-laws, signed by the Chair of Council. Amendments were made to the By-laws in March 2005.
The College By-Laws are available for download here.
College Crest and Andrew’s Blue
The St Andrew’s College Incorporation Act received Royal Assent in 1867; the 31st year of the reign of Queen Victoria and was only replaced by an updated Act as recently as 1998. In 1870, the College Council first met and in 1876 the students entered the grand sandstone Scottish baronial building now known as the Main Building.
The basic idea of the Andrew’s crest comes, of course, from the Scottish national flag, showing the white saltire cross of St Andrew on a blue ground. This form of cross was used as a Scottish device since the fourteenth century and the convention of white on blue was firmly in place five hundred years ago.
In 1876, the Council of St Andrew’s College commissioned the Colonial Architect of New South Wales to design for them a coat of arms to use on their new corporate seal. James Barnet was the Colonial Architect, one of the most distinguished of all government architects here, and he designed a shield with a white St Andrew’s saltire cross on a light-ish blue ground, with four eight-pointed stars arranged between the arms of the cross. An open book with ‘Holy Bible’ written in English on its two visible pages lay in the centre of the cross.