Eden Oak

A recent stay at the Eden Oak resort in Geelong revealed a site with a much deeper history than I’d anticipated.

Late last year, it was decided that we should have a holiday along Victoria’s Great Ocean Road. The problem was that we’d left it rather late, and so we had to book accomodation in Geelong. Options were limited, but one place came up: A resort called Eden Oak. It looked nice, had a swimming pool and the limited reviews were quite good. So we booked.

When we arrived, I knew that there was something more to this place than meets the eye. Friends in Geelong had seemingly never heard of this Eden Oak place, but they knew the location. They kept telling us that there was a “Department of Education property” somewhere “over there”, but a quick Google internet search revealed nothing of the sort.

The answer was revealed when I walked into the front foyer of Eden Oak and noticed a plaque on the wall:

Institute of Educational Administration Residential Headquarters. Opened by the Honourable John Cain, Premier of Victoria, 7 February 1985.

Ah ha! It used to be some sort of educational institution! But what was this Institute of Educational Administration and why did it require residential headquarters?

It turns out that the Institute of Educational Administration in Geelong was a significant project of the State Government via the Department of Education.

Dr. Lawrie Shears, a former Director-General of Education, founded the Institute of Educational Administration in 1978 with the backing of the government under Premier Rupert Hamer. The next Premier, Lindsay Thompson, set aside Crown Land for the Institute in 1980 at Eastern Park in Geelong and initiated construction. By the time it opened in 1985, the Liberal governments of Hamer and Thompson had been replaced by John Cain’s Labor government, but his support ensured that the buildings were completed and the institute opened. The sprawling campus-style modernist buildings were designed by esteemed architects McGlashan Everist.

And so it remained until 1993 when the new Liberal government, headed by Jeff Kennett, decided that it had no place for such an institute. The Institute of Educational Administration was closed and the land sold to the Salvation Army for $2.6 million.

The Salvation Army used the site as a conference centre for a couple of decades, but in 2020 they sold it to a hotel group for over $6 million. The new owners have undertaken some sensitive renovations and re-named the site Eden Oak.

We stayed at Eden Oak for three nights, and I really enjoyed it. I loved the modernist architecture and campus layout. The room was comfortable and well-appointed. Most of all, it was peaceful and relaxing. Here are a few photos that I took during my stay:

Part of what made my stay here so special was knowing that it had a rather more interesting history than it first appeared.

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