History and Heritage

Nearly 75 years ago, on the land known as Riversdale, Chevalier College first planted the seeds of its mission to grow young hearts and minds.  Chevalier College began in February 1946, as a boarding and day school for boys with a gathering of just 40 students, along with the staff of 8 priests and 5 brothers from the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.

Boarders slept in surplus army huts and science classes were conducted in a converted garage.  Heating was minimal and the food was frugal at best. Rural fields were gradually transformed into some of the best sporting facilities in the district, thanks to the hard work of the MSC brothers and the students who cleared the land, often by hand.

In 1973 the first female cohort joined Chevalier followed by a full amalgamation with the Dominican Elm Court girls school in 1977. After almost 60 years, boarding at Chevalier ceased completely in 2003. Both events contributed to the development of Chevalier College today. Through all of these changes, as the college has grown and evolved, new buildings have been added and old ones repurposed.

Today, Chevalier is a flourishing college with over 900 students and some 100 staff. More than 13,000 alumni have graduated with an education ‘of the heart’ and can claim a sense of kinship with that first Chevalier gathering.