Excerpt from A Short Historical Account of the University of Sydney: In Connection With the Jubilee Celebrations, 1852 1902

Some delay occurred in obtaining a title to the land approved by the original grant on the racecourse, where the Sydney Grammar School now stands, but the buildings were at length commenced under the design and direction of Mr. Edward Hallen, and were sufficiently completed to enable a beginning to be made in the year 1835, when the college was Opened under the presidency of Mr. W. T. Cape, with sixty pupils, a number which increased before the expiration of a year to one hundred and forty-two. The success of the institution, however, does not seem to have altogether come up to the expectation of its founders, or its Committee of management, a fact which was possibly in a measure due to the establishment in 1831 of the King's School at Parramatta, and of Dr. Lang's Australian College in Jamieson Street; for we hnd that in 1849 a petition was presented to the Legislative Council from a majority of the proprietors of the Sydney College, praying for the adop tion of measures to convert the institution into an University, and stating their willingness to 'hand it over to any body of persons possessing the means of carrying out this object, reserving to themselves the right of presentation or some corresponding advantage. It was this petition which led to the formation of the University.

Upon its presentation to the Legislative Council, it was moved by W. C. Wentworth on September 6th, That a Select Committee be appointed to enquire into the matters contained in the petition of the proprietors of the Sydney College, and report upon the best means of instituting an University for the promotion of literature and science, to be endowed at the public expense. The motion was agreed to with the omission of the words in italics, so that the Committee might be free to recommend such steps as seemed best adapted to the needs of the community without reference to any existing institution.

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