History of Wagga Wagga Campus

The history of the Wagga Wagga Campus dates back to 1892 with the establishment of the Wagga Experiment Farm offering vocational agricultural education on the current site of Wagga Wagga's main Campus of Charles Sturt University. However, the first students were not enrolled at the Experiment Farm until the 1 October 1896.

In 1948, the Minister for Agriculture proposed the establishment of an Agricultural College at Wagga Wagga offering a three year Diploma course, and on the 9 September 1949 the Wagga Wagga Experiment Farm was converted into the Wagga Wagga Agricultural College. Although the first students attended lectures on the 3 March 1949, the official opening and naming did not take place until the 9 September 1949.

Two years earlier in 1947, the Wagga Wagga Teachers College had been established on a different site in the township of Wagga Wagga (later to become known as 'South Campus') to provide teacher education.

During 1971, the Riverina College of Advanced Education was formally established and on the 1 January 1972 the Wagga Wagga Teachers College was dissolved and the Riverina College of Advanced Education was established on the site of the Teachers College. Study centres were also opened in Albury and Griffith.

On the 1 January 1976, the Wagga Wagga Agricultural College was merged with the Riverina College of Advanced Education and became the School of Agriculture within the College.

During the 1970's, the Council of the RCAE had decided to purchase a green field's site adjacent to the existing Campus of the Wagga Wagga Agricultural College known locally as 'Booroma' Campus. During the late 1970s and into the 1980s, a great deal of building development was undertaken at this new site in readiness for the transfer of staff, students and amenities to the new Booroma and Agricultural campuses north of the Murrumbidgee River, from the old Teachers College Campus in the city proper.

Effective from March 1 1985, the name of the College was changed to the Riverina-Murray Institute of Higher Education to better reflect the geographical areas served by the institution, with the two main campuses located at Wagga Wagga and Albury.

In 1989, the Charles Sturt University Act brought together the Riverina Murray Institute of Higher Education and the Mitchell College of Advanced Education to form Charles Sturt University. Wagga Wagga Campus became one of the three foundation campuses of CSU along with Bathurst and Albury-Wodonga.