The college was officially opened and blessed on 11 July 1915 by the Archbishop of BrisbaneJames Duhig. The school has been operated by the Christian Brothers[6][3][7] since its inception. On the first day there were 270 students and a staff of five teachers. The monastery for the Brothers was built in 1917.[3]
Since 1961, the school has also operated sporting fields in the southern Brisbane suburb of Runcorn, which contains eight playing fields and a function centre.[3] In 1977 the school established an outdoor educational facility, Camp Laurence, at Lake Moogerah, to the west of Brisbane.[3]
In 1994 a College Board was established as an advisory group for the principal. In 1996 the first lay principal, Mr D Frederiksen, was appointed with the Christian Brothers retaining ownership and control of the College.[3] The last of the brothers left the monastery in 2009, and the building was converted in 2010 into the school's administration building.[3]
In 2010, as part of an agreement with the adjacent Mater Hospital Brisbane, the school's land was leased for 25 years to build a six-storey car park, which now houses the college's synthetic oval on top along with a 1500 seat auditorium.[3]
Alumni of St Laurence's College are known as "Old Boys" and may elect to join the school's alumni association, the St Laurence's College Old Boys Association. Notable alumni include:
This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations.(August 2019)
On 28 July 2008, a group of youths armed with a meat cleaver and a steel bar stormed St Laurence's School campus in South Brisbane and attacked two 15-year-old boys. One student was slashed across the face and had to undergo surgery. Another suffered deep cuts to his lower back.[34] Seven individuals, aged between thirteen and eighteen, were charged over the attacks.[35]
Sexual assault
The college has a history of sexual assaults.[36] At a candlelight mass in 2015 hosted by Ian McDonald, St Laurence's previous principal, he apologised for the sexual assaults, saying that they "must never happen again". In April 1984, former Christian Brother Brian Dennis Cairns was charged with sexual assault offences against twelve male pupils, aged from ten to twelve years, a number of which attended St Laurence's. Cairns was jailed in 1985 and again in 2014 after more victims came forward.[37]
^ abcd"HALL OF FAME". St Laurence's College Old Boys' Association. Archived from the original on 22 February 2022. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
^"Briskey, Darryl James". Queensland Parliament. 27 June 2017. Archived from the original on 15 October 2022. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
^Walter, James. "BYRNE, CONDON BRYAN (1910–1993)". The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate Online Edition. Archived from the original on 23 March 2022. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
^Anderson, Brad (2 August 2010). "Yachting Great passes away". Sail-World Canada. Archived from the original on 15 August 2020. Retrieved 15 October 2022.