Our History

St Barnabas College (SBC) was first founded in 1880 by Bishop Augustus Short opposite the site of St Peter’s Cathedral and was established as the training centre for ordinands of the Anglican Diocese of Adelaide.  The college remained in that place for 70 years till 1950 when it was closed, only to reopen in 1965 in a purpose-built site in Belair (now St John’s Anglican Grammar School).  In 1979 St Barnabas became one of the founding members of the Adelaide College of Divinity, an ecumenical consortium of colleges of the Anglican, Catholic and Uniting Churches which offered its theological degrees through Flinders University.  This led in 1997 to all three colleges relocating to a shared campus in Brooklynn Park.

In 2009 St Barnabas changed its affiliation with the ACD & Flinders University to enter into an arrangement with Charles Sturt University’s School of Theology, and in 2013 the college returned to its original site, 18 King William Rd., North Adelaide, opposite what is affectionately referred to as the “Cathedral Precinct.”

SBC is still the training centre for the Diocese of Adelaide and offers support to the other dioceses in the Province: The Murray and Willochra.

In 2020 the college celebrated its 140-year anniversary but was curtailed in those celebrations by Covid-19 restrictions. It is intended that a belated celebration of this college’s history and heritage will take place during 2021.