FROM funding cuts, dwindling numbers and multi-million dollar research investments, Longerenong College has been through it all.
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Council of Agricultural Education established the college in 1889 and it opened its doors with 20 students.
Original courses were aimed at the sons of farmers who required the equivalent of second year of high school to enrol.
Exams were on Saturday mornings and farm work and classes were often at nights and on weekends.
In those days, the college had a strict 'lights out' rule at 10pm.
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No alcohol was allowed on the premises and students were required to attend church.
For fun, students would eagerly await the monthly dances, when a busload of girls would arrive from Horsham.
Author Mark Twain visited the college in 1895 and noted 'there were 40 pupils there - a few of them farmers relearning their trade, the rest young men mainly from the cities - novices'.
Past student Laurie Crouch, told the Wimmera Mail-Times in 2004, about his time at Longerenong College in the 1930s.
Mr Crouch grew up at Frewville, south of Kaniva, and attended the college in its heyday along with the sons of many farmers across the state.
At the time the college had thriving practical industries, including a dairy, broadacre cropping, poultry, piggery, orchard, sheep production and saddlery.
Students did theory lessons interspersed with practical farm work.
Mr Crouch started at Longerenong when he was 14 in 1933.
In January 1935, he graduated as the college's top student and collected the Finke prize, which carried with it a gold medal and 100 pounds.
His results allowed him a year's free tuition and board at Dookie for the remainder of 1935.
In 1940, a fire caused extensive damage at the college.
The fire started in the early hours of January 14, 1940, and destroyed buildings, students' possessions and college files.
It started in a boot room and spread quickly.
In 1969, the college peaked with 31 residential houses on the campus.
Their occupants totalled 120 to 130 people, including about 20 children in the primary school that was attached to the college and about 17 teaching staff.
In 1972, the college proudly became one of the first agricultural colleges to accept female students.
The number of female students swelled in 2015 to the point where females outnumbered the males for the first time in the history of the college.
In the early 2000s, the college faced some of its toughest times, under the operation of Melbourne University.
University officials announced on October 1, 2004, that it would only support one full-service regional campus in agricultural, meaning all Longerenong College's full-time courses would be transferred to Dookie.
Students, teachers and Wimmera leaders rallied around the college, but by 2005 Melbourne University had completely withdrawn responsibility and courses.
Workco Limited, which later became Skillinvest, took over operations of the college in 2006 and the institution started to rebuild.
Longerenong College general manager John Goldsmith said the tough times in the 2000s were now a distant memory.
"We had some really tough years between 2006 and 2009 when student numbers dropped right off," he said.
"People thought we were closed and it took a long time to eradicate that message in the community."
Mr Goldsmith said the college was now going from strength to strength, with new state and federal government investments in agriculture technology.
In 2017, student enrolments were the highest they had been in more than 15 years.
Last year, the state government announced it would establish the AgTIDE DATA Farm Project, which is a $3.6 million digitally-enable 1000-hectare demonstration farm, at the college.
The farm will test and analyse the latest digital agricultural technology in the grains industry.
A timeline of Longerenong College
1877: The state government sets asides 2300 acres, 930 hectares, at Longerenong for 'experimental and agricultural purposes'.
1884: The Council of Agricultural Education paves the way to establish colleges at Longerenong and Dookie.
1888: Work starts at Longerenong at the cost of $7540.
1889: The college opens with 30 students.
1898: The college closes and reopens in 1905.
1922: The college acquires its first tractor, a Moline.
1940: A fire causes extensive damage at the college.
1964: New buildings open and the college has its first open day.
1966: Entrance qualification rises to leaving - year 11- standard.
1970: First students graduate with diploma of agricultural science.
1972: Female students are accepted for the first time.
1983: The college joins the Victorian College of Agriculture and Horticulture.
1987: The dairy closes after 60 years.
1997: The college becomes part of the University of Melbourne's Institute of Land and Food Resources.
2006. The college came under the management of Workco Limited, now Skillinvest.
2008: Commercial egg production ceases.
2009: Launch of the diploma of agronomy.
2010: Opening of the first stage of a joint partnership $10-million Wimmera Trade Training Centre and Vehicle Training Centre.
2014: $3.1 million from the state and federal governments was secured to upgrade the student accommodation. Opening of the $14 million Bayer CropScience Wheat and Oilseed Breeding Centre.
2017: Students enrolments are the highest in more than 15 years, with more than 100 full-time on-campus students.
2018: $2.546 million from the state government to develop the AgTIDE DATA Farm Project.
2019: First international students enrolled.
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