This term is used in Victoria to differentiate privately owned or incorporated schools from those that are part of the State education system. More prominent in Melbourne than in Sydney, where the elite is more likely to have been educated in State selective-entry schools, independent schools have been important in defining the city's identity. More than half of the city's students complete their education outside the State sector, with the proportion being higher in the south-eastern suburbs where the most prestigious independent schools are concentrated.
A number of private schools were established in the s, including the Port Phillip Proprietary College founded which soon gained a promising reputation. However, when Charles Perry, first Anglican Bishop of Melbourne, arrived in , he remarked that the previous 14 years had seen schools established which were 'unworthy of the church'. From then on much of the impetus for the creation of independent schools came from the churches, especially following the founding of the University of Melbourne in It closed in but is still seen by some as the precursor of Melbourne Grammar School founded This school, along with Geelong Grammar School founded , re-founded , dominated Anglican education for decades.
The Presbyterians, originally relying on parish schools, decided in to seek from Scotland 'an accomplished teacher to take charge of an Academy'. When the first Catholic Bishop of Melbourne, James Goold, was appointed in , he was also anxious to establish a school.
He did so in , and in it became St Patrick's College. Soon afterwards the Academy of Mary Immaculate was established, the first major denominational girls' school in Melbourne. The West Melbourne Grammar School was established by the Melbourne Hebrew congregation in , and a range of other schools followed. However, many have not survived, the depression of the s taking its toll.
Most non-denominational private schools flourished for a short period, only to close on the death or retirement of their founder, although some, such as Hawthorn Grammar School, established formidable reputations and weathered many slumps in enrolments. A few private-venture schools were saved, but of the small private girls' schools only Toorak College now in Mount Eliza and Ruyton Kew survived.
