TRINITY

‘Trinity’ is the name of the previous St Columba and Kingswood Colleges and its early history is, in large measure, their history.
During 1999 it was agreed that from 2000 the two Colleges would operate under the governance of one Council and under the administration of one Head. The ethos of each student community was maintained in 2001 through the continuance of the Kingswood and St Columba Student Clubs, but the future intention was to bring the two College communities as close together as possible and to share common facilities and resources; the bringing together of the two dining rooms and computing facilities for 2001 was a significant step in this direction.
Also significant in 2001 was the work of a committee, chaired by the Chair of the College Council Revd Geoff Blyth, established to find a new name for the College. The committee chose the name ‘Trinity’ both because of its significant links with the Uniting Church in Western Australia and because it represents a spiritual symbol and union between three key elements –

· the College
· the Uniting Church in Australia, and
· The University of Western Australia

Trinity is synonymous with university communities both in Australia and overseas. Because of this linkage the name brings with it a sense of tradition and longevity.
The Committee strongly recommended that the word “College” not appear as part of the formal name. As with our current literature a rider will clarify our core business via the wording - TRINITY “A Residential College of the Uniting Church in Australia at The University of Western Australia.”
The chosen motto - Friendship. Learning. Growth. - required very little debate. The committee and council were unanimous regarding its choice. Some of you will be familiar with the motto. For those seeing it for the first time you will understand why the words chosen so succinctly describe what our community is about. The actual number of words, in the chosen motto (three), also links directly to the word and meaning of Trinity i.e. the state of being three.
The crest has been designed to reflect our heritage with symbolic representation from both St Columba and Kingswood. It also encompasses symbolism associated with The University of Western Australia. Drawing all of the elements together is a symbol of the Church (the Celtic cross) as the TRINITY ST. COLUMBA KINGSWOOD unifier for the work that we do.
The College colours - purple and gold - have been selected to provide a unique presence in the community in which we operate. In time the colours should become clearly distinguishable within the University and wider precinct.
In 2002, the two student clubs were merged under the leadership of a single president. This played a major part in consolidating Trinity’s identity as a single college.
Trinity is now the largest residential college at the University of Western Australia and one of the largest fully catered colleges across the Australian residential college sector.

2000		The two colleges to operate under the one Council
2001		The college Name was chosen as "Trinity"
2004		Resignation of Alec O'Connell as Head and the appointment of Mike Shearer as the New Head of College