Campion College names library after Gina Rinehart

Australia’s first liberal arts tertiary education college, Campion College, in Sydney’s west, has named its new ­library after Gina Rinehart.

The Gina Rinehart Library at Campion College.

Australia’s first liberal arts tertiary education college, Campion College at Toongabbie, west of Parramatta, has named its new ­library after Gina Rinehart, executive chairman of Hancock Prospecting.

Mrs Rinehart, who has supported medical research, and sporting, veteran, health and educational organisations for many years, secured naming rights to the two-storey library.

It was opened on Thursday as part of the college’s new academic centre, which also gives the college’s 150 full-time-equivalent undergraduate and postgraduate students a grand hall, a new lecture theatre, media room and six additional classrooms.

“We are deeply honoured and thankful to Mrs Rinehart for her transformative contribution to Campion College,’’ college president Paul Morrissey said.

“As we stand here before these awe-inspiring buildings, we are reminded that they have been meticulously built to last and inspire generations of current and future students. I am confident that students and scholars who study in these rooms will find solace in the wealth of resources housed within the Gina Rinehart Library.’’

The library includes 25,000 books, including hundreds ­donated by Sydney priest Paul Stenhouse, the former editor of Annals magazine and a scholar of Islam and at least 10 biblical, Middle Eastern and European languages. He died in November 2019. Stenhouse helped develop the college and gave occasional lectures there. Campion began in 2006 with 12 students. It was ­established by retired Brisbane businessman James Power, with a classical curriculum based on the study of the “great books’’ of Western civilisation, covering history, literature, philosophy, science, Latin, maths and ­theology.

Dr Morrissey said Campion was an independent institution of higher education, offering a transformative undergraduate experience that inspires students to think critically, engage in rigorous intellectual discourse and develop transferable skills for success in a wide range of industries and professions.

Its graduates to date are working in teaching, medicine, law, ­academia, business, journalism, the Catholic priesthood and ­religious life.