Geelong Chamber

of Commerce

The Chamber's Beginnings 

A group of Geelong’s businessmen founded the Geelong Chamber of Commerce in June, 1853. The Chamber acted as a financier for a lot of Geelong businesses first starting up. The Chamber built and opened its first office in 1859 in Moorabool Street, immediately south of the Chamber's present offices in the Victorian Business Centre. The Chamber's building, was a very grand and opulent design of two storeys and was built over two frontages at 77-81 Moorabool Street. It later became Geelong's first Free Library.

The Chamber also worked closely with the Geelong port and presided over tremendous growth in commerce and trade, both in and out of Geelong, and did a lot of exporting of local produce in its early days. The Chamber was heavily involved in the export of frozen meat to England, out of Geelong port, with local discussions taking place as early as 1893 and with the first shipments finally taking place in 1897. By that time, Geelong was quite well established as a port for handling grain cargoes.

The Chamber saw rapid growth until the railway between Geelong and Melbourne was completed in the 1880’s. The new railway brought a considerable downturn in the operations of the Chamber as many Geelong merchants saw greater trading opportunities in Melbourne and relocated their businesses there. The Chamber still carried on, but in a much smaller way. Late in 1890, it was decided by the members to restructure the organisation and, at a public meeting, they reconstituted it as the Chamber of Commerce and Manufactures - Geelong. It then had a membership of 104.

The first President of the new Chamber was Mr G.M.Hitchcock, of Bright and Hitchcock, which became Victoria’s largest country department store. In 1975, the Chamber decided to change its name back to the original name - The Geelong Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber Today

The Geelong Chamber of Commerce is still a non-profit and non-political business organisation. The Chamber remains totally independent and answers only to its members who comprise large, medium and small business enterprises and organisations, and include Ford Australia, Alcoa, Shell Australia, Deakin University, Gordon Institute of TAFE, Barwon Health, Geelong Football Club, etc. to individual members. The Geelong Chamber is the largest and second-oldest Chamber in Victoria and it, unashamedly, promotes Geelong business and always "Puts Geelong First".

It is quite different to the usual Chamber of Commerce in that it represents all business and industry sectors and believes that it has exerted considerable influence for the betterment of business success and growth in Geelong. The Geelong Chamber is the peak business and industry association in the Geelong region. It is well-accepted and respected and, while non-political, is seen as being quite influential in political circles and enjoys direct links to Canberra and Spring Street and speaks to all local parliamentary representatives on a regular basis. All of these bring about better communication and understanding about local businesses needs.

The Chamber is also close to the City of Greater Geelong which is represented on the Chamber Council.

Conversely, the Chamber has representation, through Directors, on the Geelong Development Board, Central Geelong City Management Committee, Geelong Transport Taskforce, Geelong Environmental Management Implementation Committee, Geelong Graffiti Reference Group and other major committees and organisations. The Chamber's strength is in its numbers and the fact that it can speak with an independent voice for Geelong's businesses and industries.