The initial meeting of the Faculty of Agriculture took place on 15 December 1905, when Professor W. A. Osborne Professor of Histology and Physiology was elected Dean. However, despite the formation of a faculty there were no dedicated staff until 1911, and it was not until the 1920s that the School of Agriculture moved to develop its own identity in terms of staff, students and physical resources. In contrast the Faculty also moved to separate from the School and distinguish the Committee chaired by the Dean to be responsible for administration of academic matters. Then in 1973 the Victorian School of Forestry merged with the University of Melbourne to create the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry. In 1986, the position of Dean of the single department Faculty passed from Dr Rolf Beilharz to Professor (of Forestry) Ian Ferguson. In 1990, Professor Egan assumed the Deanship for the traditional three years and was requested to extend by one year to the end of 1993. By this time, a number of the changes were planned for the Faculty by the University Administration. In 1994 Professor Robert White was appointed Acting Dean with two newly created departments the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Forestry. He continued in this role until 3 April 1995 when the Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Horticulture was formed. Then on the 1 July 1997 the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Horticulture merged with the Victorian College of Agriculture and Horticulture to form the Institute of Land and Food Resources. In 2005 the department was renamed the Faculty of Land and Food Resources, in line with University convention.

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