The Foundation Years (1978-1979)
John L. Mason, whilst lecturing horticulture at several Melbourne colleges, became aware of a growing problem. Too often, qualified applicants were being turned away each year—simply put, the colleges did not have the means to facilitate an increasing number of students. To Mr. Mason, the answer seemed obvious: develop a course students could study without needing a physical campus. At first, Mr. Mason tried to secure government support, but bureaucracy stalled progress. Fed up, Mr. Mason decided to develop his own course, and with help from a marketing colleague, advertised in August 1979’s Your Garden Magazine, immediately garnering thirty seven enrolments and launching Australian Horticultural Correspondence School.
The 1980s
Until 1982, courses used notes printed from master stencils on a roneo machine. In 1982, we undertook the onerous task of converting all notes to digital files for dot matrix printing— revolutionary at the time, as most universities and colleges had yet to adopt computer-based course materials. By the mid-80s, we had expanded beyond Australia, with students enrolled in over 25 countries.
The decade brought commercial success writing for major publishers like Grass Roots, Garden Guide, and Kangaroo Press, plus writing for 15+ magazines annually for Express Publications, one of Australia’s leading magazine publishers. We also exhibited at agricultural, garden, and educational industry events including conferences, farm field days, and trade shows. Our horticultural expertise led to frequent consultancy work with exhibition companies, and in 1986 we leveraged these relationships to establish Let’s Grow, a horticultural marketing business with prominent Australian garden media personalities Graham Ross, Sandra Ross, and Glen Heyne. This led to us organising a Garden Show for the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria as part of the Royal Melbourne Show, which we ran for five consecutive years.
By decade’s end, we had developed 130 courses total—86 in horticulture and 44 across other disciplines. This growth led us to register Australian Recreation Correspondence Schools
as an additional business name to reflect our broadening educational scope.
We had also begun licensing our courses internationally, signing a 1989 deal with Home Study College that brought our educational programs to South Africa.
The 1990s
Responding to growing demand from Northern Australia and beyond, we established a second office on the Gold Coast in 1991.
Following the Australian government’s 1992 policy revision allowing private colleges formal recognition as Registered Training Organisations (RTOs), we became one of the first private colleges in the country to become an RTO.
The internet’s arrival saw major changes for the school. In 1994, we were one of the first colleges to put significant resources into developing websites and an online training system. This growing digital presence built an international profile that attracted global partnerships – the Bermuda government purchased our Certificate in Horticulture for national training, while one of the United States’ largest mail order plant nurseries Pacifica purchased the same certificate and began teaching this programme from their new 400-acre botanic gardens in Oregon.
We sought various accreditations throughout the 90s, believing they would benefit our students. By the late 90s, most courses had formal accreditation, however by this stage, bureaucracy and costs associated with accreditation had blown out exponentially. An internal audit revealed that accreditations were accounting for 25% of our total operational costs, while a survey showed they delivered no meaningful benefits—no increase in enrolments, no tangible advantages
for students or graduates.
Dawning on the new millennium, we had developed 242 courses delivered through both traditional paper-based materials and our online training system. Spanning diverse fields: 110 in horticulture, 29 in agriculture, 10 in environment and wildlife, 7 in hospitality and tourism, 27 in health and leisure, 5 in psychology, 18 in science and tech, 17 in business and management, and 19 other specialized courses.
By the decade’s close, we had broadened our range so significantly that we registered a new business name to better reflect our diverse range—Australian Correspondence Schools.
The 2000s
Starting the new millennium, we were commissioned by Express Publications to write monthly magazines under the “Your Backyard” banner. The magazines became bestsellers in newsagents across Australia and beyond.
After four successful years, we concluded this partnership to focus on our expanding business. Simultaneously, we were contracted to write books covering agriculture, fitness, management, and horticulture for Landlinks Press (CSIRO’s publishing division) and Kangaroo Press (Simon & Schuster).
Having now had time to ruminate over our accreditation findings, we chose the ethical road out—departing the RTO system and redirecting those savings towards what actually mattered:
better course materials and enhanced student support, rather than forcing students to bear the
cost of bureaucracy that wasn’t serving them.
2002 brought international expansion with the opening of a UK office and sister school. This new location offered the complete course line-up with local tutors and dedicated student support,
providing enhanced service to students across the UK, Europe, and the northern hemisphere.
With the Gold Coast office now our primary Australian hub, we closed the physical Melbourne location while retaining all Melbourne staff as remote workers—an arrangement that
continues today.
Around the same time, Mike Pollock, then head of horticultural education at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) in London, encouraged us to develop and deliver the prestigious RHS General
Certificate. We agreed to offer the course globally, with the RHS facilitating supervised exams at accessible locations. This success led to additional RHS courses being developed to complement their curriculum—an arrangement that continued for 15 years.
The following year, our founder John L. Mason was a keynote speaker at an education summit held by the International Society for Horticultural Science, with attendees from various international colleges and universities. This led to our introduction to problem-based learning (PBL), a proven teaching method developed in U.S. medical schools and adapted by Vancouver University’s horticulture department. Vancouver University graciously shared their PBL documentation with us, which our staff honed into a comprehensive approach for curriculum delivery.
Come 2005, the school had expanded significantly, warranting another name change to ACS Distance Education—the name we carry today.
The decade concluded with 326 X 100 hour courses developed, and most students now choosing to study online.
The 2010s
By the early 2010s, affiliated colleges were delivering ACS courses under license from 6 home countries, combining a cohort of around 8,000 new students each year, across more than
150 countries.
In 2013, we moved away from hard copy textbooks to eBooks for our students. Rising costs and weakening supply chains made physical books increasingly impractical in the digital age. This
shift proved productive—we wrote and published over 100 eBooks throughout the decade.
We were approached by the former CFO of Express Publications to write a new monthly magazine called “Home Grown.” From 2014 to 2017, we produced this publication, which like “Your
Backyard”, became a bestseller.
In 2014, micro-credentials were emerging and we could see the demand building. We developed a 20-hour course format to meet this growing interest, and it worked—by late 2019, we’d created
45 of these 20-hour courses.
During this period, our IT department completed a greenfield project, building a new LMS (Learning
Management System) from scratch. This transformed us into a one-stop shop, offering
affiliated colleges a complete white-label solution that included both our courses and LMS.
2020-Present
This decade was largely defined by the global COVID-19 pandemic, which reshaped the entire educational landscape. Universities and colleges closed their doors and rushed to implement
alternative learning pathways, creating rapid growth in demand for distance and online learning options. Our student and affiliate numbers multiplied quickly as a result. Four decades of refining our education model prepared us to scale smoothly with the surge, then read just as conditions settled. While others struggled with the transition, we survived while many providers
fell away.
As of 2024, our founder John L. Mason shifted from operational leadership to focus on educational development and partnership building. Nicholas L. Mason, his youngest son, shaped by nearly ten years in the business, has since taken the helm.
Spurred on by conversations had with industry colleagues and employment services, we developed a third course type—a hybrid model that blends our traditional courses with our short course format, designed to address knowledge gaps within a tangible 1-2 day program.
By mid-2025, we had developed over 600- X 100 hour courses across multiple disciplines. These modules can function as standalone educational programs, or be strategically combined in various configurations to create qualifications, from entry level through to advanced certificate level and beyond.