The Mellor Library opened in Term 3 of 1971, marking a major step forward in the development of learning facilities at Carey Baptist Grammar School. Constructed partly through a Commonwealth Library Grant and partly funded by the Onward Carey Appeal, the building was purpose-designed as a modern Resource Centre, enabling staff and students to use a variety of media in the educational process - a progressive idea for its time.

The library’s rectangular building (60 ft × 80 ft) housed not only books but also an audio-visual workroom, storage space, and a multi-purpose room adaptable for activities such as oral English, film production, or library classes. A mezzanine floor, added due to the limited site, contained 48 study carrels for senior students, two seminar rooms, and comfortable browsing areas. Downstairs were additional seminar rooms, audio-visual carrels and the librarian’s office. In total, the facility could seat 150 students.

When it opened, the Mellor Library was widely praised by students and staff alike, who valued its light-filled spaces, individual study areas, and access to emerging educational technologies. It anticipated the growing importance of multimedia in learning, and plans were made to equip all study carrels with audio-visual capability - an innovative concept in the early 1970s.

In 1997, the library was officially dedicated by Alfred Burdett Mellor CBE, a Foundation Scholar, in recognition of the outstanding contribution of the Mellor family to Carey’s development.

After nearly fifty years of service, the Mellor Library was decommissioned and closed in 2019, and a new library was incorporated into the Carey Learning and Innovation (CLI) Building. The new Senior Library continues the Mellor Library’s legacy as a centre for inquiry, discovery and lifelong learning.