Gordon went to Australia in 1952 to star in the musical "Kiss Me, Kate". He stayed in the country and established the Ensemble Theatre in North Sydney with a group of young students he tutored from the Independent Theatre. This was a co-operative style theatre and also Australia's first theatre-in-the-round. He also established Australia's longest surviving acting school, the Ensemble Studios, in the 1950s, which closed in 2009. Hayes was Principal of the school from its inception until his death. Toward the end of his life he published "Acting and Performing" which outlined his Stanislavsky-influenced acting methods. He passed on directorship of the Ensemble Theatre to Sandra Bates in 1986.