Then and Now - Flashback to Canberra in 1971

From the ANU Reporter (Australian National University Alumni Magazine) Winter 2010

'THEN AND NOW

Who said that news goes stale as soon as the ink hits the page? In this column we open the vault on past editions of ANU Reporter and compare the coverage with campus today.

In 1971 the Assistant Registrar thought that the apartments would foster interdisciplinary conversations, given that the residents would be studying in diverse areas. Yet for the head of the research students groups, the residence was more exciting as a development in self-determination.

ANU Reporter for 12 March 1971 tells of the opening of a new “postgraduate motel-type residence in Northbourne Avenue”, consisting of “100 single and eight double self-contained flats”. The building at the corner of north Canberra’s main thoroughfare and Barry Drive was given the working title of Northbourne Hall but would eventually be christened Graduate House.

The article reports that Assistant Registrar G E Dicker, thought the “new postgraduate hall would be an interesting place to live in” as “[t]here would be cross-fertilisation of academic interests and ideas because the residents would come from an extremely wide range of interests.”

The President of the Research Students’ Association, on the other hand, was promoting governance by the students, for the students. Mr M H Worthington “told the Reporter that postgraduate students were happy with the way the new hall had developed. He said the concept of a self-controlling residence had been achieved despite the wishes of some that it should have been a master-student establishment of the University House type.

Mr Worthington said it was desirable that a committee composed mainly of residents should decide on rules and then have responsibility for enforcing them.”

The original Graduate House was sold by the University in the late 1990s. Today, new private apartments stand at the site. The name Graduate House now applies to a postgraduate residence built downhill from University House and opened in 1998 – yet this is not the latest in postgraduate accommodation on campus. That honour belongs to the Laurus Wing, part of Ursula College that was opened for business at the start of semester one this year.

The Laurus Wing is Australia’s first university student residence built from modular apartments. The shipping container apartment units are purpose built in China, where their interiors are furnished ready for occupation. This allows for speedier construction, minimising impact on the University campus and hastening the addition of extra student accommodation spaces at ANU'.

COMMENT

It's kind of shocking and intriguing to suddenly see a photograph of yourself as you were 40 years ago. I am standing at the back with arms folded, in the black and white.

Sam (aged 7) could barely shift his head from watching Scooby-Doo on the TV but said 'it's you'. My wife Jane's comment was 'you have the same thing going on with the open mouth that you still do'.

The photo reminds me of my activist days as a student and I was one of the stirrers who got Graduate Hall built as 'a self-controlling residence had been achieved despite the wishes of some that it should have been a master-student establishment of the University House type'.

We also demonstrated against Springbok-Wallaby internationals; in favour of aboriginal rights; and against the Vietnam War. Inviting Peter Cook and Dudley Moore to speak was also regarded as pretty subversive.

My overall impression though is that the University authorities were tacitly tolerant of activism and even supportive of student involvement in governance in what was a very new institution that had been given an opportunity to do things differently.