History Of ICT

Blog posts related to the history of ICT in Australia


Aug 21, 2025

Oral History of Australian Computing

Australia has a rich and dynamic history of invention, innovation, and commercial success in developing electronics products in computing and allied fields. Many of these achievements are within living memory. In this series of interviews by documentary expert Karl von Moller we hear first hand from the people who pioneered this era of modern electronics innovation in Australia.

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Jun 22, 2025

Grandmother of the Web

Guest blog by Barbara Ainsworth

Mary Lee Woods
enjoyed a short career in Australia at Mount Stromlo. Her son, Tim Berners-Lee, is known as the “Father of the Web”. Mary accepted the name “Grandmother of the Web’. She should be celebrated for her own career in programming.

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Nov 11, 2024

Biography - Trevor Pearcey

Mrs Barbara Ainsworth, Curator of the Monash Museum of Computing History has published a new biography of Dr Trevor Pearcey, Dean of the School of Computing and Information Systems (1980-1984).

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Jul 19, 2021

Who came to the first computer conference?

Guest blog by Barbara Ainsworth

In August 1951, a group of scientists gathered at the University of Sydney to attend the first Australian conference on automatic computing machines.

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Jul 6, 2021

The beginning of a new science in Australia

Guest blog by Barbara Ainsworth

In 1951 there was a major conference held at the University of Sydney which marked the beginning of a new science in Australia, Computer Science.

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Jun 15, 2021

CSIRAC: How to name your computer

Guest blog by Barbara Ainsworth

On June 14, 1956 the computer CSIRAC was officially recommissioned at the new Computation Laboratory at the University of Melbourne.

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Nov 26, 2020

The world’s biggest non-IBM IBM network

Nobody much remembers it now, but 40 years ago Australia built one of the world’s largest computer networks. In 1981 Australia’s Department of Social Security (DSS) began planning an ambitious network to connect all of its 210 Australian offices in real time.

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Sep 3, 2020

SNOCOM and CIRRUS

Sixty years ago Australians designed and built two of the first transistorised computers called SNOCOM and CIRRUS. They were very advanced for their era.

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May 27, 2020

Australia’s first computer conference

In August 1951, a conference was held at Sydney University’s Department of Electrical Engineering. It was the first computer conference ever held in Australia and only the ninth computer conference anywhere in the world.

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Feb 27, 2020

50th Anniversary of Australia’s First Satellite

In 1966 a bunch of students (undergrads and post-grads) at the Department of Elec Eng at Melbourne University built Australia’s first satellite. It was ultimately launched in 1970 by NASA. A member of the team of 8, who designed and constructed the satellite, […]

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Feb 5, 2020

Kicking off the Heritage Project

Hi everybody Graeme Philipson here. You know me as the author of a book on the Australian computer industry called ‘A Vision Splendid’. Many of you helped with that book or offered advice or information after it came out about things that were missing […]

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