History Of ICT

Blog posts related to the history of ICT in Australia


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).

Read More Read More
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.

Read More Read More
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.

Read More Read More
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.

Read More Read More
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.

Read More Read More
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.

Read More Read More
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.

Read More Read More
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, […]

Read More Read More
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 […]

Read More Read More