Lumen Autumn 2024 - Flipbook - Page 26
Jubilee and
Centenary Celebrations
As the University embarks on its 150th celebrations, it is interesting to cast a glance
backwards at how we have celebrated major milestones in our past.
Research into our 50th Jubilee shows that things were, understandably, lower key.
Celebrations were held in 1926 – that year chosen to mark 50 years since teaching
began in 1876, rather than the formation of the University two years earlier, which
we now celebrate. The total cost of the celebrations was £709 (about $60,000 in
today’s currency) and they ran from 14 - 20 August with all events ticketed.
The University Mace was created as a memorial of the Jubilee.
The major event of the celebrations was the Chancellor’s reception and
Conversazione - which resembled the Open Days we still hold. Sir Douglas Mawson
gave a short lecture South Australia under the ice and Professor Kerr Grant gave a
lecture on High Tension Electrical Discharge and there were a variety of
demonstrations, including of X-rays.
On 16 August a special congregation was held in Elder Hall, attended by the
Prime Minister, Stanley Bruce, and Governor of South Australia Sir Tom Bridges.
Events concluded with the University ball.
The University’s Centenary, held in 1974, which some of our alumni will
remember, was similarly celebrated with concerts, exhibitions, a commemorative
medallion, a book, cultural nights and lectures by a number of visiting professors.
The Centenary Appeal raised $1.2 million by the end of 1974. Efforts to create
a stamp to celebrate the event were, sadly, not supported by the PostmasterGeneral, and an approach by the manufacturers of Kleenex tissues to create
commemorative tissue packs was declined.
The events began in March that year when Prince Philip, the Duke of
Edinburgh, proposed a toast to the University at the First Centenary Banquet.
In August 1974, the Vice-Chancellor Professor G.M. Badger was quoted in Lumen
as saying: “The University has now been celebrating its Centenary for six months,
and this should, I think, entitle us to some sort of mention in The Guinness Book
of Records.
Celebrations ended with a final banquet held at Chrysler Ltd in Tonsley Park
at which the Vice-Chancellor stated: “This Banquet is the last event; and the
Response to the Toast to the University is the last speech. It was therefore with
particular pleasure that I suggested myself for this honour, because, as ViceChancellor, one does not often have the opportunity to have the last word.”
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Famous visitors
The first name in the book is simply signed,
with a flourish, “George”.
It was a new book then (in mid-1901) no
doubt bought for the occasion. And George
was a worthy first autograph – later becoming
His Majesty King George V, but at the time of
signing merely His Royal Highness George,
Duke of Cornwall and York.
Single-named Royals are now dotted
throughout the book, but it also bears the
marks of a great number of lesser mortals who
had made the arduous journey to Australia, by
sail in the early days, and visited our nascent
University.
