Lumen Autumn 2024 - Flipbook - Page 27
Celebrating 150 years
Together,
let’s celebrate
It’s going to be a big year, with lots going
on, and plenty of opportunities for our
community to be involved.
To keep up-to-date with what’s
happening, we have created a special
150th website – accessible via the adjacent
QR code. Here you can explore our history,
celebrate with us, and discover more about
our inspirational community (past and
present). On this site we also detail
upcoming events, so you can plan
your calendar.
And we’d love to hear from you too.
This year we are asking our community
of more than 164,000 alumni, and our
staff, students and friends to share their
stories. Here we will be able to gather our
collective memories of the University,
and how it has made a difference to you.
Below George’s name on that first page
are the marks of the future Queen Mary and
her entourage. The next name, two years later,
is early Australian “royalty” – Dame Nellie
Melba, our globally famous opera star.
INTERESTINGLY, THE NEXT
SIGNATURE IS FROM HWANG
HOU CHENG, CHINESE
COMMISSIONER TO
AUSTRALIA.
Other famous names include a passing
parade of Governors, Premiers and Prime
Ministers and a veritable Who’s Who of
leading academics from the world’s
greatest universities.
The history of an institution such as
ours can be told in many ways. This book,
a beautifully bound volume in excellent
condition given its age, is a living piece
of our past and our future, still in use.
Its importance as an historic record, and
a potentially valuable one at that, has been
recognised by current Vice-Chancellor
Professor Peter Høj AC whose office has asked
the Barr Smith Library to research it further
as part of our sesquicentenary. That work
is continuing, and the book will, in time,
be available in digital form on the
University archive, Adelaide Connect.
Our earliest film
The Maths Lawns in front of the Barr Smith Library have not always
been dedicated to gentle academic pursuits.
This rare archival film, available from the attached QR code, gives a
very different image of life on our campus. It was filmed in 1932 when
thousands of students, staff, families and community members gathered
on what was then the Jubilee Oval for a rodeo to celebrate the 75th birthday
of “Cattle King” philanthropist Sidney Kidman.
This is a very rare surviving film of the
University from that era. It was quite an
event, involving horses, stockmen and
bucking bulls - and little regard for the
safety of the participants or the audience
members who were repeatedly sent
running for their lives.
LUMEN
