Monash University Archives

This week we're shining a spotlight on the Sir Louis Matheson Library. The Matheson Library was the second library on campus, with its first stage completed and occupied at the end of 1963. It was originally simply called the Main Library, and was renamed the Sir Louis Matheson Library in 1994 after our first Vice-Chancellor. Over its 63 years, the building has gone through many extensions, alterations and refurbishments (with construction even causing a fire on the roof in 1975). We hope you enjoy these photos of the library from the 1960s to the 1990s, and for more head to the link in our bio.

We hope these items don't cause too many unpleasant flashbacks! But it has been five years now since we entered our sixth and final lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic here in Melbourne, and we want to use this as an opportunity to demonstrate how important records from recent, or even current events, are to the Archives. Although the pandemic is something we'd like to forget right now, how Monash handled it and what our campuses looked like at the time are an important part of our 68 year history, and one day it will be a distant memory. And these items, as well as photos and social media posts that we have collected, will help us, and those who come after us, to reflect on this time and how it shaped the University.

There has always been plenty of fun things to do and learn about at Monash Open Days! Please enjoy these photos from Open Days in the 70s and 80s!

Did you know that the Hargrave-Andrew Library was the first library at Monash? In fact, it was the only library on campus for a little while between it’s opening in 1962 and the completion of the first stage of the Main Library (Matheson Library) at the end of 1963. Please enjoy these photos of HAL dating from the early 1960s to 2005. For more photos, head to the link in our bio.

Forty years ago in 1986, as part of Monash's Silver Jubilee celebrations, the Sports and Recreation Association held a "25-athon". In "the most ridiculous event staged at Monash for 25 years", teams of eight competed in 25 relay-style races including running on stilts, sack jumping, a human chariot race, a relay which required the passing of a very cold spoon between bare flesh and clothing. The final event of beer sculling and sausage gobbling was won by the Monash Athletics Club's team, the Phantoms.

Did you know that Monash’s Caulfield campus dates back to 1922?

🤔 But wasn’t Monash University only established in 1958? Correct! Caulfield wasn’t always part of Monash. Here’s a history of the Caulfield campus in a nutshell:
- 1922 - established as the Caulfield Technical School - a junior school designed to fill the maintenance requirements of horse drawn vehicles and equipment.
- 1958 - became the Caulfield Technical College.
- 1968 - junior section of Caulfield Technical College was separated as a new Caulfield Technical School while the senior section was renamed Caulfield Institute of Technology affiliated with the newly formed Victorian Institute of Colleges.
- 1982 - amalgamated with the State College of Victoria at Frankston (later Monash’s Peninsula campus) to create the Chisholm Institute of Technology.
- 1990 - Chisholm merged with Monash University under the federal higher education reforms, becoming our Caulfield and Pensinsula campuses.

Please enjoy this selection of photos of the Caulfield campus spanning 80 years from 1922 to 2002.