Building Highlight - Mount Stromlo Observatory
Canberra has played a significant part in the field of astronomy in Australia. In 1909 a 9-inch refracting telescope, later named the Oddie Telescope, was presented to Prime Minister Alfred Deakin by James Oddie. Peter Baracchi, Government Astronomer of Victoria, oversaw its installation at Mount Stromlo on the outskirts of Canberra, with observations commencing in September 1911. These observations led to the selection of Mount Stromlo as the best location for the new Commonwealth Solar Observatory, which eventually opened in 1924. Dr Walter Duffield, who had long championed the establishment of a new observatory, was selected to be the inaugural Commonwealth Astronomer.
The observatory's original interests were in solar and atmospheric physics. During the Second World War, the observatory served as an optical munitions establishment and, after the war, it undertook new research in stellar and galactic astronomy and became known as Mount Stromlo Observatory.
In 1957 the ANU took over management of the observatory from the Commonwealth Department of the Interior and in the 1960s a second ANU observatory was established at Siding Spring near Coonabarabran, NSW. Together, the Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories form one of the leading optical astronomical observatories in the world, with research interests in stellar and galactic astrophysics.
One of the earliest buildings at Mount Stromlo was the Director's Residence, built for the Observatory's inaugural director Dr Walter Duffield and his family in the 1920s. The Director's Residence would be home to nine directors of the Observatory between 1928 and 2002.
In January 2003 Canberra's south-west suburbs, including the Mount Stromlo area, were heavily impacted by bushfires. The fires destroyed the observatory's workshops, administration building, eight staff homes and seven telescopes, including the Oddie Telescope. The only telescope which wasn't destroyed was the Farnham Telescope. Parts of the observatory have been rebuilt, with Mount Stromlo remaining the headquarters of the ANU Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics and welcoming visitors, however all of the University's large research telescopes now operate out of the Siding Spring Observatory.
You can learn more about Mount Stromlo Observatory and the Mount Stromlo Heritage Trail here - https://rsaa.anu.edu.au/observatories/mount-stromlo-observatory/heritage-trail-and-director-s-residence
References
GML Heritage 2015, The Mount Stromlo Observatory Precinct. Heritage Management Plan - Volume 2 Heritage Inventory,
ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics 2021, Mount Stromlo Observatory,