Building Highlight - Research School of Earth Sciences Buildings

The Research School of Earth Sciences (RSES) complex was originally part of the Canberra Community Hospital complex. The hospital complex was constructed on fifteen acres of land relinquished on the Sullivan Family’s property ‘Springbank’. The first stage of the hospital opened on 27 May 1914 and consisted of four main buildings. In 1953 ownership of the buildings passed to the ANU, with the buildings converted for University use. This included housing the RSES. 

The RSES was originally part of the Department of Geophysics, which was an original department of the Research School of Physical Sciences (RSPhysS). In 1952 Professor John Jaeger was appointed Foundation Professor of Geophysics at the ANU and the first professorial appointment in geophysics in Australia. In 1973, the Department ceased to be part of RSPhysS, and became the new RSES, with Professor Anton Hales as its first director.  

Geophysics was initially housed in a set of buildings at the western end of Acton Peninsula, overlooking Canberra Racecourse, and later, Lake Burley Griffin in the late 1960s. Soon the Department of Geophysics and Geochemistry had moved to new buildings to the east, at a high point on the ridge, where Canberra Hospital had been in the period 1914-1943. Some of the hospital buildings, in the typical country weatherboard style of the early 1900s, are preserved in the RSES complex. 

The RSES Buildings include: OHB Administration Block (1928) - designed by HM Rolland for the Federal Capital Commission; Jaeger 1 (1964) - designed by Collard and Clarke Architects; Jaeger 2 (1969) - designed by Collard and Clarke Architects; Jaeger 3 (1988) - designed by Collard, Clarke and Jackson Architects; Jaeger 4 (1979) - designed by Bunning and Madden Architects; Jaeger 5 / Shrimp III (1994) - designed by Collard, Clarke and Jackson Architects;   Jaeger 6 (1958) - designed by Collard and Clarke Architects; Jaeger 7 (1998) - designed by Anthony Cooper and Associates; Jaeger 8 (2012) - designed by Collard Clarke and Jackson Architects. 

References

Godden Mackay Logan Heritage Consultants 2012, ANU Heritage Study: Acton Campus. Volume 1: Heritage Study, https://services.anu.edu.au/files/document-collection/Volume_1_of_the_ANU_Acton_Campus_Heritage_Study.compressed.pdf

Australian National University n.d., Acton Campus site inventory,  

Dexter, D 1991, The ANU Campus, Australian National University Press, Canberra. 

Banks, J & Gaardboe, M 1996, Building and Landscapes: the Australian National University, Canberra, ANU Divisions of Facilities and Services and Public Affairs, Canberra.