Early History of the Acton Campus

Building Australia's National University: 75 Years of the Australian National University

The Acton Campus spans what were once two early pastoral properties established in the 1820s – Acton and Springbank. Acton occupied approximately 1,000 acres of what is now part of the eastern side of the campus. Springbank was located between the Molonglo River and eastern side of Black Mountain. Springbank was at one time owned by the Sullivan Family, who are commemorated by the naming of Sullivan’s Creek, which runs through the campus. Acton and Springbank were resumed by the Commonwealth in 1911 and 1912 respectively. Acton Estate homestead was occupied by Charles R Scrivener, Director of Commonwealth Surveys, while Springbank was leased to the Kayes family who ran a dairy farm on the property until 1961. The properties were used for grazing sheep and dairy cattle as well as growing wheat, maize, barley, oats and potatoes. However, this was to change with new plans for an Australian Capital. 

In 1911 American architect Walter Burley Griffin, with his wife Marion Mahony Griffin, won the international design competition for the new Australian capital. Griffin’s winning design included plans for a university to the west of the city centre at the foot of Black Mountain and near a reserve labelled ‘botanical garden’. Griffin’s plan for the city was based on two popular town planning styles of the time, City Beautiful and Garden City. Common to both styles, and to Griffin’s plans, were the inclusion of “circular avenues, radiating boulevards and separated land uses that are evident in Canberra” (Godden Mackay Logan Heritage Consultants 2012). 

With the proposed university still decades away, the Acton and Springbank areas were utilised for early administration buildings and residential dwellings for early government employees and their families. A hospital was also established in the area in 1913. These hospital buildings were temporarily adapted by Herbert Cole ‘Nugget’ Coombs, Director-General of the Commonwealth Ministry of Post-War Reconstruction, for use as offices for the Ministry of Post-War Reconstruction. The buildings were later incorporated into the university and served different purposes, including housing the ANU Library until permanent library buildings were erected in 1963. Some of the old hospital buildings remain and are among the oldest existing buildings on the campus.   

Also among the earliest buildings still standing on the campus was a residence for the Administrator of the Federal Capital, Colonel David Miller. This building was designed in 1912 by Commonwealth architect John Smith Murdoch and became known as Old Canberra House. It later housed the ANU Staff Centre and a hospitality venue and still stands at Lennox Crossing. 

 

References

Godden Mackay Logan Heritage Consultants 2012, ANU Heritage Study: Acton Campus. Volume 1: Heritage Study,

Griffin, Walter Burley 1916, Canberra [cartographic material],

Hodgkinson, Percy C 1878, Rough plan shewing the farms at present occupied on the Acton Estate [cartographic material],

National Capital Authority n.d., Building Canberra to 1958, accessed

 

Rough plan shewing the farms at present occupied on the Acton Estate / Percy C. Hodgkinson, Licensed Surveyor, 1878. Image courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales.

Rough plan shewing the farms at present occupied on the Acton Estate / Percy C. Hodgkinson, Licensed Surveyor, 1878. Image courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales.

Canberra Design by Walter Burley Griffin, 1916. Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia.

Canberra Design by Walter Burley Griffin, 1916. Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia.

Old Hospital Buildings at Acton, c. 1950s (ANUA15-89-2). Photographer: Commonwealth News and Information Bureau.

Old Hospital Buildings at Acton, c. 1950s (ANUA15-89-2). Photographer: Commonwealth News and Information Bureau.

Hotel Acton taken from Mount Vernon (City Hill), 1926. Photograph courtesy of National Archives of Australia (NAA A3560, 19).

Hotel Acton taken from Mount Vernon (City Hill), 1926. Photograph courtesy of National Archives of Australia (NAA A3560, 19).

Lennox Crossing looking north with Acton Offices in the background, 1926. Photograph courtesy of the National Archives of Australia (NAA A3560, 41).

Lennox Crossing looking north with Acton Offices in the background, 1926. Photograph courtesy of the National Archives of Australia (NAA A3560, 41).

Bachelor's Quarters, Acton, 1926. Photograph courtesy of the National Archives of Australia (NAA A3560, 46).

Bachelor's Quarters, Acton, 1926. Photograph courtesy of the National Archives of Australia (NAA A3560, 46).