Buildings

The Administration Building

The original Administration Building of the Commonwealth Solar Observatory was designed by government architect John Smith Murdoch, who also designed Old Parliament House. The main building was constructed between 1924-1926 and was the hub of the Observatory for 80 years. 

In the late 1920s, solar laboratories were added to the existing building, including a long tunnel used to house a spectrograph. 

During the Second World War, when the focus of the Observatory was optical munitions design and construction, additions were added to the rear of the building and it became the design and prototyping centre of the Australian Optical Munitions Factory, manufacturing over 26,000 items for the Australian and United States Militaries. 

In the 1960s, the building’s basement laboratories were refurbished to become computer laboratories and in the 1970s and 1980s, mainframe computers were housed in the former solar spectrograph tunnel. 

In the early 2000s, the SuperConducting Gravimeter operated by the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences and National Astronomical Observatory of Japan was housed in the Administration Building tunnel. Remarkably it was not damaged by the 2003 bushfires that decimated the Observatory. However, the Administration Building was badly damaged, and the mechanical design workshop, library, and archives were all destroyed. 

The Director’s Residence (Observatory House)

The Director’s Residence was designed by Henry Maitland Rolland, who at the time was Works Director and Head of the Architects Department for the Federal Capital Territory. 

Built between 1925-1929, the building was originally known as Observatory House. It was the only two-storey building at Stromlo and over the years it was home to most of Mount Stromlo Observatory’s Directors and their families. It was also used to host guests and as a venue for social functions, from Christmas parties to musical concerts.

In January 2003, the building was significantly damaged by bushfire and remained unusable for a decade until funding from the Commonwealth Government and the ANU facilitated stabilisation work and a partial restoration, allowing for the building to be used once more. Some of the original features have been retained, including the maid’s sitting room and some of the bathrooms and fireplaces.  

The Workshops

The workshops at Mount Stromlo Observatory were built in three stages between 1950 and 1975. They consisted of three sections – electronic, optical, and mechanical. 

The original mechanical workshop was housed in the Observatory’s west wing but was destroyed in a bushfire in February 1952. 

The Observatory Workshops were always a hive of activity, with Stromlo staff designing and building new instruments for both Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories as well as other observatories around the world. Staff also carried out maintenance of all the telescopes and equipment onsite in the workshops. 

Some of the key instruments produced in the Mount Stromlo Observatory Workshops included several generations of photoelectric photometers, image tube and CCD imagers, spectrographs, and all the instruments used in Siding Spring’s 2.3m Advanced Technology Telescope (ATT). 

In January 2003, the workshops were completely destroyed by a bushfire that decimated the Observatory. At the time, work was almost complete on the Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrograph (NIFS) for Chile’s Gemini South Observatory. 

The workshops were replaced by a new Advanced Instrumentation and Technology Centre, which opened in stages between 2006 and 2014. 

The Advanced Instrumentation and Technology Centre

With the Mount Stromlo Observatory Workshops destroyed in the 2003 bushfires, construction began on a new Advanced Instrumentation and Technology Centre (AITC) in 2004, funded by insurance as well as investment by the ANU and the Australian Government. The first phase of construction cost $25million, with an expansion costing $30million completed in 2014.

The AITC facilitates the engineering of complex astronomical and space mission instruments from concept through to launch pad. The Centre is the only space simulation facility in the region, allowing for the testing of space mission instruments. At the AITC researchers can mimic the conditions in space such as dramatic temperature fluctuations and intense vibrations, to ensure equipment will still perform and function correctly after launch.

The AITC continues the observatory’s long tradition of creating cutting-edge instrumentation for astronomy, and working with industry to commercialise research outcomes. In addition, the AITC significantly expands Australia’s capabilities in research and development for the space industry.