Connections to Country
For more than 21,000 years, local Aboriginal people used the land on which the ANU campus sits for hunting, camping and ceremony.
The formal celebrations closed on 29 July 2022. This site is no longer taking submissions. Thank you to everyone who has contributed.
From its beginnings, ANU has been a university with a difference.
The story of Australia's only national university is the story of one of the boldest experiments in Australian research and higher education. Established seventy-five years ago on 1 August 1946 by an Act of the Federal Parliament, the Australian National University (ANU) was designed as an intellectual powerhouse to rebuild the nation after years of war.
Initially, four research schools were created; in medical, physical and social sciences, and Pacific studies. Within the University's seminar and meeting rooms, laboratories and libraries, a dynamic research community would solve complex scientific problems, contribute to economic development and social cohesion, and improve Australia's understanding of itself and its neighbours.
In 1960, the ANU amalgamated with the Canberra University College, becoming a comprehensive educational and research university. Today, the University hosts about 25,000 Australian and international students and 4000 staff.
ANU has affected many people's lives by offering educational opportunities, conducting research and modelling public engagement in ways that have changed our understanding of the world. Its high achievers include pioneering scientists such as Sir John Eccles, Frank Fenner, Peter Doherty and Susan Serjeantson, historians Beryl Rawson and Manning Clark, pathbreaking geologist Germaine Joplin, poet Alec Hope, Indigenous leaders Mick Dodson and Marcia Langton, anti-discrimination trailblazer Susan Ryan, archaeologist Isabel McBryde, international relations experts Coral Bell and Des Ball, mathematician Hanna Neumann, economists Heinz Arndt and Ross Garnaut, musicians Larry Sitsky and Peter Garrett, future prime ministers Bob Hawke and Kevin Rudd, the buccaneering vice-chancellor Ian Chubb, and astronomer and Nobel Laureate Brian Schmidt. It remains a distinctive university in its mission, its community, and its contribution.
Highlights
Here are some of the highlights from the past 75 years.
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Reeling in the Years
Explore key moments in the history of the ANU.
The ANU Bar rocks!
From punk to funk, grunge to folk, new wave to rap, the ANU has been home to a vibrant music scene for generations of students and music lovers.
Queen Elizabeth II on campus
On 13 March 1963, H.M. Queen Elizabeth II became the first reigning monarch to preside at the opening of an Australian library when she opened the R.G. Menzies Building.
ANU from above
Aerial photographs powerfully illustrate the rapid growth of the ANU campus. Explore a series of images, taken fifty years apart, and see the transformation of the built and natural landscape.
Activism at the ANU
From the 'demos' of the 1970s to the digital campaigns of the 2000s, the ANU has a long and feisty history of activism and protest.
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The Australian National University, Canberra
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