Computer History Tours of Melbourne

Graham Farr

You are invited to join one of the upcoming Computer History Tours of Melbourne, organised by the Faculty of IT at Monash University.  The tours are on Sat 19 Oct, and Sun 3 Nov 2019 (though I’d encourage people to go for Sat 19 Oct if possible, please, as we have lower capacity for the 3 Nov tour).

This tour is unique in the world.  It covers some remarkable connections that Melbourne has with the earliest days of computing.  The tour is a chance to explore another dimension of Melbourne’s history and to better understand how computers have changed science, business and society.  The sites visited include:

• the first site in Melbourne of CSIRAC, Australia’s first computer and the world’s fourth (and the only one of its generation still (mostly) intact)
• a site of codebreaking in the Second World War
• Melbourne’s first Computer Room
• Melbourne’s link to Charles Babbage, the originator of the concept of a computer
• the site of Australia’s first supercomputer
• Monash’s first computer
• the former Melbourne Computer Centre near Albert Park.

It should be an interesting day of sight-seeing and socialising as well.

Start:  8:45am at Caulfield campus, Monash University;
End:  ~ 4pm, probably at the University of Melbourne.

The plan is to have lunch at a cafe somewhere on the way.  There will be a fair bit of walking and getting on and off trams.

A preview and guide for the tour, including photos, is at:

http://users.monash.edu.au/~gfarr/tour/

If you’d like to come, please register at

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfyqbMt_pRaEVnKaYW2XJiQFZHF0UqFAT6tswMc4QDmTR0qrw/viewform

where you can indicate your preferred date and numbers.  Feel free to invite family and friends, but include them in the numbers you book for.

Book early to avoid disappointment, as capacity is limited.

The costs will be the necessary tram travel and whatever you buy at the cafes.  The tour itself is free.