The Australian National University: Legislation, Preparation and Research First

The founding of the Australian National University was closely connected to organizing research after the Second World War. In 1943, Prime Minister John Curtin discussed a medical research institution with Howard Florey. In 1946, Ben Chifley's government and Herbert Coombs, head of the Department of Post-War Reconstruction, contacted Britain-based scholars including Mark Oliphant in London, seeking a Canberra university capable of attracting high-level researchers.

Post-War Reconstruction Minister John Dedman introduced the university bill in Parliament on June 19, 1946. He identified atomic energy, medicine, social sciences and Pacific relations as fields requiring sustained research and stressed cooperation with existing universities. Government provision and scholarly recruitment created the institution; it was not simply a renamed teaching college with an established campus.

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The Australian National University Act received royal assent on August 1, 1946, but Section 2 left commencement to proclamation. The first Interim Council report explained that the original proclamation for August 7, 1946 was later found invalid and the act actually commenced on February 7, 1947. The commonly commemorated 1946 founding and the 1947 legal commencement therefore meant different things.

The Interim Council had prepared the university since August 1946 but was legally constituted only on February 12, 1947. Its February 14 meeting ratified earlier resolutions and actions taken under them. Richard Mills chaired the Interim Council, and Douglas Copland took up duties as first vice-chancellor on May 11, 1948. Research facilities, appointments and actual academic work did not all appear on one date.

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The act drew funding from the Commonwealth Consolidated Revenue Fund. For the first five financial years beginning in July 1946, annual grants were capped at £325,000 Australian, according to needs accepted by the Treasurer; the original act then prescribed that amount annually. All income had to serve university purposes, with audited financial reports. The 1949 accounts listed a Commonwealth special appropriation of £152,000, with capital funding separately recorded, so the statutory ceiling cannot stand for actual annual income.

The Acton site in Canberra still contained houses and old hospital buildings. The university had to await their vacation, convert them and overcome brick shortages. The Interim Council bought former military huts for offices and engaged University of Melbourne architecture professor Brian Lewis to plan buildings. Laboratories and staff housing also affected recruitment; promised funding did not mean usable facilities already existed.

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The original act listed the John Curtin School of Medical Research, Research School of Physical Sciences, Research School of Social Sciences and Research School of Pacific Studies. In 1948, the Interim Council and academic advisers agreed that the initial focus would be advancing knowledge and training researchers. Schools would generally not undertake undergraduate teaching or professional postgraduate training, with exceptional high-level work considered separately. Although the act permitted teaching and incorporation of Canberra University College, these were not implemented immediately during preparation.

Research began at dispersed sites. Arnold Ennor became professor of biochemistry in 1948, with his department studying liver metabolism at the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories in Melbourne. Adrien Albert's medical-chemistry department, headed by him from 1949, rented rooms at the Wellcome research institution in London. Physical-sciences researchers gained experience in Oliphant's Birmingham laboratory before preparing to move to Canberra.

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Early recruitment and training chiefly funded promising graduates' further research training rather than mass undergraduate admission. The first Interim Council report, signed in September 1950, recorded a cumulative 56 interim scholarships, mostly for study in Britain, with two recipients going to the United States. This was a count of awards, not students enrolled on the Canberra campus.

Recipients had to return to Australia but were not required to work permanently at ANU, and the university did not guarantee positions. The scheme prepared staff for its developing departments while allowing researchers to join other Australian universities and institutions. Some disciplines also supported fieldwork; the report recorded an assisted anthropological researcher working in New Guinea in 1949.

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Preparation relied on continuing international academic contacts. The Association of Universities of the British Commonwealth initially handled British administrative business until ANU opened a London office in 1949. Carnegie Corporation and Rockefeller Foundation grants supported visits by new staff to North American research institutions, and the Interim Council invited overseas scholars to lecture throughout Australia.

These exchanges supported specific academic organization, but research agendas also reflected national perspectives of the period. The Pacific research school prioritized Australian-controlled islands and neighboring Asian regions, addressing population, social institutions and international relations. Its early formation combined basic research, researcher training and regional-governance needs, rather than being reducible to completed buildings or famous appointments.

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