01/04/2026
Easter 1948 was an important time in the history of our university. On the 1st & 2nd April 1948, Canberra hosted a landmark conference which brought together distinguished academics, researchers and bureaucrats to discuss the development of a new national university, which had been established by an Act of Federal Parliament on 1st August 1946.
The conference was attended by many who were considered top of their fields, including four outstanding academics who made the journey from England - pharmacologist and pathologist Sir Howard Florey, physicist Professor Mark Oliphant, historian Professor Keith Hancock, and anthropologist Professor Raymond Firth. Florey, Oliphant and Hancock were all Australian expats and Firth was a New Zealander.
The conference also saw the inaugural meeting of the Interim Council, which included some of Australia's most respected academics and administrators such as Sir Robert Garran, Sir David Rivett, H.C. ‘Nugget’ Coombs, Richard Mills (Interim Council Chair), and Sir Douglas Copland (inaugural Vice-Chancellor).
The conference determined that the future Australian National University would be a research-only institution led by distinguished academics, together with a few carefully chosen, advanced students who would undertake research for postgraduate degrees. Advanced research would be focused in four Schools - Medical Research, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, and Pacific Studies. Initially at least, there would be no undergraduate teaching.
Following the Easter Conference, The John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR) was the first part of the university to be developed, with Prime Minister Ben Chifley laying the foundation stone for the building in 1949 and Sir Howard Florey presiding over the opening in 1958 (it was not the first permanent building to be opened though, as the foundation stone for University House was also laid in 1949, with the building opened by H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh in 1954).
Many of the Easter Conference attendees were appointed to senior positions at the new national university. In 1950, Professor Mark Oliphant accepted the invitation to head the School of Physics, (later the Research School of Physical Sciences). In 1957, Professor Keith Hancock arrived in Canberra to take up the role of Director of the School of Social Sciences. In 1960, Sir John Crawford was appointed the first Director of the School of Pacific Studies. Although Sir Howard Florey returned to Oxford following the Easter Conference, he maintained a close association with the university and was appointed Chancellor in 1965.
You can learn more about the Easter Conference and the establishment of the ANU in our online exhibition - https://archives.anu.edu.au/exhibitions/easter-conference-april-1948
