Monash University Archives

Monash University Archives Monash University Archives holds records of permanent value from across Monash University

This week we're taking a look at the Halls of Residence, specifically what is now the Residential Village at Clayton. Th...
09/09/2026

This week we're taking a look at the Halls of Residence, specifically what is now the Residential Village at Clayton. The first hall (Deakin Hall) at Clayton opened in 1962 and it was the first fully co-educational hall of residence at an Australian university, housing both male and female students (a bit scandalous in 1962!). Deakin was followed by Farrer (1965), Howitt (1966), Roberts (1971), Richardson (1972), and Normanby House (2001 - 2024). Please enjoy some photos of these six halls from the 1960s to the 1980s.

The Archives is excited to be part of the ‘Looking back. Leading forward’ interactive display, which is part of the curr...
08/09/2026

The Archives is excited to be part of the ‘Looking back. Leading forward’ interactive display, which is part of the current phase of shaping Monash University’s next strategic plan. Our cabinet, containing nineteen carefully selected items from our collection, highlights some of the key moments that shaped the early days of Monash.

The display is open from 10am-2pm on Tuesday-Thursday in the Alan Finkel Room of the Chancellery at Monash University’s Clayton campus until October. Can’t visit in person? No worries! You can explore all the items in our cabinet online through the link in our bio.

Did you know there was once a twin screen drive-in cinema just across the road from Monash? It opened in 1957, on the co...
26/08/2026

Did you know there was once a twin screen drive-in cinema just across the road from Monash? It opened in 1957, on the corner of Blackburn and Wellington Roads and closed in the 1980s. The site was then used for parking for the University for a while before becoming home to the Australian Synchrotron. Here you can see the cinema in the 1960s and 1980.

This week we're shining a spotlight on the Sir Louis Matheson Library. The Matheson Library was the second library on ca...
19/08/2026

This week we're shining a spotlight on the Sir Louis Matheson Library. The Matheson Library was the second library on campus, with its first stage completed and occupied at the end of 1963. It was originally simply called the Main Library, and was renamed the Sir Louis Matheson Library in 1994 after our first Vice-Chancellor. Over its 63 years, the building has gone through many extensions, alterations and refurbishments (with construction even causing a fire on the roof in 1975). We hope you enjoy these photos of the library from the 1960s to the 1990s, and for more head to the link in our bio.

12/08/2026

Ever wondered what our Clayton campus looked like before it became Monash? Here at the Archives, we're lucky enough to have this footage from 1958 which shows the site before any construction began to build the campus we know and love today. It was home to the Talbot Colony for Epileptics, farmland, a trotting track, the Cyclone Wire manufactory, and an eighteen-room homestead which would become the Vice-Chancellor’s residence. Sixty-eight years later, the site and its surrounds is unrecognisable!

We hope these items don't cause too many unpleasant flashbacks! But it has been five years now since we entered our sixt...
05/08/2026

We hope these items don't cause too many unpleasant flashbacks! But it has been five years now since we entered our sixth and final lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic here in Melbourne, and we want to use this as an opportunity to demonstrate how important records from recent, or even current events, are to the Archives. Although the pandemic is something we'd like to forget right now, how Monash handled it and what our campuses looked like at the time are an important part of our 68 year history, and one day it will be a distant memory. And these items, as well as photos and social media posts that we have collected, will help us, and those who come after us, to reflect on this time and how it shaped the University.

There has always been plenty of fun things to do and learn about at Monash Open Days! Please enjoy these photos from Ope...
31/07/2026

There has always been plenty of fun things to do and learn about at Monash Open Days! Please enjoy these photos from Open Days in the 70s and 80s!

Did you know that the Hargrave-Andrew Library was the first library at Monash? In fact, it was the only library on campu...
29/07/2026

Did you know that the Hargrave-Andrew Library was the first library at Monash? In fact, it was the only library on campus for a little while between it’s opening in 1962 and the completion of the first stage of the Main Library (Matheson Library) at the end of 1963. Please enjoy these photos of HAL dating from the early 1960s to 2005. For more photos, head to the link in our bio.

Forty years ago in 1986, as part of Monash's Silver Jubilee celebrations, the Sports and Recreation Association held a "...
22/07/2026

Forty years ago in 1986, as part of Monash's Silver Jubilee celebrations, the Sports and Recreation Association held a "25-athon". In "the most ridiculous event staged at Monash for 25 years", teams of eight competed in 25 relay-style races including running on stilts, sack jumping, a human chariot race, a relay which required the passing of a very cold spoon between bare flesh and clothing. The final event of beer sculling and sausage gobbling was won by the Monash Athletics Club's team, the Phantoms.

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26 Sports Walk
Clayton, VIC

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