Booklet to record UQ Ipswich history
The University of Queensland will produce a booklet on the people and events involved in the establishment of its new campus at Ipswich.
The 50-page publication researched and written by consultant Judy Nissen will cover the history of the decision to build a satellite campus, selection and development of the Challinor site, alternatives considered and rejected and the role and contribution of the campus to the University's overall mission and goals.
The new campus was opened by Vice-Chancellor Professor John Hay in mid-1999 following its approval as UQ Ipswich campus by the Queensland Government in 1996.
The State and Federal Governments have committed $47 million for site development. Stage 1 was completed last year in time to receive the first intake of students in February 1999. Stage Two of the campus is on target to be opened by Christmas. Eight heritage-listed buildings are being refurbished, a new twin building complex is being built and major landscaping is under way.
Ms Nissen, who is contracted to the University's Applied History Centre, said she would gather photographs, maps, newspaper clippings and diagrams to illustrate the booklet and interview a number of key people from all levels of government and the Ipswich community associated with the campus.
Centre director Dr Rod Fisher said Ms Nissen was the best applied historian for the job, having worked at the Challinor Centre herself and recently completing a masters thesis on the history of land use and settlement in the Mount Crosby area. She had also conducted detailed historical research over the past five years for other groups including the Brisbane City Council Waterways and Heritage Units and the Environmental Protection Agency, he said.
University Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Trevor Grigg said the booklet would be an important historical reference for the new state-of-the-art campus.
"The campus has benefited from the support of the local community which has seen its future linked with information technology and this booklet is a way of recognising the considerable faith, vision and effort leading to its establishment," he said.
"While the campus will be the centre of cutting-edge courses equipping a new group of graduates to tackle emerging global industries such as electronic commerce and information environments, it is also a place of history and these events will be preserved in the document."
The campus has a history dating from 1878, with 17 buildings heritage-listed. It opened as the Sandy Gallop Asylum, was renamed the Ipswich Hospital for the Insane in 1910, and its name changed again in 1938 to the Ipswich Mental Hospital. In 1968 the hospital was renamed the Challinor Centre.
For more information, contact Professor Trevor Grigg (telephone 07 3365 7366), Dr Rod Fisher (telephone 07 3365 6407) or Judy Nissen (telephone 07 3201 0317).
