The scene for new staff in 1955

Abstract

The early scene: I was appointed to the first Chair of Chemistry in 1955, the year after UNE became autonomous. However chemistry was already well established at the former University College, the first lecturer, T.B. Swanson, having been appointed in 1939. I arrived to find a flourishing department under Noel Riggs, whom I knew well from my Perth and Cambridge years. He, Jim Banfield and Keith Lewis were organic chemists, with Ray Stimson and Frank Dudley on the physical and inorganic side. The main buildings then were 'Booloominbah', which held several teaching rooms, the library, the administration and a dining room; the Booth building, which held several laboratories, lecture rooms and staff offices; and the Belshaw building, a large steel-framed asbestos-board structure accommodating several science disciplines. There were no colleges on the campus at that time, though Mary White College was just being started. Nearly all the students lived in large former family homes in the town, owned or leased by the University, and were brought in by bus for meals in 'Booloominbah' as well as their courses. The bridge on Elm Avenue was subject to occasional flooding, and the only access then was via a rough road through the farm to North Hill.