Carte Blanche on Campus?

Abstract

This paper explores counterculture and activism in the production of the modern Australian university in the 1960s and 1970s in Australia. In focusing on the building of new suburban university campuses, it interrogates how spatial production was important to the politics of occupation and transformation. Through this examination of campus planning, landscapes and architecture we explore design intentions to the realisation of mid-term consequences in situation, buildings, spaces and form. We unearth alternative historical narratives and understandings of counterculture and activism in two Australian universities: Monash University in Clayton, Victoria and La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria. We therefore interrogate here, not the liberating opportunities of the counterculture movement in terms of shifting the way architecture was conceived and produced, but instead the consequences of actions of resistance within the spaces of newly built university campuses, and how this altered the way buildings and landscaped amenities were occupied, used and also developed in subtle and temporary ways.

Notes

1. The wreckage of progressive socialism and new university liberalism was famously depicted in Malcolm Bradbury’s novel The History Man, set on the new fictional modern campus of Watermouth in regional England – and quoted in this paper. See Malcolm Bradbury, The History Man (Kindle online ed: Amazon, first published in 1982), unpaginated.

2. Graham Hastings, It Can’t Happen Here: A political history of Australian activism (Adelaide: Student Association of Flinders University, 2003), 7.

3. For example, projected numbers of 15,000–20,000 at Essex hardly reaching 2000 in the early 1970s.

4. Stefan Muthesius, The Postwar University: Utopianist Campus and College (Yale: Paul Mellon Centre, 2000), 178.

5. Muthesius, The Postwar University, 179.

6. Seen most vividly at Essex University and other new UK campuses.

7. A special issue of the journal of Vestes included invited opinions from nine contributors from Australian Universities reflecting on activism. See Bertram R. Wylie, “When Students Speak Suppose We Listen,” Vestes: The Australian University Review, xi, no. 2, (1968): 120.

8. Wylie, “When Students Speak”, 120.

9. Graeme Davison, Renate Howe and David Nichols, Trendyville The Battle for Australia’s Inner Cities, (Melbourne: Monash University Pub., 2014), 31 and 43.

10. Anthony Ashbolt, A Cultural History of the Radical Sixties in the San Francisco Bay Area (Routledge, 2013), 18.

11. See for example Barry York, Student Revolt! La Trobe University 1967 to 1973 (Melbourne: Nicholas Press, 1989), 35. York discusses the “times of explosive change”.

12. York, Student Revolt!, 32.

13. As discussed in Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: Vintage Books, 1979), and Michel Foucault, Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–1977, trans., Colin Gordon (Brighton, Sussex: Harvester Press, 1980).

14. Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space (London: Blackwell, 1991), 367.

15. Lefebvre, The Production of Space, 381.

16. Kim Dovey, Framing Places (London: Routledge, 2008), 13, 14.

17. James Weirick, “Public Protest and Civic Space: the political Landscape of Contemporary Canberra” (Edinburgh: Landscape and Politics Conference, 2001), npn.

18. Weirick, “Public Protest and Civic Space”, n.p.

19. John Tagg, The Burden of Representation (London, MacMillan Education, 1988), 260.

20. Iain Borden, “Imaging Architecture: The Uses of Photography in the Practice of Architectural History”, The Journal of Architecture 12:1, 2007: 66.

21. See Jeremy Till, “Thick Time”, in Intersections, eds. Iain Borden and Jane Rendell (London: Routledge, 2000), 156–183.

22. Elizabeth Edwards, The Camera as Historian: Amateur Photographers and Historical Imagination, 1885–1918 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012).

23. Bradbury, The History Man, n.p.

24. Hannah Forsyth, A History of the Modern Australian University (Sydney: NewSouth Publishing, 2014), 69; also Bob Birrell quoted in Robyn Anns, “Those were the days,” Monash Magazine, (October 2005), accessed March 15, 2017, http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/monmag/issue16-2005/around-monash/around-activism.html

25. Graeme Davison and Kate Murphy, University Unlimited: The Monash Story (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2012), 118.

26. John Rickard, “Monash The ‘University-In-A-Hurry’,” in Making Monash: A Twenty-five Year History (Monash University: Monash University Gallery, 1986), 15.

27. Rickard, “Monash The ‘University-In-A-Hurry’,” 15.

28. Rickard, “Monash The ‘University-In-A-Hurry’,” 15.

29. D Horne, Time of Hope: Australia 1966–72 (Melbourne: Angus & Robertson, 1980), 66.

30. Jock Marshall to Louis Matheson, August 3, 1966.

31. Richard Clough, “Landscape of Canberra: A review,” Landscape Australia 4, no. 3, 1982, 196.

32. John Overall, Canberra: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (Canberra, ACT: BPR Publishers, 1995), 45.

33. Alistair Knox, Living in the Environment (Melbourne: Mullaya Publications, 1975), 70, 71. See also Jane Correy and Allan Correy, “The Landscape Treatment of Canberra,” in Architecture in Australia, August, 627–629.

34. Herbert Marcuse, “An Essay on Liberation,” 1969, accessed March 14, 2017, http://libgen.org/search.php 36.

35. Fragments of the account provided here form a part of a more comprehensive account concerning the history the Monash campus landscape. See: Andrew Saniga, “An Uneasy Profession: Defining the Landscape Architect in Australia, 1912–1972,” PhD Thesis, University of Melbourne, 2004, 293–346; Andrew Saniga, Making Landscape Architecture in Australia (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2012), 147–165.

36. Jane Marshall, Jock Marshall: One Armed Warrior, Australian Science Archives Project, ASAPWeb 24 February 1998, accessed March 14, 2017, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/marshall/marshall.htm

37. Jock Marshall, Australia Limited (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1943).

38. Jock Marshall and Russell Drysdale, Journey Among Men (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1962).

39. See Ian Hiscock in Jock Marshall: One Armed Warrior, Jane Marshall, Australian Science Archives Project, ASAPWeb 24 February 1998, accessed June 19, 2017, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/marshall/marshall.htm. Despite Marshall’s devising of the event and the Zoology department’s role, University of Melbourne students reputedly took credit for this notorious act and early show of activism on campus.

40. “Report of the Professorial Board to the Interim Council,” August 8, 1961, MC/O/1, no folio number, Monash University Archives.

41. Martin Canny, “The Grounds An Act of Faith,” in Making Monash: A Twenty-five Year History (Monash University: Monash University Gallery, 1986), 25–34.

42. Bates Smart & McCutcheon, “Principles Governing Landscape Development,” July 20, 1960, RB/LP, Job No 3857, MC/O/1, Monash University Archives.

43. Bates Smart & McCutcheon, “Principles Governing Landscape Development.”

44. Jock Marshall’s hand-written notes on “Planting – Sequence of Events” and “Planting Policy,” June 20, 1960, BSM document M457 OmcC/LP Job No 3857, MON 22 Item 389, Monash University Archives.

45. Jock Marshall’s hand-written notes on “Planting – Sequence of Events” and “Planting Policy.”

46. See Stevens’ plans for the Science Courtyard titled: “Alternative Planting Scheme Monash University Courtyard Non-Australian Plants”, Scale 1 inch = 8 feet, Dwg No 283–7, August 1961; and, “Alternative Planting Scheme Monash University Courtyard Native Plants”, Scale 1 inch = 8 feet, Dwg 283–6, August 1961. Both plans State Library of Victoria.

47. Jock Marshall to Members of the Grounds Committee, “Observations on comments made by Professor Turner circulated by the Vice-Chancellor on August 23, 1961,” Monash University Archives.

48. Professor John Turner to Louis Matheson, July 3, 1961 as paraphrased and distributed to the Grounds Committee, August 23 1961.

49. Jane Marshall, Jock Marshall: One Armed Warrior, Australian Science Archives Project, ASAPWeb 24 February 1998, accessed June 19, 2017, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/marshall/marshall.htm

50. Jock Marshall to Louis Matheson, August 3.

51. Jane Marshall, Jock Marshall: One Armed Warrior, Australian Science Archives Project, ASAPWeb February 24, 1998, accessed June 19, 2017, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/marshall/marshall.htm

52. Tim Ealey, Interview with Andrew Saniga, June 20, 2000, Coronet Bay, Victoria; Grace Fraser, Interview with Andrew Saniga, November 17, 1999, Mt Eliza, Victoria.

53. Davison and Murphy, University Unlimited: The Monash Story, 118.

54. Mick Armstrong, 1, 2, 3, What Are We Fighting For?: The Australian Student Movement from its Origins to the 1970s, (Melbourne: Socialist Alternative, 2001), 74.

55. Conrad Hamann, “Recollections of a Plan: Architecture at Monash,” in Making Monash: A Twenty-five Year History, (Monash University: Monash University Gallery, 1986), 46.

56. Hamann, “Recollections of a Plan: Architecture at Monash,” 46.

57. See article: Lot’s Wife, Monday July 19, 1976, 11.

58. Marshall Berman, All that is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982), 321.

59. Canny, “The Grounds An Act of Faith,” 31.

60. See “Blg Office mtg 235 genda[sic]”, July 23, 1975, Monash University Grounds Committee minutes, Monash University Archives.

61. G.R. McCaughey, “Development of the area to the south of the Menzies Building” [memorandum], June 27, 1975, in Minutes of Grounds Committee, July 23, 1975, Monash University Archives.

62. D. Cochrane, “Development of the area to the south of the Menzies Building” [memorandum], June 19, 1975, in Minutes of Grounds Committee, July 23, 1975, Monash University Archives.

63. D.E. Allen, “Development of the area to the south of the Menzies Building” [memorandum], July 2, 1975, in minutes of Grounds Committee, July 23, 1975, Monash University Archives.

64. University of Wollongong Campus News, 1, no. 11 1975, April 14.

65. Josie Castle, University of Wollongong: An Illustrated History (Wollongong: The University of Wollongong, 1991), 38.

66. Nick Hartgerink, Regional Icon, Global Achiver: A History of the University of Wollongong 1951–2011 (Wollongong: University of Woollongong, 2011), 28; Josie Castle, University of Wollongong: An Illustrated History (Wollongong: The University of Wollongong, 1991), 44.

67. Bradbury, The History Man, n.p.

68. Roy Simpson, “The Master Plan”, in Building LaTrobe University: Reflections on the First 25 years, 1964–1989, ed. William Breen and John Salmond (Melbourne: La Trobe Uni Press, 1989), 47.

69. The most substantial record of student activism at La Trobe is by Barry York, who wrote a book looking back some twenty years to give a full recount. Other records include an archive of student protest flyers and political club pamphlets and memorabilia kept by the University including issues of “L’enrage”, “Red Moat”, “Moot Point”, “Red Net” and “Union Ratsheet” between 1970 and 1972.

70. Roy Simpson cited in Stephenson, Denis, “From Silent Spring to Paradise Regained, LaTrobe University Bundoora” Landscape Australia 3, 1997, 261.

71. Roy Simpson, “A University in the Suburbs”, Architecture in Australia, October, 1967, 827–834.

72. Simpson, “A University in the Suburbs”, 834.

73. Simpson, “A University in the Suburbs”, 834.

74. Simpson, “A University in the Suburbs”, 834.

75. Stephenson, “From Silent Spring”, 259.

76. Simpson, “A University in the Suburbs”, 832.

77. Multiple authors, “La Trobe University Review”, Architecture Australia, September, 1978, 34–66.

78. Simpson, “The Master Plan”, 39.

79. Simpson, “The Master Plan”, 39.

80. York, Student Revolt! 43.

81. Elizabeth Rennick, The Australian, Friday May 19, 1967, n.p.

82. York, Student Revolt!, 54.

83. P.W. Matthews, “From College-unions to Colleges and a General Union at La Trobe”, Vestes Journal 16, no. 1, 1973: 13.

84. Matthews, “From College-unions to Colleges and a General Union at La Trobe”, 16–18.

85. Matthews, “From College-unions to Colleges and a General Union at La Trobe”, 18.

86. “Liberty” student flyer 21 September 1971. Accessed LaTrobe Archives.

87. Federico Passi, Unpublished Conference Paper, “Still Architecture”, Cambridge May, 2012, n.p.

88. David Saunders Afterword from Living in Australia, re-cited in Zelman Cowan, “The Role of the Architect” Architecture in Australia, April, 1973, 55.

89. Robin Boyd, “Menzies College, Stage 2” in Architecture Australia, September, 1978, 54.

90. Cowan, “The Role of the Architect”, 55.

91. Barnabas Calder, Raw Concrete: The Beauty of Brutalism (London: William Heinemann, 2016), 149.

92. York, Student Revolt!, 76.

93. L’Enrage, student flyers, La Trobe Archives.

94. York, Student Revolt!, 56.

95. York, Student Revolt!, 75.

96. York, Student Revolt!, 46.

97. York, Student Revolt!, 54.

98. L’Enrage, September 1970, La Trobe Archives.

99. York, Student Revolt!, 61.

100. “Red Ned”, student flyer, 21/7/71, La Trobe Archives.

101. “Red Ned”, student flyer, 21/7/71, La Trobe Archives.

102. York, Student Revolt!, 131–133.

103. Simpson, “A University in the Suburbs”, 834.

104. Dovey, Framing Places, 14.

105. See Monash University and Monash University Museum of Art, Emily Floyd: This Place Will Always Be Open, 2013, accessed March 22, 2017, http://www.monash.edu/news/events/emily-floyd-this-place-will-always-be-open