Fred Alexander (1899–1996)

I'm now deep into my nerd-out of history books regarding my adopted state. This book is almost absurd: an 875-page tome, written on the 50th anniversary of the University of Western Australia, detailing the university's history from concept to "present day" of 1963. It was a time when the student body numbered just 4,000, and the state's population as a whole was 700,000. (Given the state's incredible isolation and Australia's relatively closed borders back then, the university catered almost exclusively to the "high achievers" from within its borders, and a tiny percentage of the Asian students who had been let into the country for about a decade at this point.

From at least the 1970s onward, it was common to joke about using this book as a doorstop, and there's some argument for that. But I'm excited to delve further into its pages. For a state so separated from the rest of its country at the time, Western Australia had a particular sense of itself which meant that Winthrop Hackett (ultimately the first chancellor) was often jeered at for his arguments, dating back a full forty years prior to the opening, that the state needed its own tertiary institution. Most people felt that it was sensible, economically viable, and maybe even useful for their youth, to send potential students to the eastern states instead. The place of UWA (still the only university in the state when this book came out, not to be joined/rivalled for another 12 years) held a special place, thus, in the development of the state - as it hopefully still does. The author, Fred Alexander, was an Oxford-educated historian from Melbourne who arrived in Perth in 1924 and would spend the rest of his career at the University and then the State Library. His insight, drive, and wit all show up in the sections I have read thus far.

At the end of the day, this is essentially a very long version of those kind of remarkably specific histories ones finds in museum gift shops. "A history of crocodile farming in the North Queensland area", "A history of hour-glass figurines of the midwest", A history of cupboards made in Dorset". It's a book that exists because no-one else was ever going to write it, and a book that will delve deep into long-forgotten people making long-forgotten decisions. Not really for anyone to read cover-to-cover, but a deeply valuable resource when the time comes.

A niche volume, certainly, but not to be sniffed at! (Followed by Brian De Garis' 75th anniversary volume, and Jenny Gregory's centenary issue; UWA sure knows how to celebrate itself!)… (altro)