Rooftop Secrets: observatories at the University of Melbourne
- Richard Gillespie
- Apr 9
- 2 min read
Four observatories, hidden and inaccessible, are perched on the rooftops of buildings at the University of Melbourne’s main Parkville campus. They reflect the keen interest in astronomy by several professors and a time when astronomical observation was an integral part of surveying, before the advent of GPS.
The distinctive tower of the Old Engineering Building of 1899 houses a surveying platform on the roof, where students could use a theodolite to survey to trig points at Mounts Macedon and Dandenong.
At the rear of the building is a complete astronomical observatory. Steep wooden steps ascend to a flat observing platform and a timber and iron transit room. The transit room is located so that the brick pier to support the instrument was sitting firmly on the join of the major walls below, thereby connected to the foundations. The Advanced Surveying course in 1900 included ‘Elements of spherical trigonometry; Determination of latitude, azimuth, time and longitude; Geodetic surveying.’
The observatory was likely to have been a collaboration between professor of engineering William Kernot and mathematical physicist Thomas Lyle, professor of natural philosophy. Both men were members of the Board of Visitors of the Melbourne Observatory, and government astronomer Robert Ellery was a longstanding senior member of the University Council and had directed the Geodetic Survey of Victoria.
The Old Engineering observatories were replaced in 1964 by a large platform on the Hydraulics and Surveying Building. The observatories in Old Engineering are now locked, accessible only to contractors servicing the HVAC equipment that clutters the spaces.
The former 1964 observatory is now a research student workspace with sweeping views of the CBD and the mountain range to the north.
The one operating observatory is on the 9th floor of the David Caro Building of the School of Physics. This small space with sliding roof houses a 4½ inch equatorial telescope by Thomas Cooke & Son of York, acquired by Melbourne Observatory in 1874.
The portable instrument was initially used during the Transit of Venus then subsequently for eclipse expeditions. The telescope was later loaned to the university for the use of professor chemistry Ernst Hartung, a keen amateur astronomer, then transferred to the university after the closure of Melbourne Observatory in 1945.
While several universities around Australia are known to house larger instruments and observatories, it seems likely that there are other rooftop secrets to be discovered and documented.
About the author
Dr Richard Gillespie is the Senior Curator, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology; Honorary Principal Fellow, School of Historical & Philosophical Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne. For 25 years he worked at Museums Victoria, developing Science Works, the Immigration Museum, Melbourne Museum, and becoming a manager within the Museums Victoria team.
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