Trevor Pearcey standing operating CSIRAC
Source: CSIRO
Australia’s first computer, CSIRAC, will celebrate its 60th birthday with its inclusion on the Victorian Heritage Register, where it joins culturally and historically significant objects such as the Eureka Flag and the Women’s Suffrage Petition.
CSIRAC is regarded as an international icon of the digital age and today remains the world’s oldest and only intact stored memory electronic computer. Many of Australia’s software industry pioneers honed their programming skills on CSIRAC, which will celebrate its 60th birthday at Melbourne Museum this November.
“We are extremely proud that the Heritage Council of Victoria has given CSIRAC this important distinction,” says Dr. Patrick Greene, Chief Executive Officer of Museum Victoria. “CSIRAC is a vital part of Australian technological history and has played an important role in shaping the computer science industry, not just in Australia but internationally.”
Originally called CSIR MK1, CSIRAC ran its first program in 1949 making it the fourth computer in the world. It was designed and constructed under the leadership of Trevor Pearcey and Maston Beard and a team from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
The CSIR MK1 was moved to The University of Melbourne in 1956 and renamed CSIRAC. There it was used for projects such as weather forecasting, building design and even home loan repayment calculations.
Simple computer games were created to be played on CSIRAC and it was the first computer in the world to be programmed to play music.
Despite its size — CSIRAC weighed several tonnes and took up the space of a double garage — it was extremely limited in functionality. It had less computing power and storage capabilities than the simplest of today’s mobile phones.
CSIRAC’s computing power was still a marked improvement from standard mechanical adding machines in use at the time. In comparison, CSIRAC was 500 times faster than the best mechanical calculators and able to process up to 1000 operations per second.
The Victorian Heritage Register recognises objects and places that are significant to the State of Victoria and CSIRAC will now be afforded the highest level of heritage protection.
The Heritage Council of Victoria considers CSIRAC to be one of Australia’s foremost technological achievements and its significance is further enhanced due to its fully documented provenance.
CSIRAC joins other Museum Victoria objects and places listed on the Victorian Heritage Register including the 8 Hour Day Trade Union Banner, the Spotswood Pumping Station and the Royal Exhibition Building.