CSIRAC - Australia's First Computer
Source: Museum Victoria
The world’s oldest complete computer.
CSIRAC (pronounced sigh – rack) stands for Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Automatic Computer.
The first automatic electronic stored-program computer in Australia and one of the first in the world, CSIRAC is practically intact and is the only first-generation computer still in existence.
Developed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR, later renamed CSIRO) at its Radiophysics Laboratory in Sydney, CSIRAC ran its first program in November 1949.
Transferred to the Department of Physics at the University of Melbourne in 1955, it remained in service from 1956 until 1964.
After being decommissioned, CSIRAC was donated to Museum Victoria. The computer now forms part of the Museum’s Technology Collection and is on public display in the Science and Life Gallery at Melbourne Museum.