Project update: recently digitised film negatives from 1978-9

In our custody are thousands of black and white film photographic negatives of our campus during its time as our predecessor, the Western Australian Institute of Technology. These images from 1978-1979 are an incredible record of the activities of staff and students almost 50 years ago.

The images were originally taken by photographers for publication in our early university journal The Reporter, by the WAIT Public Relations Department. The public relations department at WAIT is the equivalent of the University Marketing team today.

We recently sent a selection of these negatives to the Digitisation Centre of WA to have them professionally digitised for their long-term preservation, as well as to enable sharing and viewing of these unseen images.

The nature of 35mm film negatives is quite hardy as a physical medium, so good quality content reproduction has been obtained. Here are a few favourites of ours:

Behind them is a banner that reads “Life. Be in it.” This was part of a famous national health promotion campaign launched in Australia in 1975, designed and illustrated by artist Alex Stitt.

In 1979, WAIT had 11,995 student enrolments, less than half of which were full-time. For context, the first year of WAIT in 1967 had 2,891 student enrolments.

Eric Butterworth, Head of Social Work, discussing work prospects in the social work profession with students undertaking the ‘Aboriginal Bridging Course’ program, through the predecessor to the Centre for Aboriginal Studies, 1978.

The WAIT Charity Fair and TVW Channel 7 Telethon Auction (featuring children’s rides & games, crowds, country music performance, TVW 7 truck, Maori dancers), September 1979. They are sitting on the grass between buildings 101 and 201, before the John Curtin Centre was built.

There are mentions of a cat who roamed the university campus in the late 1970s, affectionally called ‘Lottie’ by staff and students. We love stumbling upon references to her and wondered whether this is an image of her in March 1978.