Day 4: Armidale (UNE)

UNE was formed in 1938 as the New England University College, a College of the University of Sydney. The University became fully independent in 1954 and pioneered teaching to external students by correspondence, making UNE Australia’s most experienced provider of distance and now online education — UNE is now Australia’s second-largest online university.

I did a few days of consulting here 10 years ago, assisting in writing a business case for their online expansion. The deer park is now inhabited by kangaroos.

The main Armidale campus is comprised of the Academic Campus and Bellevue Campus. The Academic Campus (also known as ‘up top’) is the centre for teaching and research, and is located in the northern section of the Armidale campus. The Bellevue Campus, located in the southern section includes most of the residential colleges, and sporting facilities.

We started at the Academic Campus and stopped at Booloominbah, the main administration building and Great Hall.

Booloominbah was the 1880’s White family homestead designed by noted architect John Horbury Hunt (who also designed the Anglican cathedral). The building is now the administrative heart of the University of New England, the first rural university in NSW (established as a college of Sydney University in 1938 and proclaimed an independent university in 1954).

The University campus and many charming heritage buildings across the region are home to museums and collections that reveal myriad colourful stories about the history of the New England.

Then we walked towards Dixson Library.

We saw quite a few kangaroo sculptures around.

The Shop

Lewis Lecture Theatre

The Mathematics and Computer Science building

The Psychology building

Mary White College, where Lyn resided in during her uni years.

Lyn identified her old dorm room at Mary White College.

Outside Mary White, we saw two kangaroos, a mother and her joey, who were very curious about us and I took a few photos.

After that, we drove around the campus and saw the Old Ground Shed and Oorala Centre.

We then drove to the Bellevue Campus where we saw Austin College and Robb College.

Our final stop was the UNE Business School and the Sports Centre.