Connections in the History of Australian Computing - History of Computing: Learning from the Past - page 1

Connections in the History of Australian Computing
John Deane
Australian Computer Museum Society,
PO Box S-5, Homebush South, NSW 2140, Australia
[e-mail]
Abstract. This paper gives an overview of early Australian computing mile-
stones up to about 1970 and demonstrates a mesh of influences. Wartime radar,
initially from Britain, provided basic experience for many computing engineers.
UK academic Douglas Hartree seems to have known all the early developers
and he played a significant part in the first Australian computing conference.
John von Neumann's two pioneering designs directly influenced four of the first
Australian machines, and published US designs were taken up enthusiastically.
Influences passed from Australia to the world too. Charles Hamblin's Reverse
Polish Notation influenced English Electric's KDF9 , and succeeding stack ar-
chitecture computers. Chris Wallace contributed to English Electric, and
Murray Allen worked at Control Data. Of course the Australians influenced
each other: Myers, Pearcey, Ovenstone, Bennett and Allen organized confer-
ences, interacted on projects, and created the Australian Computer Societies.
Even horse racing played a role.
Keywords: Australia, computing, Myers, Pearcey, Ovenstone, Bennett, Allen,
Wong, Hamblin, Hartree, Wilkes, CSIRO, CSIRAC, SILLIAC, UTECOM,
WREDAC, SNOCOM, CIRRUS, ATROPOS, ARCTURUS.
1 Introduction
The history of computing in Australia can be seen as a nearly continuous series of
personal connections, both within the country and internationally. The following sec-
tions highlight some of the influences on the early Australian projects.
2 George Julius' Automatic Totalisator
There have been calculating aids in Australia for as long as there have been people
here, but one of the first mechanical aids associated with Australia was developed by
a mechanical engineer, George Julius. George was born in England 1 , brought up in
New Zealand, and it might be fair to say he was obsessed with mechanical gadgets.
From 1896 he was working as a railway engineer in Western Australia and