On September 30, 1978, Princess Alexandra opened the new Library building at what was then the Capricornia Institute of Advanced Education (now CQUniversity) in Rockhampton.

by Christina Hunt  - ABC TV Rockhampton Project Researcher

One of many events captured on camera by ABC Television during 22 years of broadcasting from Rockhampton, these recorded moving images are particularly significant as a visual document of a moment in the history and growth of both CQUniversity and the Central Queensland region.

Christina Hunt

This 1978 archival film footage documenting Princess Alexandra and her husband Lord Ogilvy's visit was found within the walls of the same CQUniversity Library opened by her almost 30 years earlier.

The footage, together with a film reel of outtakes, was originally donated to CQUniversity by ABC Rockhampton in 1993, and together with another 81 ABC umatic tapes unearthed at the same time, was discovered during research for an ongoing project within the School of Arts and Creative Enterprise entitled Unearthing and Preserving the ABC's Rockhampton Television Past: an investigation of regional archival television material from 1963 - 1985 (mentored by Professor Denis Cryle & Adjunct Professor Ross Quinn).

The 16mm colour footage runs for 6 minutes and 22 seconds and shows images of an historic royal visit to a vastly different campus to the one enjoyed by students and staff today.

Thirty years ago the campus grounds and gardens were still being established. Much of the area surrounding the campus buildings was devoid of the lush tropical greenery of today. Instead, open expanses of lawns and pathways crisscrossed the sun-drenched university grounds.

These archival images show the Library building's dominant exterior like some kind of giant white metamorphic sculpture and the beauty of its organic shape and form starkly contrasts against the sparse flatness of its grassy surrounds, all somewhat hidden today by many tall shade trees.

Images of the interiors reveal a less organic approach to design and one that appears bound by office and furniture conventions of the 1970s. Nevertheless, one move towards tomorrow is shown in the new media studio that was in operation within the Library walls.

Other insights into Rockhampton and Central Queensland's past are opening as this project's research continues.