The School of Physics

This colour film showcases the work of seven of the research departments in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney in 1977: Astrophysics Department; Chatterton Astronomy Department: Environmental Physics Department; Falkiner Nuclear Physics Department; Packer Theoretical Physics Department; Solar Energy Department; Wills Plasma Physics Department. The eighth department in the School, the Basser Department of Computer Science, had recently been split into two sections and was not included in the film. One section, the University Computing Service, with responsibility for providing computing to all University departments was relocated to new premises in Abercrombie Street. The other became a separate academic department in 1979 and, two decades later, was renamed the School of Information Technologies.

The film was commissioned by the School’s Teaching Committee to be shown to all incoming First Year students in the advanced and technological streams and to interested senior high school students. The Teaching Committee, which was chaired by Don Millar (Deputy Head of School), had responsibility for all First and Second Year lectures in the School. Funding for the film was provided by the Science Foundation for Physics.

The film was produced by the University’s Television Service, which at that time had facilities for producing and screening black and white television lectures in the Carslaw Building. Although increasing numbers of students had access to colour television at home, the University had not yet upgraded to colour. Because high quality colour video was not readily available at reasonable prices, it was necessary to use colour film instead. Students at the Australian Film Television and Radio School kindly made all of the cell animations used in the film. Mr Robin Crump, working with the UTS while on leave from the BBC, was the producer. He spent time with each of the research departments and visited all the field stations (except for Maningrida) before writing a draft script. He also narrated the film. Bob Hewitt was School Liaison Officer for the film and approved the
scientific accuracy of the script. The Teaching Committee considered that Mr Crump, as a non-scientist, was better placed than academic staff members to assess what aspects of the research would be of interest to the target audience and he was therefore given a relatively free hand to select material.