“International House, Melbourne”, 1954: A film for the future

Although not welcoming students until 1957, International House was causing excitement amongst the University of Melbourne’s benefactors and student population throughout the 1950s. The International House Fair, a yearly fundraising extravaganza in May, featured prominently in the student newspaper Farrago, with students and the wider community assisting with performances, donations, and market stalls.  Along with fundraising efforts, in 1954 the University Experimental Film Unit, on behalf of the University Film Society, produced an 8-minute documentary short advocating the need for an International House in Melbourne. “International House, Melbourne” featured in a “Premiere Programme” at the Union Theatre along with the Film Society’s other recent productions at 8.00pm from 4-6 May at a cost of 3/6 and 4/6 each; around AU$7 in 2023 (“Film Society’s Own Films,” 1954). The following day, the International House Fair began, running Friday 7 and Saturday 8 May on the grounds of the University, to much fanfare from Farrago and the student body.

A film that shows that East and West CAN meet – and live together

(“Premiere is Tonight,” 1954).

The film was funded with £75 from the Student Representative Council and the International House Appeal (MUFS, 1953), and produced by D. Perrin (full name unknown) and Gil Brealey, both of the University’s Film Society. Brealey produced and directed several acclaimed amateur films during his time in the Society, including “The Wheel”, a full-length imaginative study of a child, and “Royal Rag”, a short film record of Philip Duke of Edinburgh’s visit to the University, both of which were played with the International House film. The film’s commentator, Allan Aldous, was a well-known West Australian radio broadcaster, film-maker, and author, who became involved in the Victorian Council of Adult Education in the 1950s.

Running for about eight minutes, the black and white film depicts the parallel journeys of two female students arriving in Melbourne to study at the University: Rajes from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia (then Malaya), and Wendy from the regional Victorian town of Lang Lang. They are welcomed into an imagined International House, a bustling residence of learning and cross-cultural socialisation, and a far better alternative to private boarding houses at the behest of “mean landladies”. For the film-makers, then, whether you arrived by train or plane, and whether Australian culture was your own or new to you, there ought to be a place for you at International House. As the film emphasises, the number of Asian students had grown significantly since the end of World War Two, with policies such as the 1950 Colombo Plan facilitating their entry into Australia to study at its universities. The war had also made a reality the physical closeness of Australia and its Asian neighbours, and the likely convergence of their futures.

The producers elected to portray two female students, even though women were unable to stay at International House until 1972. Perhaps, like International House itself at the time, the film-makers hoped to present a dream of the future, in which people of all identities could mingle and learn from one another.

The Malaysian student is thought to be Rajeswary Thambiah, a resident at University Women’s College from 1953 to 1956. Thambiah was a science student at the University of Melbourne, and went on to study biomedicine at the University of Adelaide, completing a PhD in molecular biology (Hemisphere, 1960, p. 29). She made pioneering contributions to the field of biological science, establishing working laboratories in several cities, and making several research breakthroughs. During her time in Melbourne, Thambiah was further involved with International House, performing an Indian dance at the fundraiser ‘Oriental Rendezvous’ in 1957. The other female student remains unidentified, but was likely associated with the International House Committee or the University Film Society.

The film also includes crowds of international and domestic students going about their studies, along with shots of the International House Committee, headed by Dr Ian Clunies Ross, planning a welcoming space to accommodate socialising, studying, privacy, and sporting endeavours. The idealism and passion surrounding the development of International House is captured by the film, displaying a place which is more than residential accommodation, but “a bridge” between Australian and international students, where “the insidious barriers of race” have been “broken down” (“Premiere is Tonight,” 1954). The development of the International House documentary illustrates the excitement amongst university students towards a welcoming residence for international students, fostering a more diverse academic community and cross-cultural companionship into the future.

Check out the film here: https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/648136d689348327e209e50c

References and further reading

Clunies Ross, I. (1954, May 4). The president writes of House purposes. Farrago, p. 3. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/312915

Dunstan, R. (1954, April 29). The Duke in film short. The Herald, p. 22. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245556205

Features on the air: Australia on the movie screen. (1951, December 27). Daily Examiner, p. 6. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article194971324

Film society’s own films. (1954, March 30). Farrago, p. 7. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/312919.

Films (1954, April 22). The Age. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article205705405.

Melbourne University Film Society. (1953, April 24). Minutes of the MUFS Committee. Melbourne: University of Melbourne Archives.

Melbourne University Film Society (1953, August 6). Minutes of the MUFS Committee. University of Melbourne Archives.

Miss Rajeswary Thambiah. (1954, August 12). The Straits Budget. http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitsbudget19540812-1.2.90

People of interest (1960, November). Hemisphere: An Asian-Australian Magazine, 4(11), 29. https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3119604375/view?partId=nla.obj-3119655299

Premiere (1954, May 1). The Argus. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23426341

Premiere is tonight: See history made (1954, May 4). Farrago, p. 4. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/312915

TV will boost films. (1955, January 1). The Argus, p. 9. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71692703