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The University of Melbourne

A Visitor’s Guide

Thornton McCamish

In this whimsical guide, Thornton McCamish explains how the University came to be, what it does and how it all works.

About this Title

For more than 150 years, the University of Melbourne has been one of Australia's most significant and cherished institutions. It has always been, as it is today, a nursery for future leaders and thinkers, a laboratory for research, public health and policy, and one of the country's most prestigious seats of higher learning.

To the visitor, the University of Melbourne can seem like compact city-state. Nearly 50,000 people work or study in and around one overflowing city block, a precinct with its own laws and government, its own seasons, legends and customs. Ivy-clad cloisters and recondite ritual sit alongside ultramodern buildings and visionary research. It's a place of forgotten treasures, over-caffeinated students and dreams of the future.

In this whimsical guide, Melbourne graduate Thornton McCamish explains how the University came to be, what it does and how it all works. The University of Melbourne: A Visitor's Companion offers a glimpse of this extraordinary place and its people leading the passer-by down forgotten byways in the University's past and its grounds. With its rich illustrations and guided tours, this is the perfect visitor's companion to Australia's leading research and teaching university.

About the Author

Thornton McCamish is a Melbourne writer. In 1989 he went to Melbourne University in 1989 to study law and emerged six years later with a Masters degree in Literature instead. He edited The Big Issue Australia magazine before turning to full-time writing. His journalism has appeared in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, Good Weekend and The Herald Sun and in the online journal NewMatilda.com. His travel book, Supercargo: A Journey Among Ports, was published in 2002.

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978-0-522-85350-6