The Australian National University (ANU) opened its doors to Canberra on Saturday 15 August, welcoming thousands of visitors to celebrate 80 years of people, places and stories at ANU Community Day.
Families, alumni, staff, students and visitors from across Canberra came together to explore the University, meet researchers and students, and experience some of the ideas, discoveries and people that have shaped ANU over the past eight decades.
Welcoming Canberra to campus
Held as part of the University's 80th anniversary celebrations, the free Community Day brought campus to life with live entertainment, exhibitions, talks, demonstrations, showcases, food trucks and activities for all ages.
The day began with a smoking ceremony, welcoming visitors to campus and setting the scene for a day of celebration, connection and discovery.
From there, there was plenty to see and do across Kambri and beyond.
Curiosity unleashed
The Marie Reay Teaching Centre was transformed into a hub of hands-on activities, designed to keep kids and the young at heart engaged in science and creative thinking.
Visitors explored interactive exhibits, games and puzzles, tackled engineering challenges using marshmallows, made creations using Lego and Makerspace materials, and discovered renewable energy by building their own wind turbines.
Live science demonstrations brought some spectacular experiments to life, including Dr Graham Walker’s 'Fun Phenomena' show, complete with hoverboards and explosions. Visitors could also make their own ice cream using liquid nitrogen or watch holographic chocolate being made.
Face painting, local student art and reptiles added to the fun, while researchers and communicators shared their work through demonstrations and activities designed to spark curiosity among visitors of all ages.
Ideas in action
At the Lowitja O’Donoghue Cultural Centre, the Discovery Zone was a showcase of interdisciplinary ANU work and research.
Visitors could explore student creativity and innovation through displays from student groups including ANU Formula Sport and ANU Solar Racing.
Displays covered topics ranging from history, politics and culture to science and the universe, cybernetics, technology, forest intelligence, large language models, and even meet Tappy the robot dog.
The program also featured political thinker John Keane in conversation with Andrew Leigh for a special Saturday event in our ANU Meet the Author series. They discussed Keane’s new book, Demagogues and Despots: Democracies on the Brink, bringing big questions about democracy, demagoguery and power to audiences to consider.
The 'The Visionaries Among Us' showcase drew the day to a close, bringing together leading ANU researchers working across artificial intelligence, astrophysics and Australia’s deep history. Hosted by ANU alumni and science communicators Lee Constable and Dr Weliton Menario Costa (WELI), the session featured insights from Dr Ben Swift, Professor Brad Tucker, Nobel Laureate Professor Brian Schmidt and Professor Ann McGrath, and finalists from the ANU Three-Minute Thesis competition, sending everyone home feeling inspired.
Stories on screen
There was also plenty to watch throughout the day, with a program of short films offering a glimpse into ANU history, research and people.
Archival footage sat alongside stories about groundbreaking research, including 3D-printed reefs and organs, clever cockatoos, canine field assistants, student reflections and the Warraay Puthu ‘Bad Smoke’ Youth Smoking and Prevention Campaign.
For movie buffs, there was a screening of the legal thriller Dark Waters, while the ANU Film Group celebrated its 60th anniversary by hosting a special screening of The Odyssey.
Music, culture and creativity
There was plenty happening outside too.
Live music filled the Kambri precinct, from choral performances to emerging bands, young musicians and DJ sets celebrating the creativity and talents of ANU and the wider Canberra community.
Joplin Lane featured food, multicultural activities and workshops, and the ANU Rocketry student team. Visitors could try Bollywood-inspired exercise, build and launch paper rockets, explore a solar telescope, test their skills in a games arcade, and get their hands-on limited edition 80th Anniversary merchandise at the ANU Shop.
The Cultural Corner celebrated arts, crafts and games from across Asia and the Pacific, with Japanese crafts, Chinese mahjong and calligraphy, Thai fish crafts, Indonesian rock-paper-scissors games, Indian henna and Indigenous weaving. Crowds were also entertained by Prosperous Mountain Lion and K-pop dance crews.
Exploring the campus
Our buses, Molly and Nugget, helped visitors explore more of the University, with stops including University House, the FUSE Glass Prize exhibition, ANU Kitchen Garden, and a Chinese Funerary Ceramics exhibition on loan from the National Gallery of Australia.
Around Kambri, people contributed messages, drawings and ideas to the Community Cloudscape Mural – a collective vision of a sustainable future presented by ANU Green.
The ANU Mongolian Ger made a special appearance, a chance to step inside the traditional circular dwelling central to Mongolia’s nomadic way of life and hear an ANU student play a traditional Mongolian instrument.
For those looking for a challenge, teams worked together to follow clues and escape from Alice in Wonderland and the Fractured World-themed computing escape rooms.
University House welcomed guests with live music and dining, as well as booked-out tours of the newly restored heritage building.
There were also bush tucker walking tours, offering a chance to discover the native plants growing across the ANU campus and the role they have played in sustaining Ngunnawal and Ngambri people for millennia.
Celebrating 80 years together
From science and technology to art, culture, history and music, Community Day offered a glimpse into the breadth of people and places that have been part of our ANU story – and those helping to shape its next chapter.
A huge thank you goes to the staff, students, performers, volunteers and partners who helped bring Community Day to life.
Thank you to everyone who came along to be part of a day that looked back on the legacy and celebrated the impact of ANU.
Here is to the next 80 years, together.
