29 May 2025
The University of South Australia’s Time Capsule is a fascinating trip back in time, bursting with vintage, celebrity and quirky memorabilia recorded over more than 150 years, including through preceding institutions.
The online collection already holds almost 400 visual mementos contributed by staff, students, alumni and community members. Yet there’s an element UniSA’s Acting Vice Chancellor Distinguished Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington AO says is underrepresented – the unfashionable and outdated merchandise she knows is out there.
“I’m challenging the community to dig deep in their bottom drawers and storage boxes, seek out those outdated mugs, shirts, and hats that I know are out there,” Prof Hughes-Warrington says.
The UniSA Time Capsule is a work in progress – a collection of photos, videos and documents celebrating achievements, history and culture across the sweep of the University’s teaching, learning, research and community and campus activities. The goal is to capture special UniSA moments and personal reflections, preserving the University’s past before it joins with the University of Adelaide to begin its new chapter as Adelaide University.
“UniSA has a long legacy,” Prof Hughes-Warrington explains. “Including our antecedent institutions, our history goes back to 1856.
“We created this project to help our community tell the UniSA story as it relates to them. This is not a formal history of the University nor a repository for formal University records, it’s a people’s history.”
Prof Hughes-Warrington, a globally acknowledged philosopher and historian with many history publications to her credit, believes museums and history books have an important place in the world but making history accessible to people is what matters most.
“Most people connect with history visually, including through photos, films or television. It was important to us to create an experience where people could make history with us, not by giving us their objects, but by sharing their images, videos or other documents, memories that are important to them.
“History is all around us, it’s what we wear, it’s what we carry around. There is nothing too small that isn’t important in our own stories and the story of UniSA, so we’re absolutely delighted that our community is embracing this project and sharing their own pieces of history.
“Research shows that if people feel they are part of creating history and are involved in that process, they are more likely to contribute, to go and look at it, and the result will be a richer, more authentic story.”
Within the Time Capsule, Proppa Stories is capturing and sharing the unique history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders at UniSA.
The UniSA Time Capsule will continue collecting pieces of the University’s history until the end of the year, with many nostalgic, hilarious and proud moments already captured. From the conferral of Nelson Mandela’s honorary doctorate to art classes in the 1800s and teaching Jimmy Barnes the Star Trek Vulcan salute, the rich tapestry of UniSA’s legacy is taking shape for all to enjoy.
Visit the time capsule here to view or contribute your photo, video or scanned document: https://timecapsule.unisa.edu.au/
Media contact: Megan Andrews M: +61 434 819 275 E: megan.andrews@unisa.edu.au
