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HISTORY |
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| So were did SONA
Australia come from, why did it emerge, how and what does
that mean for you???? During the 60's and 70's a strong
and very active national body of architecture students
operated out of a terrace house in Carlton, Melbourne.
The executive lived in the back while a printing press
was operating at the front producing a student journal.
The body was called AASA (Australiasian Architecture
Student Association). AASA held conventions, sometimes
with over 1000 delegates from all over the country.
Numerous AASA council meetings took place during the
years and students across the country got together and
made a voice for themselves within the institute, within
schools and within the community at large. Unfortunately
this body disbanded somewhere in the 70's due to social
changes in student culture across the university
population. |
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| What still remains
of AASA years is the biennial oceanic architecture
student conference. This continued through the 70's, 80's
and is still going strong in the 90's. This year it will
be held in Sydney, in '97 it went to Geelong, '95 to
Perth, '93 to Adelaide, and in '91 Brisbane. |
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| In 1993 in Adelaide
at the Education Forum on the last day of the conference
a need for a national body of architecture students in
Australia was recognized. As a direct result of this a
student was then offered a place on the RAIA National
Education Committee as a voting member. This position was
taken up by a student from Perth whom was involved in the
organizing committee for the '95 conference. |
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| The 1995
conference, "crossing" was held in Perth over
the Easter break. Again at the education forum on the
last day the notion of a national body of architecture
students was raised and a contact list of university
delegates was established. |
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| 1996 year saw the
evolution of a national body of students speed up. The
Architecture Students Club at Melbuorne University
organized a week long study and social trip to Sydney.
The Sydney mid year trip was also open to Deakin , Rmit
and Oceania Polytechnic students of whom approximately 10
took part. At the end of the week long trip a forum was
held at the NSW RAIA chapter headquarters, Tusculum. Six
of the sixteen schools of architecture were represented
at the forum. Again the need for a national body was
raised and the Tusculum working party was formed with the
task of forming a national architecture student body. |
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| In September the
Tusculum working party meet in Newcastle after Newcastle
uni's archi ball. Six schools were represented again the
general direction of the national body was further
refined. |
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| Canberra hosted a
meeting in November where the aims and mission statement
of the national body were drafted. |
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| It was Melbourne's
turn in February of 1997. RMIT hosted the forum with 8
schools this time represented. A structure was workshoped
and proposed. |
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| Adelaide over
Easter 1977 were hosts for the last of SONA's formation
meetings. A financial plan was finally struck and a name
firmly approved by all those delegates present. 12 of the
16 schools were represented in Adelaide which included |
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| Deakin University Oceania Polytechnic RMIT University of Adelaide University of Newcastle University of New South Wales University of Melbourne University of Tasmania University of South Australia University of Queensland University of Sydney University of Canberra. |
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| SONA was officially
launched on July 9th 1997 at the morphe nineteen:97
student conference. Lecki Ord (former AASA President)
formally launched SONA in front of an audience of 900
students, academics and members of the profession. |
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