timeline
1961
The AAAE published the first issue of the Australian Journal of Adult Education. The AAAE’s first conference: Adult education: The nation’s responsibility.
1960
The Australian Association of Adult Education (AAAE) was formally established in 1960 in Hobart. Arnold Hely played a key role in establishing the AAAE as a national voice for adult […]
1950s
Adult education continued in Australia at a state level through the WEA (Workers Education Association) in NSW & SA, Universities in Sydney, Perth, Armidale & Adelaide; State Boards in Queensland […]
1947
Victorian Council of Adult Education (now Centre for Adult Education) was established. Adult Education Board in Tasmania was created.
1946
The first Board of Adult Education was established in QLD to organise, supervise and direct’ adult education in Queensland. The Act to set up the Council of Adult Education in […]
1944
The 1944 Duncan Report proposed a national system of adult education for post World War II Australia, however, implementation required a level of federal–state cooperation that Chifley thought too difficult […]
1913
The Workers’ Educational Associations arrived in Australia in 1913 (two exist today in Sydney and SA). WEA Sydney was established jointly by the trade union movement and the University of […]
1839
The first Victorian Mechanics’ Institute was the Melbourne Mechanics’ Institute established in 1839 and renamed The Melbourne Athenaeum in 1873. Institutes proliferated to over 1200 in Victoria and 50 in […]
1833
The Sydney Mechanics School of Arts (established 1833) offered everything – ‘from pneumatics, ancient oratory and ship-building to phrenology, how to choose a horse and the poetry of Byron. There were […]
1827
The Mechanics Institute movement started in Glasgow in the 1800s. ‘Mechanic’ referred to the working man, tradesman or artisan. The Institutes were welcoming spaces that offered adult education classes and […]