CSIRAC - Australia's First Computer Source: Museum Victoria The
world’s oldest complete computer. CSIRAC (pronounced sigh –
rack) stands for Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organisation Automatic Computer. The first automatic electronic
stored-program computer in Australia and one of the first in the
world, CSIRAC is practically intact and is the only first-
generation computer still in existence. Developed by the Council
of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR, later renamed
CSIRO) at its Radiophysics Laboratory in Sydney, CSIRAC ran its
first program in November 1949. Transferred to the Department of
Physics at the University of Melbourne in 1955, it remained in
service from 1956 until 1964. After being decommissioned, CSIRAC
was donated to Museum Victoria. The computer now forms part of
the Museum’s Technology Collection and is on public display on
the Lower Ground Floor of the Melbourne Museum.