Around 70 inaugural students and staff from the class of 1975 returned to Bush Court on Friday, 10 October 2025 for a special alumni event to recognise their contribution to the University. 

Foundation student Rose Pinter said she chose Murdoch after becoming inspired by a lecturer who visited her high school. She described her experience as “truly wonderful”. 

“(Being first) meant that we could write our own magazine and start our own student collective that became a guild and become friends with the lecturers because we were so small the tutorials were tiny,” she said.

Addressing the group, Vice Chancellor and President Andrew Deeks paid tribute to these early “trailblazers”. 

“You were very much the pioneers – the first students to walk into these buildings as the builders and construction team walked out of them,” he said. 

“You were very brave, you were the first to take a chance in trusting your futures to an unproven, brand-new institution with a bold vision.” 
 

Attendees were given guided tours of the campus – which has expanded significantly since Murdoch University’s inaugural year when it was just three buildings.  

With an initial cohort of 510 students, the Murdoch University of 1975 was much smaller than the institution of today, but, proudly, the founding principles remain unchanged. 

Professor Deeks told the event the foundation academics threw open the doors of higher education “wider than they had ever been before”. 

In Murdoch’s first year of operation, only 46% of the cohort were under 23 years of age, compared with the national average of 70%. Thirty-four per cent of students were 30 or older, against a national average of 10%, and 47% were women compared with the national average of 34%. 

This legacy endures five decades later, through Murdoch’s ongoing commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion. 

The event commenced with a Welcome to Country led by Senior Noongar Elder Aunty TJ, was emceed by Pro Vice Chancellor Deborah Gare and concluded with a toast from Chancellor Gail McGowan.