Bye Bye Brownless

The University of Melbourne's Brownless Biomedical Library will be closing permanently at Midnight Friday 21 June 2024. Named after Sir Anthony Colling Brownless (1817-1897), a surgeon and physician who travelled to Australia in 1852. He worked as a physician at the Melbourne Hospital and was appointed to the Council of the University of Melbourne in 1855. He was central to the creation of the Medical School in 1862 and became Vice-Chancellor in 1858 and then Chancellor in 1887.(1)

Medical Librarian Anne Harrison (1923-1992) who worked at the Medical School from 1949-1983 foresaw the need for an independent Medical Library, originally situated in a small space in the University's original Pathology building. She oversaw and helped establish the Brownless Medical Library as a standalone building in 1967 and the transition from print to online databases. (2) The original brutalist design was by Rae Featherstone, University staff architect, integrating with the Baillieu Library designs for which John F.D. Scarborough was commissioned, completed in 1959.

The Library has housed the Medical History Museum from its inception, an initiative of anatomist, surgeon, medical historian and biographer Kenneth Fitzpatrick Russell (1911-1987) containing a complete 19th-century Savory & Moore pharmacy, scientific instruments from landmark medical research projects, diagnostic and surgical instruments and medical artworks. Other historical archives include the Rare Books and Medical History Collection. (3) In 1979 an innovative audiovisual centre was introduced to aid learning and teaching. (4)

Encompassing extensive research resources and study space immediately adjacent to the Medical Building, the BML was a highly functional and formative space for generations of University of Melbourne Medical, Dentistry and Health Sciences (MDHS) graduates. Unique features to the structure include its walkway bridge link to the larger Baillieu Library, through which waves of hard-working students would migrate during the closing time of each library, and its circular, glass-brick encased central stairwell with a false component leading to a non-existent top level, fancifully dubbed the "Stairway to Heaven".

With the transition to digital resources and archives, the growth of Biomedical Sciences, and the increased need for quiet study spaces, the BML was renovated in 2010, removing much of the shelving and dramatically increasing the range and number of study areas, with the opening hours expanded to 24-hours a day. McBride Charles Ryan were commissioned for this work incorporating functional, aesthetic and sustainability concepts which was a finalist in the 2011 Melbourne Design Awards. (5,6)

University communications indicate that the Brownless Library will close permanently at Midnight on Friday 21 June 2024 and will not be replaced, with its resources moving to other libraries within the University of Melbourne. (7) Plans are in place to repurpose the physical space for a new indigenous cultural space, The Place for Indigenous Art and Culture (The Place) due for completion in mid-2027. (8)