Our first staff newsletter, the Great Griffith Gazette (GGG), began circulation in mid-1973—some eighteen months before teaching commenced at Griffith. The Gazette was not published under any formal management direction or guidelines. Rather, it was an initiative of two early staff members: Neil Thyer and Colin Phillips.
Early Griffith University was a handful of spread-out buildings at Nathan campus, some of them hundreds of metres apart amongst our forest setting. Neil and Colin decided to start the newsletter to connect the different business/academic groups and create a sense of ‘community’ amongst staff.
A look through the GGG shows that some of the issues existing nearly 50 years ago are still relevant today. On-campus parking, job opportunities for our graduates, gender inequality in the workplace, mental health and university funding were all topics discussed in the publication. Despite being circulated for Griffith employees, some of the content published was relevant to staff and students alike.
As time went on, Neil and Colin found that the demands of producing the GGG impacted their actual jobs. The publication ceased in August of 1981 due to lack of staff and rising publishing costs.
You can view copies of the Great Griffith Gazette on the Griffith Archive website.
