Catherine Helen Spence Library
Constructed by the University of South Australia as part of the new City West Campus in 1996, the Catherine Helen Spence Building was officially opened in January 1997. The four story building housing the Library at City West Campus was extended on three floors in 2003 to accommodate the collections moving from the Underdale Campus when it was closed in 2004. The ground floor was extensively refurbished in early 2007 to accommodate the growing demand for study space. The building also housed the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Library during its inception before it relocated into the Hawke Building in 2008.
Catherine Helen Spence was born in Scotland in 1895 and emigrated with her family to South Australia in 1839. She opened her own school and campaigned for education for women, resulting in the establishment of the first government secondary school for girls. This led to women being accepted in Teacher Training Colleges and eventually into universities.
Catherine Helen Spence was Australia's first truly professional woman journalist and first female political candidate, as well as a fearless social and political reformer. Her influence on suffrage, culminating in South Australia being the first state in the world to give women the right to stand for Parliament, extended beyond Australia. She died in 1910. Considering her work as a writer, educator, journalist, speaker, and reformer it is apt that the Library was named in her honour.