Where is USyd stored?

Words and photos by Marlow Hurst

The University of Sydney has a whole lot of stuff. Bits and bobs, trinkets and trifles, and, lest we forget, odds and ends. Since its founding in 1850, USyd has collected and hoarded and curated — assembling a veritable menagerie of gubbins. But stuff needs to be put somewhere — be that on a shelf, or in a room, or crammed in a desk drawer. This photographic series seeks to celebrate those sites of storage in all their categorised splendour. From the Macleay Collection’s old-world morbid magnificence, to the cutting edge of Chau Chak Wing Museum’s deep storage, all the way to the Madsen Building’s rock room basement — these storage facilities contain art, artefacts, and accurately articulated bird skeletons. With objects of indefinite age to items of to-the-minute provenance, the storage capacity of these appointed venues are the true engine rooms of our University’s cultural and scientific apparatus. So next time you’re studying some rocks in Madsen or taking in a new exhibit at Chau Chak, just be thankful that there’s somewhere to put the rest.