Tasmania’s first computer

In 1919 Trevor Pearcey was born, who'd later become a technology pioneer and the designer of Australia's first computer. But to hone in on Tasmania's introduction to computing, we need to talk about chocolate.

In the same year, in Pearcey's birthplace of England, Cadbury struck a deal with their rival Fry's, merging the businesses and starting a mission for international expansion. Two years later, Cadbury's first factory outside the UK was established in Claremont, here in Tasmania.

"Cadbury's Fry Pascall Factory at Claremont" from Libraries Tasmania, used under CC BY 4.0 / Cropped from original

Chocolate was made, and by the late 1950s we had Freddo Frogs and Crunchies, but no computer. We could be forgiven though, as there were maybe 12 computers in Australia at that time. The early ones had their own names, like CSIRAC, SILLIAC or WREDAC. All the ACs (Automatic Computer).

The industry during this time was a family Favourites box of assorted acronyms that described machines, companies and mergers. It was a race to embed computers in government and commercial applications.

Cadbury was not using any distributors for their products at this stage, and were invoicing every single retail outlet and milk bar in Australia directly. A job pretty suitable for a computer.

So they put in the order for the first computer destined for Tasmania, the ICT 1301. A five-tonne beast that took over 6x7m of floorspace, costing over one million pounds in today's money. This was 1962, and it was to be shipped from the UK in multiple pieces alongside a team of people for assembly.

It's been said that ICT was running late on the project, narrowly missing losing the contract to IBM. The first pieces of hardware and software arrived in Claremont incomplete, and it was a grueling ten weeks to get everything setup and sorted.

Although less powerful than a modern pocket calculator, at the time the 1301 had impressive capabilities. One of their main attractions was the way they performed British currency calculations.

Equally impressive was the visual design of its various controls and cabinets, so much so that the model featured in the set of two James Bond movies.

Villainous computer processing in The Man With The Golden Gun (1974).

After only a year of service, exact details of what happened next for Cadbury's Tassie computer we couldn't fully determine. One suggested fate is that it was packed up and flown to Dunedin, New Zealand for use in the Cadbury factory there. We hope this is the same machine, as out of the 200 odd computers made, the New Zealand example is perhaps one of two left that have a chance of being fully restored to working condition.