Turner Hall

🏠 Turner Hall at a glance

Turner Hall primarily offers private, self-contained studio apartments, with the addition of two shared apartments. All residents also enjoy access to a range of shared spaces designed to foster connection and support student wellbeing. These include floor lounges/kitchens, a common room and games room, music rehearsal room, an outdoor BBQ area, a veggie garden, and laundry.

The Urban Community Accommodation Office is conveniently located in a separate area on the ground floor, providing easy access to on-site services.

With its balance of privacy, community, and thoughtfully designed inclusive spaces, Turner Hall reflects Monash’s commitment to sustainable, student-focused living.

🛏️ 255 private studio apartments and rooms
🏠 Room options
♿ Accessible accommodation
📐Explore the Hall layout
📍Turner Hall is located centrally on-campus, in close proximity to the sporting precinct.

🖼️ Explore Turner Hall

Turner Hall identity and history View

🐯 Mascot and colour

The mascot for Turner Hall is the Tiger. The Turner hall tigers are formidable opponents in any competition and we often wear our orange and black colours as we roar to victory at sporting and social events.

📜 Turner Hall's history

Associate Professor Ian Turner photograph

Turner Hall is named in honour and recognition of Associate Professor Ian Turner.

Associate Professor Ian Turner (1922 - 1978) was an historian and political activist, who brought to his teaching at Monash University in the 1960s and 1970s a great passion for his country and its art, literature and landscape.

Following schooling at Nhill State School and on a scholarship at Geelong College, he undertook undergraduate study in law and arts at The University of Melbourne. His studies were interrupted by military service in World War II, during which he worked as a driver in Queensland and New Guinea, and in the Australian Army Education Service until his discharge in 1945.

Returning to his university studies, Associate Professor Turner embraced the radical nationalist tradition and became a member of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA). In 1949, he was made secretary of the Australian Peace Council, organising anti-war conferences in Australia and attending similar events in Europe, until the CPA directed him to gain "proletarian industrial experience".

In response, he became a railway cleaner and was elected an official in the Australian Railways Union. His opposition to the Soviet Union's suppression of the Hungarian uprising in 1956 led to his expulsion from the CPA.

Associate Professor Turner graduated PhD at the Australian National University. His thesis examined the dynamics of the labour movement in eastern Australia in 1900 - 21 and provided the foundation for his most substantial book, 'Industrial Labour and Politics' (1965), and its offshoot, 'Sydney's Burning' (1967). In 1964, he moved to Monash University where he distinguished himself as an original, brilliant and inspiring teacher of Australian history and an outstanding supervisor of honours and postgraduate students. His humorous annual Ron Barassi Memorial Lecture in Grand Final Week was a campus highlight. In 1969, he was appointed an associate professor, later publishing 'In Union is Strength' (1976) and numerous articles.

By 1970, he was a leader in the Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party and reportedly used his negotiating skills to help prevent a split in the state branch following federal intervention that year.

A lover of jazz and modern art, Associate Professor Turner regularly conducted a salon at his Richmond home where artists, writers, musicians, students and politicians gathered to enjoy the company of this outgoing, yet sometimes enigmatic, "everyman's academic".

References:

D. B. Waterson, 'Turner, Ian Alexander (1922-1978)', in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 16, MUP, 2002
Graeme Davison and Kate Murphy, 'University Unlimited - The Monash Story', Allen & Unwin, 2012
Monash University Archives

Photograph: Monash University Archives, IN877; photographer - Herve Alleaum