Date Time SILLIAC: machine that brought Australia into computer age A horse-racing benefactor with an interest in science made one of Australia’s first, and then most powerful, computers possible. It’s a story that’s easy to love. It was the early 1950s and the University wanted to build one the first and most powerful computers in the world, SILLIAC. But funds were short and it was only built because the race horse of a prominent donor had just won the Melbourne Cup. No Melbourne Cup win, no SILLIAC. A donor with a passion for science The truth is a little less cinematic....