Scienceworks has welcomed what it says is one of the most important pieces of Australian innovation, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Automatic Computer (CSIRAC), to its Think Ahead exhibition in Melbourne. CSIRAC is considered one of the most significant objects in Museums Victoria's collection of 17 million items. It's half the size of a shipping container and about one millionth of the speed, computing power and volume of a smartphone. It was considered cutting-edge when it was built in 1949. Originally engineered at CSIRO in Sydney, CSIRAC was moved to the University of Melbourne in 1955. After taking a year to reassemble, it was switched on in 1956. Until the early 1960s, the computer's power was used by science and industry, and demand was so great that people often had to wait weeks to get access. It operated for 30,000 hours and tackled around 700 projects from playing electronic music and making weather forecasts to calculating mortgages and playing some of the first computer games.

It's hard to believe but the chip giant was established on July 18, 1968. Here are some of the highlights from the last half-century.

Tech execs gathered in Brisbane to discuss how their agencies are moving to a future where staff will be able to access all their applications and systems with a single ID. The luncheon was sponsored by VMware.

Government tech execs gathered in Canberra to discuss how their agencies are moving to a future where staff will be able to access all their applications and systems with a single ID. The luncheon was sponsored by VMware.

Tech chiefs gathered at Sydney's O'Bar to discuss how they are approaching cyber security. The luncheon was sponsored by Juniper and Seccom Global.

Data is becoming the new ‘oil’ and analytics is the differentiating factor. It not only delivers increased automation and sped up processes, but enables the identification of new models, the discovery of hidden relationships, and can reach a new level of intelligence. A group of leaders - from IT to data science to digital and marketing - gathered in Sydney for the CIO Breakfast, in partnership with SAS, to hear about the 'power of analytics' and how organisations are capitalising on artificial intelligence and machine learning to produce tangible business value.