Queensland Education, Science and Technology Network

QUESTnet – A Brief History

In the late 1970's and early 1980's the universities in Queensland were at the forefront - indeed bleeding edge - of the development of computer communications and networking. The introduction of "time sharing" computers in the 1970's led to the development of the earliest, simple networks and in 1981 the first 10Mbps Ethernet in the southern hemisphere was installed at the University of Queensland.

QUESTnet arose as an informal forum of the universities in Queensland for their network developments. They had to develop the knowledge and skills of their own staff in these technologies to be able to proceed as there was no one who could teach them. So they arranged a series of technical meetings, forums and workshops to this end. QUESTnet also became the informal umbrella group for the development of intra-University networks, continuing with these dual roles for some 20 years.

The staff development forums became the annual "QUESTnet Winter Workshop" which, in turn, grew into the QUESTnet Annual Conference http://www.questnet.net.au/conferences/), run since 1994. Now one of the premier networking conferences in Australia, it attracts in excess of 350 delegates each year. Like the earlier workshops each conference is organised by one of the Universities and planned to run on a breakeven basis. It always focuses on staff development with hands-on workshops as well as papers from invited overseas and local speakers. This conference is strongly supported by the University ITC sector in Australia, AARNet Pty Ltd (APL), the company that operates Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARNet), and the ITC industry which assists with sponsorship to help keep costs down.

By 1999, the development, operation and maintenance of the intra-university networks had become a major activity and the need for development of staff knowledge and skills widened dramatically with the Universities still taking a lead in developing advanced network applications. After some consideration the Universities decided to split the two functions. The network development was held within the University framework under the banner of the Queensland Regional Network Organisation (QRNO). In July 2001 QUESTnet was set up as a separate group with its own constitution and finances to expand the role of staff development and develop other areas of common interest.

The group agreed to initially expand the training via a series of workshops on current topics during the year. These are to be kept "in house" for the first couple of years to get them running smoothly and then to be opened up to other organisations. In 2002, the first year of this new operation, three workshops were run in addition to the annual conference. Free to members, attendance at the workshops ranged from 20 to 55.

Workshops run to date include Application Level (Layer 7) Firewalls and Switches, IT Project Management, Campus Network Design, Directory Services, Services Consolidation, SPAM, Access Grids, and Network & Systems Monitoring. The workshops scheduled for 2005 are Benchmarking, CiscoWorks Network Management, Enterprise Architecture Development, and Security Audit Tools.

In 2002 the federal Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) established the Higher Education Bandwidth Advisory Committee (HEBAC) to review the needs for high bandwidth communication links for research. QUESTnet members provided input t0 the QRNO report submitted to HEBAC. Key elements of the QRNO report were included in the HEBAC report to DEST and resulted in a federal government grant of $5.5M to QRNO towards the first stage development to connect regional Universities. This submission lead to the implementation of high bandwidth fibre services to Central Queensland University in Rockhampton James Cook University in Townsville, and Grangenet PoPs in Brisbane. Stage 2 of the network is under development.

In 2003 QUESTnet was registered as a charity.

QUESTnet continues to run workshops, the annual conference, and to lobby for improved services for its member universities.