The Australian National University's Mt Stromlo Observatory reopened yesterday, four years after the Canberra bushfires left nothing but the building's facade standing.
Federal Minister for Finance Nick Minchin and ANU vice-chancellor Ian Chubb officially reopened the new facility which was rebuilt by architects specialising in heritage restoration.
The building incorporates elements of the old, such as the column of the former East Solar telescope, which was built into the new library, and features a new common room with floor-to-ceiling glass.
Mr Minchin said the reopening marked the rejuvenation of the Mt Stromlo area, while Professor Chubb recalled the days of the bushfires.
"It's a tremendous emotional milestone," Professor Chubb said.
"We were all devastated when we came up the Monday after the fires. The utter devastation was just something to behold, so there was great emotional attachment to the site as a whole, it's a beautiful site."
He said the rebuilding had cost $35million so far, and the ANU hoped to recover another $26 million in the ongoing court case against its insurance broker, AON Risk Services. The university was waiting for a date for the final hearing in the case.
Professor Chubb acknowledged there was a possibility of losing the court case and the remaining $26million that was contested.
"The irritant for me remains the uncertainty. If we knew that we were getting no more we would respond in a particular way," he said.
"There is always hope and we wouldn't be in court if we didn't think we had a strong case against the broker."
Astronomy research school associate director Peter McGregor said the observatory was a focal point for the ANU's astronomers.
"It was sort of the heart of the school and everybody congregated here, and in the years since the fire we've sort of had to improvise and make do in that regard," Dr McGregor said.
"The fire hasn't so much directly interrupted research but it's been a big distraction for a lot of people in getting us back to this point. It's not stopped things, it's just made things more difficult."
The Mt Stromlo building will no longer house observatory telescopes, with new facilities planned instead for the Siding Springs observatory in Coonabarabran, in northern NSW.
However, Dr McGregor said Stromlo was still the main astronomy research institute in Australia with an international focus.
"We do what is currently important in international astronomy and that is the evolution of galaxies," he said.
"Working out exactly how planets form, and ultimately how life forms on planets is one of the big areas in astronomy. Our future direction is to build even bigger telescopes so we can do things like looking at these planets directly and looking at these very faint galaxies at the end of the universe. So we have big plans."