Regarding the genesis of the department, evidence of how and when this occurred can be found in box 1 of Records Services transfer 1984/010. A 1955 file includes a letter to the Vice-Chancellor George Paton ( dated 24 June 1955) from W.M. J. Weeden, Director, Commonwealth Office of Education regarding establishing "courses in Indonesian and Malayan Studies at your University" for which the government agreed to provide funding. The letter explained: "The Commonwealth Government has decided that if the University of Melbourne is willing to make provision for such studies it [the Government] will be prepared to meet the costs". Evidently, the three universities to be approached regarding establishing a course included the University of Sydney, the University of Melbourne and Canberra University College. Weeden stressed that the course should focus on language as well as the culture of the region. In his response to Weeden on 12 July 1955, Paton expressed the desire for the course to cover "... Indonesian and Malayan language, history, religion, culture, political institutions and economic geography to constitute a major in the Arts course....in conjunction with subjects already taught". Paton saw 1956-1957 as the period during which the course would be developed with the "...establishment of a senior lecturer with clerical assistance, library purchases, office costs and provision for specialist lectures and translation fees...". Paton estimated that approximately £5,000 would be required for these establishment costs. J.A.C. (James Austin Copland, aka Jamie) Mackie went on to head up the Department of Indonesian Studies from 1958. The course combined language with politics and history. After war service and study at Melbourne and Oxford universities, graduating with first-class honours from both, Mackie worked on the Colombo Plan in Jakarta from 1956 to 1958, working with the newly established National Planning Bureau. There he came into close contact and developed enduring friendships with many Indonesian intellectuals and his experiences set the stage for his lifelong academic commitment to the study of Indonesia, and Asia more generally. Mackie returned to his alma mater, the University of Melbourne, to establish one of the country's first Indonesian studies programs. Mackie, as one of the founders of the Immigration Reform Group, was very prominent in arguing against the White Australia Policy during the 1960s. In 1968, he moved to Monash University as foundation director of its Centre for Southeast Asian Studies.

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