This paper extends the numerical method, originally developed by Onate and his colleagues for the static analysis of plates, to enable modal (vibration) and bifurcative (buckling) analyses of plates to be undertaken. The procedure uses a rotation-free triangular element, and is based on combining the finite element method and the finite volume method so as to produce a triangular element with only three displacement degrees of freedom. Elastic stiffness, stability (geometric stiffness) and mass matrices are developed using the mixed formulation, and these are implemented in routine computer coding in order to demonstrate the validity and efficacy of the solution technique when compared with results reported by independent investigators. Natural frequencies and local buckling coefficients are given for plates with interior line supports, and these are used to illustrate the prowess of the numerical technique for the analysis of a wide class of plate buckling and vibration problems, whose analysis by non-discretisation techniques has found favour recently in deference to general finite element modelling which tends to introduce some inaccuracies. The element developed in this paper, however, is both accurate and has the attractive meshing characteristics of the finite element method for analysing more arbitrary geometric structural topologies.