IT STARTED FROM SCRATCH T HE FIRS T FIF T Y YEARS OF T HE A US T RALASIAN C OLLEGE OF D ERMATOLOGIS T S Jill Barnard & Sonia Jennings In the 1960s Australian dermatologists set out, with lofty ambitions, to establish their own specialist medical college. The founding members of the Australasian College of Dermatologists aimed that the College — the first of its type in the world — would provide first-class dermatology training in Australia and New Zealand and attract doctors of the highest calibre to the specialty. Their vision extended to increasing understanding in medical, academic, government and public circles of the important role that skin plays in health and wellbeing. Over the ensuing 50 years many dedicated fellows of the College have given their time to achieving these aims. This history traces the successes and the challenges faced along the way. Charting developments in various facets of College life in the 20th and 21st centuries, it tells the story of successive generations of fellows who have held firmly to the founders’ commitment to train dermatologists to provide quality skin health for the community. Cover photos (clockwise from left) First College Annual Scientific Meeting 1967 College Annual General Meeting 1969 Conferring ceremony 1994 Board of Censors 2007 Conferring ceremony 2015 IT STARTED FROM SCRATCH T HE FIRS T FIF T Y YEARS OF T HE A US T RALASIAN C OLLEGE OF D ERMATOLOGIS T S Jill Barnard & Sonia Jennings First published in Australia in 2017 by the Australasian College of Dermatologists PO Box 3785, Rhodes NSW 2138 www.dermcoll.edu.au Copyright © Australasian College of Dermatologists All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the Australasian College of Dermatologists. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Creator: Barnard, Jill, author. Title: It started from scratch : the first fifty years of the Australasian College of Dermatologists / Jill Barnard and Sonia Jennings. ISBN: 9780646970479 (paperback) Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Subjects: Australasian College of Dermatologists—History. Dermatology—Australia—History. Dermatology—New Zealand—History. Other Creators/Contributors: Jennings, Sonia, author. Australasian College of Dermatologists. Although every effort has been made to ensure that the information in this book was correct at time of press, neither the authors nor the publisher assume responsibility for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause. Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders for materials used in this book. Unless otherwise stated, all images have been sourced from the Australasian College of Dermatologists. Any person or organisation that may have been overlooked should contact the Australasian College of Dermatologists. CONTENTS F OREWOR D ...................................................... 5 P REFA C E .............................................................6 1 T HE F OUN DAT IONS ............................................9 2 U N D E RWAY 1967 – 1977..................................15 3 C ONSOLI DAT ING 1978 – 1988...........................35 4 E X P LORING B ROA D ER H ORIZONS 1989 – 1997......53 5 C HANGES IN T HE A IR 1998 – 2006....................73 6 C OMING OF A GE 2007 – 2016..........................95 E N D NO T ES .......................................................118 B I B LIOGRA P HY ..................................................126 I N D EX .............................................................129 FOREWORD More than 50 years have now passed since the formation of the Australasian College of Dermatologists and it is a fitting time to record this period before much of it is lost forever. Tessa Milne in From Clique to College — A History of the Foundation of the Australasian College of Dermatologists gave us an insight into the steps and processes that led to the formation of the College in 1966. This monograph takes up where the earlier publication finished and, as you will read, it has been quite a journey. Jill Barnard and Sonia Jennings, during their comprehensive research for this book, interviewed many dermatologists and members of the College staff who often had first-hand involvement in most of the significant issues that have arisen over this period. These interviews were far-reaching in their scope and the information gleaned enabled the authors to fill the gaps in the rather drier written historical record. It is these gaps that have added greatly to the interest and excitement of this text — It Started from Scratch. As you can see from the chapter headings, the last 50 years have been a rather logical sequence of steps ending up with the mature College that we have today. The College can now proudly take its place among the more established and larger Australasian medical colleges. In fact, because of our size and dynamism, the College has been at the forefront of many areas of development and progress, such as our achievements in governance and education. As a result, we are now looked upon with envy by the more established, and arguably less dynamic, colleges. I have had the privilege of having occupied several positions within the College over the last 20 years and thus have observed much of the accelerated development during this period. This development has been necessary, although in many areas it has not been easy, as you will read herein. I would like to thank all those dermatologists and the College staff members who gave their time to be interviewed in the preparation of this history. Their insight and summaries of many events and issues have contributed greatly to the final manuscript. I would also like to thank the History Committee members for their review of the draft manuscript, and their corrections and additions to the final monograph. I think all will agree that Jill Barnard and Sonia Jennings have done a superb job of compiling this history with a combination of the facts and the reasons behind the various events and issues. I am sure that you will find it an informative and entertaining read. Finally, I want to thank all College fellows and our staff members, not just those mentioned in this history, who over the last 50 years have made the College what it is today. It is our College and, as this history reveals, we have done very well. Stephen Shumack Chair, History Committee April 2017 7 PREFACE This history of the Australasian College of Dermatologists traces the development of an organisation, but it is more than that. For a small medical specialist college — for many years the smallest in Australia — it has always punched above its weight. Sometimes referred to as the Cinderella specialty, dermatology has advanced by leaps and bounds since the College was established in 1967. In the early 1980s, Dr William Lempriere, a founding member and for many years the College’s official historian, set about designing a crest for the College. With a keen sense of humour and irreverence, he envisaged a shield bordered by a Mallee fowl and a New Zealand kiwi. Although symbolic of the Australian and New Zealand arms of the College at the time, this representation was not the only motivation for Dr Lempriere’s choice of the two birds. The Mallee fowl was obvious — it was ‘the greatest scratcher of all time’. The kiwi was not so obvious. According to Lempriere, the kiwi produced a very large egg relative to its body size — it symbolised a small college with large ideals. The central shield depicted a microscope, an x-ray machine and diagrams of the skin. The crowning glory was a large hat surrounded by lilac leaves to provide protection from the sun. But the most significant aspect of this flight of fantasy was the motto ‘Ab Initio Pruritus’ which has inspired the title of this history. Loosely translated it means ‘starting from scratch’. Dr Lempriere’s tongue-in-cheek College crest was symbolic of the perception many dermatologists held that, compared with other medical specialties, their expertise was not respected. Many dermatologists felt this very keenly in the post-Second World War years and beyond. Founding members of the Australasian College of Dermatologists, and those who followed them, worked hard to reverse this perception and to place dermatology in its rightful place among medical specialties. We hope that this 50-year profile does justice to the efforts of so many dermatologists to establish the College as the provider of specialist dermatological training in Australia and to ensure that this training is of the highest quality. The history that follows in these pages is arranged chronologically into periods of major developments. Within these chronological periods run several major themes connected with College governance, the education and examination of dermatologists and their professional life. Between the lines, we hope that readers will find evidence of the collegial spirit that has persisted despite ups and downs along the way. The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance of the College’s history committee, especially Associate Professor Stephen Shumack for his tireless devotion to the task of recognising the efforts of so many fellows over the years since 1967. Thank you also to all the fellows who generously gave their time for interviews. Your passion for the profession of dermatology came through loud and strong and your memories of the ups and downs of building, running and improving the College have coloured this history. Unless otherwise indicated, quotations used throughout this history have been drawn from these interviews or the 2016 history questionnaire. 8 To avoid repetition, we have generally avoided using the title Dr when referring to College fellows and trainees. We thank our colleague, professional historian Virginia Macleod, who assisted with the oral history interviews in Sydney and with access to archival records at the State Library of New South Wales.