ANZSGM History project
History Project Update
Over the year since my last report in the Newsletter, the data gathering phase of the history project has made considerable advances. Lynda Donaldson helped me to locate Society records archived for us by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and I subsequently met the College Librarian, Karen Myers, who has been extraordinarily helpful in obtaining these and then other records from archive. Unfortunately, the Australian Geriatrics Society records held in our office only go back to 1988 and the AGS records archived by the RACP to 1987. Karen Myers was able to obtain minutes of the meetings of the Specialist Advisory Committee (now the Advanced Training Committee) in Geriatrics from 1979 to 1989.
In relation to Annual Scientific Meetings, I can confirm that the first meeting of the Society as a stand-alone entity was in Adelaide, as has been generally agreed. However, there was uncertainty about whether this meeting was in 1983 or 1984. This meeting was held, as were many around this time, conjointly with the RACP, and the College program lists the AGS as having held a meeting, immediately after the College Meeting, on 12th May 1984. Additionally, we have held ASMs continuously from the Adelaide Meeting, giving it the status of the inaugural meeting in a series, until broken by a viral pandemic in 2020. This verifies Michael Woodward’s claim in 2008 that the Melbourne ASM that year was the 25th Meeting of the Society.
Unfortunately, details of some of the subsequent meetings are rather patchy. I was most excited when Gideon Caplan sent me a one page document confirming that a stand-alone meeting of the Society was held in Sydney in 1985. The 1986 meeting was probably held in Tasmania; the first RSL Professor, John Grimley Evans, spoke at the RACP Meeting in Hobart. However, I have no records of the AGS Meeting. Peter Landau recalls a meeting in Tasmania which began in Launceston and then moved to Hobart; could the AGS Meeting have been in Launceston in that year? I first concluded that the 1987 was held on the Gold Coast (Broadbeach) because the Federal Council was held there that year. Subsequently, the RACP ASM Program showed that Ed Schneider, who was the RSL Professor, spoke at the College Meeting. I plan to directly approach Members who were involved with these meetings; however, in the hiatus caused by the Corona Virus, I’d appreciate anyone with anecdotes which add further light on these suppositions would be most welcome. As always, documents, even single pages like Gideon’s, would be even more valuable.
I now have conducted four visits, mostly to members, who have memories of the early days of the Society. During my time with them, I have conducted a semi-formal interview, all recorded with the permission of the interviewees. These are being transcribed, partly to confirm my notes at interview, but also to provide an historical source for the Society. The audio recordings will also be archived. Clearly, these interviews have been disrupted, but I hope to resume once restrictions are lifted.
The Society and College records of the early years of the Society are now close to being fully mined. The final task in researching the period pre-1984 will be to examine the records held by the AAG. Tony Broe pointed out that the early meetings, especially scientific meetings, of the Society were with the Australian Association of Gerontology, rather than the RACP. The AAG has an extensive archive, thanks particularly to Ruth Inall, who was secretary of the AAG for 21years. I have permission to examine these records, but my plans to do so soon have been curtailed by travel restrictions. In the meantime, I am editing my personal records of the Society from 1993.
Just to reiterate, I would welcome any memories, anecdotes, documents and photographs you think would be useful, especially about the early days, or any other suggestions members may have. I will resume visits to key people as soon as I can.
Robert J Prowse
