Australia Yearbook - 2001

Chapter 25—Science and innovation 871
1940 and 1945, with the percentage of staff in
secondary industry divisions increasing from
5.6 to 23.1%. Basic research and longer term
projects in both the universities and CSIR were
severely curtailed.
The story of Australia’s involvement with Britain in
the development of radar systems has been told
many times. The work in Australia was carried out
secretly at the newly formed CSIR Division of
Radiophysics that was accommodated in an
extension to the National Physics Laboratory at
Sydney University. Another vital wartime project was
the manufacture and precision grinding of optical
glass for gun sights and binoculars. It involved the
cooperation of Australian Consolidated Industries,
the Universities of Melbourne and Tasmania, the Mt
Stromlo Observatory and the Munitions Supply
Laboratories. The CSIR set up a Lubricants and
Bearings Section at Melbourne University to take
advantage of a visit in 1939 of an expatriate
Australian, F. P. Bowden, who was lecturer in
physical chemistry at Cambridge University.
Bowden had established a considerable reputation
for his research on the physics of friction and
lubrication, and it was considered that his expertise
would be extremely valuable for the production of
munitions and aircraft. The expertise provided by
Bowden and his team proved to be critical to aircraft
production and important for the testing of
munitions and weapons.
The synthesis and production of drugs and
antibiotics received high priority during the war.
Scientists at Sydney and Adelaide Universities and
at Monsanto were successful in the synthesis and
scale-up production of sulpha drugs, and the
Commonwealth Serum laboratories developed
the fermentation facilities needed for the large
scale production of penicillin and streptomycin.
The production of morphine from opium poppy
and hyoscine and hyoscyamine from Duboisia
was a cooperative effort of scientists and
technologists from the pharmaceutical firm
Felton Grimwade and Duerdin and CSIR.
Academics at the University of Melbourne had the
difficult task of devising a satisfactory method for
the proofing of clothing and equipment for the
tropics against microbiological attack.
The post-war era
The 1939–45 war demonstrated probably for the
first time the enormous value of effectively
harnessing science and innovation on a national
scale and the crucial role of advanced technology
for a successful war outcome. After the war the
industrial nations turned their attention to
harnessing science for peaceful purposes and
the benefit of mankind. In the USA the
National Science Foundation was established
as an independent Federal Government
agency with the charter to strengthen research
in the universities by the award of competitive
grants to academics. In the 50 years since the
establishment of the National Science
Foundation the USA has dominated the
world in outputs of basic research and its
flow through to innovation by industry.
During the war years in Australia there was
an increase in the technological
sophistication of Australian industry and a
considerable growth in a range of scientific
skills. As indicated earlier, CSIR expanded
into new areas in the physical sciences and
there was growth of the defence laboratories
and the telecommunication laboratories of
the Australian Post Office. In contrast, basic
research in the universities was curtailed
during the war, so that in 1946 CSIR was in a
position to dominate Australian science. The
war made Australia realise that it needed a
much larger basic research effort of
international standard and more innovative
secondary industries if it was to keep up with
developments in other countries.
Discussions had already taken place during
the war on a proposal to establish a
post-graduate research university funded by
the Commonwealth Government. The
proposal became a reality in 1946 with the
establishment of the Australian National
University (ANU) in Canberra. Initially, there
were four research schools with a high degree
of autonomy for each school. The foundation
schools were the Research School of Physical
Sciences, the Research School of Medical
Research named The John Curtain School of
Medical Research, the Research School of
Social Sciences and the Research School of
Pacific Studies. Freedom from undergraduate
teaching, generous funding (by Australian
university standards) for the building of
research teams, and very generous study leave
provisions for academics, were the incentives
used to persuade leading academics to come
to the ANU. Mark Oliphant, eminent nuclear
physicist at Birmingham University, accepted
the university’s invitation to be Director of the
Research School of Physical Sciences, but
efforts to entice Sir Howard Florey as Director
of the John Curtain School of Medical