Faculty of Education - Theses

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Subject: Victoria × Subject: History × Start date: 1990 × End date: 1992 × Author: Clarkson, G. T ×

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    The life and veterinary contribution of Dr. Harold E. Albiston
    Clarkson, G. T ( 1992)
    This thesis examines the life and veterinary contribution of Dr Harold E. Albiston. Through his professional life can be traced the history of veterinary science in Victoria, from the horse doctor days of pre World War I to the re-establishment of the University of Melbourne Veterinary School in September 1962. Special attention is paid to the late 1920s which saw veterinary teaching cease at the end of 1927 and the University of Melbourne Veterinary School officially close in June 1928. Albiston, who was on the staff of the Veterinary School, witnessed this critical time in Victorian veterinary history. During the world-wide veterinary recession from 1920 to 1935, due to the declining influence of the horse, Albiston was one of the first veterinarians to appreciate that a new direction was necessary for the profession. While he was assistant-director, he upgraded the facilities of the Veterinary School, and encouraged research and diagnostic work on farm animals. As the day of the horse passed Albiston had built up the Veterinary School or the Veterinary Research Institute (VRI) as it became known in 1931, into an organisation of status serving the emerging livestock industries. The VRI was a unique establishment since it functioned as a normal university department, under the aegis of the University of Melbourne, yet performed diagnostic and research work for the Department of Agriculture. The VRI became an enlightened veterinary centre - a meeting place where veterinarians would visit, browse in the library and discuss problems with Harold Albiston or the VRI senior staff. It also became the centre of post graduate veterinary education in Victoria since all conferences, meetings and seminars were held there and for twenty-three years it was the home of the Australian Veterinary Journal (AVJ). The thesis also examines Albiston's research and diagnostic achievements before he was engulfed by administrative responsibilities. In 1927 he helped to solve black disease, or infectious necrotic hepatitis, which was costing the sheep industry millions of pounds. He also played a major role in diagnosing and eradicating the first Newcastle disease outbreak in Australia in 1930. In 1933 he was credited with giving the first post-graduate veterinary course in Australia when he gave a series of poultry lectures at the VRI. So successful was this venture that he gave a similar course on cattle diseases the following year. Harold Albiston has been the longest serving member of the faculty of veterinary science, the longest serving editor of the AVJ and the longest serving member of both the Veterinary and Zoological Boards of Victoria. His contribution came from his humanity and a dogged determination, at board, faculty or committee level to make the most effective use of his talents - his warmth, his lack of pomposity, his consultative ability and his capacity for hard work. In 1959 Harold Albiston was awarded the Gilruth Prize for meritorious service to veterinary science. In 1963 he was awarded the honour of Commander of the British Empire.