Flag waving ceremonies and pure rhetoric during national celebrations such as Australia Day tend to overshadow on many occasions and in many countries of the world the more important aspects of national history, the achievements and character of a country.
Another Australia Day has gone by and another celebration took place throughout Australia without many of us, especially our leadership, making a concerted attempt to highlight to broader audiences a few of the unique and internationally acknowledged achievements of Australians.
Australia has a proud record of world achievements in the scientific and socio-political fields. From the didgeridoo to the woomera (spear thrower), credited to indigenous Australians, the first use of ‘pre-paid’ postage in NSW in 1838 to the invention of the world’s first practical ice making-refrigerator in 1856. From inaugurating the eight hour working day by the stonemasons in 1856 just a few years after a similar achievement by New Zealand’s carpenters, to the creation of Aussie Rules football in 1858, this underpopulated and geographically isolated location has been at the forefront of important scientific, social and political inventions many times.
The world’s first underwater ‘torpedo’ in 1874, Melbourne’s electric drill in 1889, the granting of voting rights and the right to stand for parliament to the women of South Australia in 1895, J.A. Birchall’s note pad in 1902, the world’s first feature length film in 1906, The Story of the Kelly Gang – all Australian inventions.
An early version of the surf ski in 1912, the world’s first automatic totalisator in 1913 for calculating horse-racing dividends and the sunshine header harvester in 1914 were also invented by Australians.
The iconic ute in 1934 was designed at the Ford Motor Company in Geelong, Victoria, based on the idea of a farmer’s wife who wrote to Ford suggesting the need for a new sort of vehicle to take her “to church on Sundays” and “take pigs to market on Mondays”.
Penicillin was originally noticed by a French medical student and was re-discovered by bacteriologist Alexander Fleming in the 1920s, but it was not until 1939, when Adelaide-born Howard Florey, a future Nobel Laureate, and three of his colleagues at Oxford University were able to demonstrate the importance of penicillin’s ability to kill infectious bacteria.
The 1952 atomic absorption spectrophotometer or solar hot water in 1953 are inventions that are accepted as being originally developed at the laboratories of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), the Australian-government-funded research institution.
The black box flight recorder invention of 1958, the arrival of the ultrasound in 1961, the wine cask in 1965 and the bionic ear in 1979. The world’s first frozen embryo baby was born in Melbourne on 28 March 1984. Gene shears (bits of genetic material that interrupt a DNA code at a particular point, and can be designed to cut out genes that cause disease or dangerous proteins) was first discovered in 1986 by CSIRO scientists, while the 1988 polymer banknote is another Australian world first.
The accidental discovery of ‘wi-fi’ in 1996 by CSIRO researchers, the precursor of Google maps found in 2003, the announcement last year that a blood test might be able to prevent stillbirth – again, all these examples are major Australian breakthroughs that helped put the country on the world stage. Australia has produced 14 Nobel laureates, which is the highest number per head of population of any country.
All these national achievements were nurtured in a conducive environment that required the establishment of world class research institutions that did not rely purely on private funding. They benefitted from the existence of a well-funded national organisation such as CSIRO and they thrived on a public and political culture that values innovation and invests in it.
National achievements of course are a matter of national priority, defined by prevailing ideologies, landscapes and popular culture. This is perhaps why collectively governments, private interests and others tend to oversimplify national achievements and celebrations.
However, if we are to remain true to our fine achievements and to our great potential, we need to bring back in the public discourse the terms and conditions that have allowed Australia to become in many ways a lucky country.