Thirty years of chiropractic education at RMIT University: The establishment period 1975 to 1978

The chiropractic program now at RMIT University is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary during 2005. It was the first chiropractic program in Australia designed to be of international standard and was introduced into Melbourne by the International College of Chiropractic (ICC). Prior to 1975 Australians who wanted to become chiropractors had two choices: travel overseas to study chiropractic in North America, Canada (from 1945) or England (from 1965) or remain in Australia and complete a local training program at a private college that typically offered dual qualifications in chiropractic and osteopathy. In 1959 Frederick George Roberts established the Chiropractic and Osteopathic College of Australasia. It was later to become the Chiropractic College of Australasia and eventually merge into a new college founded in Melbourne in 1975 by the ICC. This paper documents a number of events surrounding the establishment of the program by the ICC and pays tribute to the colourful characters that succeeded in their fight to establish a program of international standard in Australia. This paper provides an account of what we have termed the Establishment Period 1975 to 1978. A second paper will explore what the authors have termed the Consolidation Period (1979 to 1999) and a third, the Reformation Period (2000 to the present).