School of Physiotherapy (1991 - )

Physiotherapy's predecessor discipline, Massage, was first taught at university level in Australia at the University of Melbourne in 1906.

The relationship between Massage and Medicine continued through much of the twentieth century and, in 1990, a School of Physiotherapy was established at the University. This followed a sustained campaign by physiotherapists who wanted to cement the relationship with the University.

The School became part of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences when the Faculty expanded its responsibilities in 1991. It includes the University Centre for Sports Medicine Research and Education.

It has gained recognition as a leading centre for physiotherapy education in Australia with over 500 students, a fifth of whom are postgraduates.

The University of Melbourne first took an interest in massage, the predecessor discipline of physiotherapy, when Eliza McCauley entered the anatomy course in 1890. Miss McCauley, a doctor's daughter, undertook the course after becoming convinced that massage had therapeutic benefits. As well as studying anatomy, she attended Sir Thomas Fitzgerald's lectures in clinical surgery at the Melbourne Hospital. On completing this training, she started treating patients and, a few years later, she began teaching a course in massage, which required participants to attend classes held by the university's Faculty of Medicine.

A formal Massage training course of nine months duration was established at the university in 1906, after discussions with the Australian Massage Association. This followed the founding of an Australian Massage Association with branches in Sydney and Melbourne. The association saw its role as systematising the training and examination of masseurs.

Demand for male and female masseurs increased greatly during and after World War I and, in 1923, the Victorian government established a Masseurs Registration Board. Registration was granted to those who completed a prescribed course of training and who passed the examinations, having first gained
approval for undertaking training from the board. The only groups for whom an exception was made were naval and military personnel who had untertaken massage training as part of their duties.

By 1926, the course was two years in length with training spread over various locations including the University and the Melbourne Hospital. At this stage, practitioners mainly worked to improve the flexibility and function of those affected by disabling conditions such as stroke, cerebral palsy, poliomyelitis, amputation, paraplegia and quadriplegia. In 1933 the course was further extended to three years in order to emphasise techniques of "re-educating" wasted muscles that assumed greater importance with repeated waves of poliomyelitis in Victoria.

Subjects undertaken at this time were as follows:
1st year - Anatomy, Physiology, Medical Gymnastics and Introductory Science
2nd year - Medical Gymnastics, Practice of Massage, Medical Electricity, Pathology, and Bandaging
3rd year - Practice of Massage, Medical Electricity and Muscle Re-education.

The financial depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s caused the University to lay off some staff, a move that had worrying implications for massage students. In 1936 the Professor of Anatomy, Frederic Wood Jones, pointed out that massage students traditionally received tuition in anatomy from special demonstrators. But since the number of demonstrators had been cut back, the Anatomy Department had not been able to supply this instruction. He recommended the appointment of a special demonstrator to provide tuition to massage students. The economics made sense as the demonstrato was paid 75 pounds per annum, far less than the annual fee paid by each massage student for instruction in anatomy (360 pounds per annum).

By the late 1930s, masseurs were intent on adopting the name, physiotherapy, the Australian Massage Association having been re-named the Australian Physiotherapy Association in 1939. The growing maturity of the discipline was indicated by the increased role of physiotherapy in major Melbourne public hospitals during the 1940s and 1950s, and the establishment of the Australian Journal of Physiotherapy in 1954.

The issue of a degree-standard course for physiotherapists was a vexed issue. In Victoria, the University of Melbourne exercised control of physiotherapy's professional standards from 1945 when it was appointed joint controller (with the Masseurs Registration Board) of the training course, a move supported by the Victorian branch of the Australian Physiotherapists Association. But the university was not prepared to institute a degree course in physiotherapy at this time. By way of contrast, the University of Queensland introduced a diploma course in Physiotherapy in 1938 and a degree course in 1950. In a number of other countries, and especially the United States, physiotherapy enjoyed degree status.

Moves to resolve differences within the profession over the content of physiotherapy education occurred in 1960 when the Victorian School of Physiotherapy was established at Fairfield Hospital. The first director of the school, Miss Patricia Cosh, oversaw a difficult period when physiotherapy students trained in desperately cramped conditions.

The Martin Report on Tertiary Education, published in 1964, prompted further changes to the content and teaching of physiotherapy in Victoria. The report recommended that the discipline be taught in Colleges of Advanced Education, along with other therapy courses. Senior physiotherapists were ambivalent about this recommendation. On the one hand, such Colleges were not empowered to award degrees; while, on the other, the recommendation provided an opportunity to relocate professional training closer to physiotherapy's roots near the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the University. In 1965, physiotherapy education moved to Lincoln House, Carlton, together with speech therapy and occupational therapy.

Further changes to physiotherapy training occurred in the 1980s when Lincoln Institute embarked on talks intended to bring the therapy courses under the control of La Trobe University, a move consistent with the recommendations of the Dawkins Report of 1987. On 1 January 1988, the Lincoln - later the La Trobe - School of Health Sciences was formally established.

It was not long before a number of senior physiotherapists were voicing their reservations about the relationship with La Trobe, their preference being for physiotherapy training to be concentrated at the University of Melbourne and its associated teaching hospitals. La Trobe University had no medical faculty and hence lacked strong linkages with teaching hospitals, considered important sites for the clinical training of physiotherapists. During the late 1980s, physiotherapists embarked on a campaign for a School of Physiotherapy at the University of Melbourne, gaining the support of the then Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor David Penington, and the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Professor Graeme Ryan. With their support, the establishment of a degree course in physiotherapy was realised.

In 1991 when the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry was reconstituted to become the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, Professor Joan McMeeken was appointed head of the School of Physiotherapy,Foundation Professor and Associate Dean. Three years later, the University of Melbourne awarded the degrees of Bachelor of Physiotherapy and Doctor of Philosophy in physiotherapy for the first time.

Further confirmation of the discipline's standing as a fully-fledged scientific discipline occurred in 1999 when Dr Mary Galea was appointed to the inaugural Chair of Clinical Physiotherapy, located at the Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre. The Victorian Government provided $800,000 over five years for the chair and for funding research in clinical physiotherapy, with a consequent growth of opportunities for higher degree students to undertake clinically focussed research. By 2003 research groups within the School of Physiotherapy were engaged on cardiothoracic studies, neurology, women's health, paediatrics, education and sports medicine.

(Note: This entry was written with the assistance of Dr Richard Trembath)

Events

1890	Eliza McCauley undertakes anatomy training at the University of Melbourne in preparation for practising as a masseur.
1906	Formal training in massage established at the university.
1939	Australian Massage Association re-named the Australian Physiotherapy Association.
1945	The University of Melbourne and the Maseurs Registration Board appointed joint controllers of training in physiotherapy.
1990	Establishment of a School of Physiotherapy at the University of Melbourne.
1991	Incorporation of the School of Phsyiotherapy in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.

Faculty

• Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne (1991 - )