Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01306:reg:54
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01306
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 54
Character Range: 97850–100005

54   Stone, Australian Encyclopaedia, vol. 1, p. 213; NFSA information sheet, 'The Building of the National Film and Sound Archive'; minute, Hipsley, to Director-General of Health, 'Description of Building', 5 December 1949, CRS A2644, item 70.

Figure 19: Delegates to a cancer conference in front of the Australian Institute of Anatomy, McCoy Circuit, Acton, 1933 (National Archives of Australia 2018)

2.9  The MacKenzie Period 1930–1937

  MacKenzie and his wife took up permanent residence in Canberra in 1930, moving into the just-completed Director's residence in August. From the outset, MacKenzie and his loyal staff who had accompanied him from Melbourne were heavily engaged at the Institute in the time-consuming tasks of unpacking the vast quantity of specimens he had accumulated, cataloguing them and arranging them for display. The northern museum block was devoted to displays of applied anatomy, mainly comprising specimens of Australian fauna,

  while the southern museum housed osteological exhibits, including casts of some famous prehistoric skulls. Ethnological material was consigned to the basement under the southern museum block where, for the most part, it was to languish for many years in the crates in which it had arrived at the Institute.55

  As early as mid-1932, MacKenzie felt that the Institute had progressed to such a degree that it could 'be regarded as the leading Institute in the Pacific for the study of comparative anatomy in its relation to a correct understanding of human health and disease.' Scientists from around the country and overseas

  were visiting it, he claimed, to learn about the latest developments in comparative anatomy. In January 1932, the Berlei company had even sent its 'anatomical designer' to the Institute to take an advanced course in applied anatomy. Tourists also flocked to the Institute. In the financial year 1933-4, the Institute recorded a total of 8,750 visitors, a good number when it is considered that children of sixteen years and younger were not admitted. The public opening hours for the Institute were 9.00-4.30 on weekdays and 9.00-11.00 on Saturdays.56