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About the Anton Breinl Centre
The Anton Breinl Centre (ABC) specialises in public health problems in tropical Australia and its near neighbours. Its focus is on rural and remote indigenous communities. The postgraduate and undergraduate teaching programs are designed to serve the needs of health professionals in rural and remote areas, particularly in the tropics. Its research is almost 100% applied or decision linked.
History
The Anton Breinl Centre occupied a site which once housed the first site in Australia of an institute dedicated solely to medical research, the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine (AITM).
The AITM was formed in 1910, because of mounting concern for the health of white workers in Northern Australia. Early this century dengue fever was rife, especially during the wet season, and malaria was spreading with the miners as they ventured further west in search of gold. The Institute staff were asked initially to study methods of maintaining and improving the health of the working white race in tropical Queensland. The agenda was eventually expanded to include tropical medical courses, population studies, and sojourns into the remote regions of Papua New Guinea to study diseases such as yaws which effected the native population there.
The University of Sydney had responsibility for setting up the AITM, and this included appointing its director. The committee chose a scientist who was born in Vienna and had studied at the University of Prague, his name was Anton Breinl. Dr. Breinl was appointed, and on the first day of January 1910, he arrived in Australia to take up his new position.
Initially, the AITM was housed in the old wardmens' quarters. A wooden, three roomed building with a galvanised iron roof; this modest building remained the Institute's headquarters for two and a half years. In 1912 a more appropriate building was constructed in the grounds of the Townsville General Hospital, this building today houses the main building of the Department of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
Along with his assistant John Fielding, Dr Breinl set up a laboratory, darkroom and animal house. The two men then began gathering information on the surrounding environment. Dr Breinl's sojourns into the outback led to encounters with the native population.
Although the establishment of the AITM was a landmark event, it was met with resistance from some local medical practitioners. Breinl was told upon his arrival in Townsville that there was no scope for the institute, because there were no diseases in the region which were not understood! There appeared to be resentment from the local camp, that an 'outsider' had been brought in to a position that, they believed, could have been filled by an Australian.
Some locals believed that the most important role of the institute was to ensure that the north was kept predominantly white. This was in keeping with the Immigration Restriction Act, passed in 1901, otherwise known as the "White Australia Policy".
In 1921, AITM was subsumed into the newly formed Commonwealth Health Department, headed by Dr. John Howard Lidgett Cumpston. Cumpston is thought to be a contributing factor to Dr. Breinl's resignation. Dr. Cumpston treated Breinl very badly, by undermining his authority through the newly formed management committee. The activities of the Institute staff were continually hampered by the ever increasing amount of paperwork required by the committee of management, and their interference in many other aspects of the Institutes activities. Dr. Breinl was required to forward monthly reports outlining work in progress, including work undertaken by each officer and a description of results obtained. Also, all papers for publishing were to be submitted first to the Committee for approval. Dr. Breinl was not consulted by the Health Department about the employment of staff, and was finding himself more and more restricted by the encroaching bureaucracy of the committee. These factors combined with a general postwar racial intolerance and reduced income, all contributed to Dr. Breinl's decision to resign. Dr. Anton Breinl was director of AITM from January 1910 through to October, 1921.
After Dr. Breinl's resignation, the Institute saw a succession of directors until 1923. Between 1923 and 1928, Dr. Raphael Cilento became director. Between 1920 and 1930 less emphasis was placed on research work, and more was placed on commercial pathological testing. This change saw the income of the Institute increase dramatically, and a decline in the number of scientific papers produced. In 1931 the Institute was moved to Sydney, where is was subsumed into the University of New South Wales.
The Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine was re-established by James Cook University of North Queensland in 1987, after the Kerr White Report of 1986 recommended its reinstatement, and after an absence of over forty years. The Institute was renamed The Tropical Health Surveillance Unit, and became attached to the James Cook University of North Queensland.
The Tropical Health Surveillance Unit's mandate was different from the original Institute's, and encompassed a wider range of disciplines than before, including; population studies, epidemiology of common disorders, health risks occurring in the tropics, tropical disease vectors, and collaboration between health related research groups.
The name Tropical Health Surveillance Unit was changed in 1988 to the Anton Breinl Centre for Tropical Health and Medicine since the University realised that the Unit would not undertake a significant role in surveillance and disease control, but would function by doing research and teaching. In November 1992 the Centre became part of the Department of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. This change recognised that the institution had become firmly established and was worthy of academic recognition as a Department.
In mid-1997 the Department became part of the newly formed School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine within the newly formed Faculty of Health, Life and Molecular Sciences at James Cook University.
In 2002 the Department of Public Health and Tropical Medicine was renamed the Anton Breinl Center and the staff moved on campus. In the history of the Anton Breinl Centre five academics have played roles as directors or heads.
Professor Hedley Peach
Hedley Peach was the Foundation Director of the Anton Breinl Centre from mid-1988 to mid-1990 when he resigned to take up a position at the Department of Community Medicine at the University of Melbourne.
Professor Rod Campbell
Rod Campbell was Acting Director after Hedley Peach's resignation until February 1991.
Associate Professor Rick Speare
Rick Speare was Director of the Anton Breinl Centre from February 1991 to November 1992, and Deputy Director of the Department of Public Health and Tropical Medicine from November 1992 to current day.
Professor Ian Wronski
Ian Wronski became Head of the DPHTM when it was created in November 1992 and occupied that position until December 1997. Ian was appointed Executive Dean for the newly created Faculty of Health, Life and Molecular Sciences and left DPHTM to take up this position. The DPHTM is a part of this faculty through the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
Professor Ian Ring
Ian Ring took up the position of Head of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in December 1997. Ian is also employed by Queensland Health as Head of their Epidemiology Division.
Associate Professor David Durrheim
David Durrheim, a disease control expert from South Africa, became the Head of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in February 2002 and renamed the Department of Public Health and Tropical Medicine as the Anton Breinl Centre.