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Heritage and Archives

The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons is a bi-national organisation administering training, examinations and fellowship services for surgeons in Australia and New Zealand. The College was established in 1927, and the first meeting of the College Council was held in Dunedin New Zealand in February 1927.

The history of the College is described in a series of articles originally published in the College journal, the ANZ Journal of Surgery.  The Mantle of Surgery: the first seventy-five years of the Royal Australasian College of Surgery by A.W. Beasley FRACS is available in full from the History page.

The College has produced a handbook at intervals since the inception of the College in 1927. Past editions of the RACS Handbook are available to view online. 

The College was incorporated under the Companies Act Victoria 1928. The Memorandum of Association is available on the website.  The Articles of Association have been revised over the years with the development and expansion of College activities.

A complete list of past office bearers (PDF 52Kb) - Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Censors in Chief, Honorary Treasurers and Executive officers - is available.

The symbols of the College are the Arms, the Flag, the Great Mace, the Foundation letter and the President's badge of office.  More information on these can be found on the Symbols of the College page.

College Archives

The Archives of the College document the history and administration of the College.  Included in the Archives are personal papers of individuals, and other specialised collections, including the personal notebooks of surgeon-anatomist Archibald Watson, and records illustrating the development of the specialty of plastic surgery from Queen Mary’s Hospital at Sidcup UK during WW1 and the collection of Sir Benjamin Rank during WW2. The Archives also include sources on the history and development of surgery in Australasia.

College Collections

The Spring Street Melbourne office and the offices of the College State and National Committees of the College contain a number of items of historical and aesthetic value. The College has a large collection of portraits, silverware, memorabilia, surgical instruments, and the Cowlishaw Collection of historical medical reference books.

More details about the various collections and items within the collections can be found here.

Leonard Murphy Collection 

Leonard Murphy FRACS spent much of his lifetime researching the history of the art and practice of Urology. His collection of reference books was purchased by the Urological Society of Australasia in 1994, and is housed in the Council Room.