Peter Phelan: Well certainly thoracic medicine and gastroenterology, and haematology and oncology grew out of their research units when Don Cheek was appointed and Max [Robinson] was chairman of a medical staff committee that recommended that. And a certain amount of funding was ear-marked initially as Research Foundation money that then somehow or other, it seemed, was loaded onto the Health Department to fund those. Whereas neurology, nephrology, adolescent medicine, endocrinology partly grew out of the University and partly out of Norman Wettenhall's own enthusiasm,[105] immunology grew out of pathology probably more than anything else - well, no, I think going back to what Durham said, I think Bob Fowler was the one who really started the immunological work and Cliff Hosking[106] came to work with him - so it indirectly grew out of the Research Foundation. That’s the origin. It was a mixed way those departments developed. But cardiology had existed, it grew out of the University many years earlier because of the role of Alex Venables.

Max Robinson: Peter I must correct you. I was never Chairman of the Medical Staff.

Peter Phelan: I thought you were Chairman of the Committee that recommended specialties.

Max Robinson: No, I was a member of the committee that recommended Donald Cheek's appointment!

David McCredie: I think the Chairman of the committee Peter's referring to was David [Danks]. June might be able to confirm that.

Arthur Clark: It was David, because David was interested in haematology, oncology and endocrinology at Monash Medical Centre.

Glenn Bowes: There's a story here that we should hear from Henry.

Henry Ekert: David was Chair of the Committee [that recommended specialties] and at one stage his idea was that there was too much centralisation of specialist departments within the Children's Hospital. A proposal was made that a couple of the specialist departments should leave the Children’s and go to the Monash Medical Centre. One of them was haematology/oncology, and the other was paediatric endocrinology.

Ann Westmore: So what happened to this plan?

Arthur Clark: There was a lot of opposition from certain quarters.

David McCredie: I could make long comments, but I won't.

Arthur Clark: It wasn't a plan, but a proposition.

Ann Westmore: And so it fell on its face?

Peter Phelan: Yes, it didn't get up.

David McCredie: And Arthur and I nearly fell out at one stage.

Winston Rickards: I remember Max Robinson talking about this. Although some specialty groups became more concentrated, in psychiatry we increasingly drew on a multi-disciplinary team including psychologists, speech therapists, psychiatric social workers, psychotherapists and audiologists. They were all pertinent to the study of the behaviour and personal life of children and their parents.

Witness to the History of Australian Medicine