Others attending the meeting: Ms Barbara Cytowicz, Mr Michael Edwards, Ms Jenny Knowlson, Mrs Rosemary Leffler, Mrs Joy Rogers

Apologies: Dr John Connell, Mr Peter Couchman, Mr Keith Dawson, Mr Campbell Denevan, Ms Gail Evans, Mrs Amanda Farquhar, Mrs Lyn Flower, Mr John Haddad, Mrs Diana Jones, Mr John Ludbrook, Mrs Madeleine McCabe, Ms Gemma Nightingale, Mr Alan Skurrie, Dr Bill Stanisich, A/Professor Alastair Stewart, Mr Bruce Treagus, Mr Ron Walker, Mr Martin Wallace, Mrs Linda Wanders

Others who provided input after the meeting: Dr John Connell, Professor Gerard Crock, Mr John Haddad, Dr Keith Henderson, Dr Peter Henderson, Dr Aurora Messina, Dr Geraldine Mitchell, Ms Maggie Niall, Ms Gemma Nightingale, A/Professor Alastair Stewart, Professor Yoshio Tanaka, Mr Bruce Treagus, Sr Maureen Walters

Geoff Renton: [1] Thank you all for coming today and spending your valuable time in participating in this Witness Seminar. I'd like first to welcome all our friends of microsurgery and give some background on this initiative.

We have made a few attempts to get an account of the history and pre-history of the Institute started over the last eight years focusing on the work of Bernard O'Brien at St Vincent’s Hospital from the 1960s. So today marks an important day in recalling memories that bear on the history of microsurgery in Melbourne, Australia.

As a research institute we have published much over the years in relation to our project research and clinical outcomes. What has been missing are the thoughts of the people who participated, their activities including fundraising efforts, and the role of other institutions involved or affiliated with us that transformed this research institute into the world renowned place it is today. My hope is that while our thoughts along the journey to this time and place are still fresh and available to us, we can record them for posterity.

Witness to the History of Australian Medicine