In relation to the carrots, yes, we had strict instructions about how to pamper those rabbits six weeks prior to receiving their initial dose. They got carrots and loving care. 'Wash out their cages, make sure they've got plenty of water', and carrots, carrots, carrots. If you didn't do that, you were not allowed to start. You had to make sure the rabbits were acclimatised to the room they were in. By the time we started, the rabbits were extremely placid and easy to handle.

Ken Winkel: Any other insights from the other members of the CSL team?

Erin Lovering: It was a very exciting time. Struan certainly cared for all his animals, especially the monkeys. I remember him being very caring and concerned about their welfare.

Alan Coulter: A lot of the work was done at the Royal Children's Hospital by Jim Tibballs.

Ken Winkel: Unfortunately Jim couldn't be here today. But I was keen to explore the use of monkeys at CSL.

Robert Premier: CSL had a colony of monkeys and used to make monkey kidney cells available [to researchers]. I remember seeing up to 80 or 90 at any one time in the monkey houses, so they had quite a large number. They were mainly of two types, both from South-East Asia.

Figure 15 Robert Premier
Photograph courtesy of Ann Westmore

Ken Winkel: And the whole process of using particular animals. Was there an ethics approval process or did you just say, 'I want those animals, thank you'?

Robert Premier: It was very rare for CSL to allow monkeys to be used in an experiment like this. I can't remember any other instances where monkeys were used for vaccine work or anything like that.

Des Gurry[62]: Isn't it relevant that the venom of the funnel web spider, Atrax robustus, hits primates - man and monkeys - for some funny reason, but that other laboratory animals are relatively immune?

Witness to the History of Australian Medicine