John Harcourt: Essentially, yes. They even looked at sample examination papers, the curriculum and went all around the place. I think there was one visitation where a lot of the report was probably fictitious because it was written in another place and applied to the School.

Hector Orams: I don’t think it happens any longer, does it?

John Harcourt: No.

Mike Morgan: When I arrived to teach in about 1988, it was the last time the GDC came. I seem to remember one of the things they were interested in was the teaching by the School at the time of general anaesthetics in the clinic.

By that time, the relevance of the GDC was being questioned and the ADC [Australian Dental Council] was being promoted as a concept. And things like teaching of general anaesthetics in the clinic, and its provision by dentists, was seen as completely irrelevant or dangerous. That was one of the things, I thought, that put the nail in the coffin of the GDC.

John Harcourt: Plus the fact that Australian dentists could come and examine UK teaching. (laughter)

Henry Atkinson: Well, Frank Wilkinson was one of the first examiners. He came back in 1958. And he was horrified when he saw the plans for the new School, and they hadn’t thought about air rotors, the new high-speed air drills, in relation to the conservative department.

John Harcourt: Well, they had bought all the new equipment and installed it in 1952, ready to be moved to the new building.

John Hales: Well of course, that was an ongoing saga.

John Harcourt: If you remember, we had high speed motors. They had a switch on them and they ran at either 1400 or about 3000 revs per minute. You had to be very careful with that high speed. You could burn a tooth.

Henry Atkinson: You could never trust students with it, according to Harold Down.

John Hales: I don’t know about that. That’s a reflection [on the students]! (laughter)

Witness to the History of Australian Medicine