Mike Morgan: That was a continuation of Tony’s work with Wal McDougall[106], an unsung hero in this story. He worked very closely with Tony and Eric.

Out of that work, the Cooperative Research Centre[107] eventuated with its $21 million over seven years – the biggest research funding of dentistry in Australia that there’s ever been. And it came out of Tony’s and Wal’s research on cheese and milk protein and calcium.

Ann Westmore: Can someone tell me more about Wal McDougall?

Pat Storey: He was a Reader in Tony’s Department.

Ann Westmore: And when was the CRC established?

Mike Morgan: About 2003. Its genesis was research done in the late 1970s and early 1980s on casein and milk products.

Owen Crombie: Some of the work that Professor Storey did in the mid-1970s resulted in the production of a substance called anticay which was added to bread briefly but never quite caught on.

Ann Westmore: Was that also part of the development of Recaldent?

Owen Crombie: I imagine so.

Mike Morgan: I remember going to a diet and dental caries symposium, which included speakers from industry. That evolved in an attempt to engage industry in funding research and perhaps modifying their production.

Garry Pearson: So there’s a Mars Bar Research Grant?

Mike Morgan: There isn’t now.

Pat Storey: But there was.

Peter Reade: Just like we benefited from the Tobacco Research Grants too.

Ann Westmore: Where is the Cooperative Research Centre located?

Mike Morgan: It’s partly here in the School, and partly at Bio 21. It’s one of the issues we have. The School is potentially in three locations. So in the future, we have to be very careful that people know where they have come from, if they’re down at Bio 21 or at another institute. There is always the danger that people could forget their roots.

Peter Reade: Out of sight, out of mind. That’s a bit of a problem for the youngsters coming through the system. They don’t necessarily see that [the CRC] and get their interest fired up.

Mike Morgan: It’s happened in other Dental Schools, too. For example, at Adelaide University, the Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health (ARCPOH) is located off-site now. And it’s their concern that they might not be considered part of the school.

Ann Westmore: Is there a way around that?

Mike Morgan: I think constant reminding and constant links back somehow.

Peter Reade: And circulating the youngsters through the system, making sure it’s used for education as well as for research purposes.

I’d like to comment on our group’s activities. I had a background which allowed me to work with cells in tissue culture and I was particularly interested in grafting. The research activities in the group included a basic and an applied (clinical) science line. We looked into various situations related to grafts particularly related to teeth and we developed quite a successful procedure

Witness to the History of Australian Medicine