Page 4 - Pharmacy History 34 February 2008

PAC 2008 feature
Historical glimpses of pharmacy in Australia
The foundation of the Pharmaceutical Society of Western Australia by Geoff Miller
Pharmacy as a
profession in Western Australia was not recognisable until
the widespread
discovery of gold led
to a rapid increase
in the population of
the struggling colony,
which had depended
for its health care on the very few military surgeons, doctors and a handful of pharmacists, who had been attracted to settle in a land suffering from remoteness, lack of development and bad communications.
One of the early settlers who had trained as a pharmacist in England, was George Shenton and he opened the first private practice pharmacy in Perth around 1838.
With the gold seekers came a corresponding influx of opportunists claiming all sorts of professional skills. Among them of course were those
who were suitably qualified and they highlighted the need for some form of government intervention. Up until this time the Medical Ordinance of 1869 had regulated the activities of medical practitioners, but there were no laws governing pharmacists.
As the frontier towns on the goldfields continued to mushroom it became apparent that there was a real need for some form of regulation of pharmacists to protect the community from charlatans and quacks and to also strengthen the Poisons Sale Act of 1879.
The Pharmacy Council 1899
But strangely the legislators seemed very slow to act. On October 24, 1892, a group of concerned pharmacists
lead by Edward Mayhew, met at the Shamrock Hotel in Perth to form the Pharmaceutical Society of Western Australia. Their objective was to formulate and promote through Parliament a ‘Pharmacy and Poisons Bill’.
Their efforts brought success, and the Pharmacy and Poisons Act, 1894 was assented to in November 1894 and took effect on March 1st 1895. The Act had a number of sections which made it unlike corresponding legislation
in other Australian colonies but was comparable to the legislation in Great Britain and New Zealand.
Distinctive features of the WA Act were the requirement that all registered pharmacists should belong to the Pharmaceutical Society of WA; that the members of the Society should elect seven of their number to form a Council, and that the Council should administer the Act.
Fremantle pharmacist, Alfred Webster was a member of the first Council and his name is perpetuated in the award of a gold medal, which is the Society’s top honour awarded for achievement in the final examinations Edward Mayhew was the first President of the
Pharmaceutical Society of Western Australia, and he later became the Council Registrar as well as a lecturer in Materia Medica at the Perth Technical School.
The Council also administered the Pharmaceutical Society and has always been self determining, self funding and self regulating. It has been successful in all these respects
and has administered the law on behalf of all the citizens of Western Australia.
However major changes to the Pharmacy Act have already been foreshadowed by the State Government which would remove most of the disciplinary powers of the Council, as well as compulsory membership of
the Society being a requirement for registration as a Pharmacist.
Council and its presidents
Pharmacy in Western Australia has been fortunate to have been served
by a great number of dedicated men and women for the past 113 years, and none more so than by those who have held the office of President of the Council. Not only have they borne the responsibility of administering
the legislation controlling pharmacy on behalf of the people of Western Australia, overseen the education
and registration of pharmacists and managed the activities of a virile Society, but they also had to maintain their own practices usually to the detriment of their own health, wealth and families.
Sir Frank Gibson was a member of the Council for 27 years, and the profession’s only knight, an accolade
4 Pharmacy History Australia
volume 4 no 35 September 2008