A report to the NHMRC Committee on Tropical Physiology and Hygieneby C.E. Cook, M.D., Commissioner of Public Health, W.A. (1948) Health control in the North and North-west of Australia is beset with special difficulties and necessities which are not met to the same extent elsewhere. (a) The major portion of the area is tropical in […]
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Memo regarding Resignation – 1948 [EN 7/114-117]
THE HON. THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH: Adverting to our conversation of this morning at which I informed you of my intention to resign from the offices of Commissioner of Public Health and Principal Medical Officer, I should be glad if you will peruse the attached correspondence which will explain my attitude. My reasons are clearly […]
The Native in relation to Public Health – 1949 [EN 6/34, 7/103]
Reprinted from The Medical Journal of Australia, April 30, 1949, page 569, read at a meeting of the Section of Public Health, Tuberculosis and tropical Medicine, Australasian Medical Congress (British Medical Association) Sixth Session, Perth, August 1948 By C.E. Cook, M.D., D.P.H., D.T.M. and H.,Commissioner of Public Health, Western Australia The importance of the Australian […]
Health and Native Administration
Formerly health administration and native policy were closely integrated. The principle was accepted that the functions of Health and Native Administration were fundamentally identical and the Chief Medical Officer was also the Chief Protector. Changes in the administrative establishment divorcing native administration from the Health Authority have deprived the latter of the opportunity either to […]
Employment Application – 1949
25th March, 1949 THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF HEALTH,DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH,CANBERRA Dear Sir, Application is hereby made for appointment to the position of Senior Medical Officer, Grade III, National Health Services, Canberra, as advertised in the Commonwealth Gazette, No. 20, of 10th March, 1949. Details of qualifications and experiences are attached. I may add that in […]
Letter offering Resignation – 1949
COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC HEALTH (Part of a water damaged memorandum from Cook to the Minister) [It has become apparent to me that you have] become embarrassed by my methods and have come to mistrust my judgment. This being so I am again brought to the situation where I must consider tendering my resignation. I feel […]
Memo regarding resignation – 1949
THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSIONER: With reference to the Under Secretary’s memorandum to you and our proposed discussion tomorrow, I feel it may be advantageous if I outlined my point of view. Whether, as the Under Secretary suggests, it is my temperament that makes it impossible for me to reconcile myself to the existing Departmental establishment […]
Health in Tropical Australia – 1950 [EN 8/3]
The following represents a synopsis of a lengthy report upon health administration and associated problems in Northern Australia. Statements made positively in this synopsis without discussion or qualification can be supported by reference to the more detailed report. The situation confronting the Commonwealth in tropical Australia may be outlined as follows: Three factors which have […]
Health in Northern Australia
PRELIMINARY The problem of the health of natives in Northern Australia as elsewhere in the Commonwealth, is one with that of the general community and a programme for native medical care must be closely integrated into the health organisation for the whole population. Unless this is done two separate and complete medical and health services […]
Tropical Disease and the Australian Native [EN 8/5, 6]
by C.E. Cook, M.D., Ch.M., D.P.H., D.T.M. & H A paper delivered at the Commonwealth Conference of the BMA, Brisbane, May 1950 The region with which this study is concerned includes roughly that portion of Australia lying north of the 19th parallel of South Latitude and embracing the Peninsula and Carpentaria Divisions of Queensland, the […]
Health – Northern Australia [EN 8/8]
Notes prepared by Dr Cook as a briefing paper for a conference in August 1950 following his general survey of June-July, 1950 It being no longer possible for Australia confidently to rely upon the successful exclusion of dangerous infections and disease vectors from overseas solely by practicable measures of Quarantine, attention must be directed towards […]
Health problems in Northern Australia [EN 8/4, 8/9, 8/13]
Report on a survey of health and social problems created by the maladjustment of the native population in North Queensland, Northern Territory and northern Western Australia*. *The survey occurred in June-July 1950 and Cook prepared this report in mid-1951 INTRODUCTORY: Although the functions and responsibilities of Health and Native Administration in Australia, except in Commonwealth […]
The Native Problem Why Is It Unsolved?
Lieut.-Col. C.E.A. Cook, C.B.E. M.D., etc. of Commonwealth Department of Public Health, Canberra; Chief Medical Officer and Chief Protector of Aborigines, Northern Territory, 1927 – 1939. Published in Australian Quarterly December 1950 “The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.” Herbert Spencer. From time to […]
Inspection of Missions – Instructions to Medical Officers [8/11]
Report upon the inspection of Missions is to be made in accordance with the attached pro forma. For the information of Medical Officers the following amplifying instructions are being issued to indicate the scope of inquiry in respect of the various headings and sub-headings. A. SITE: Suitability. Report should indicate whether the site is considered […]
Letter to the Minister on Health Problems in Northern Australia [EN 8/14]
Director-General You will recall your direction that I prepare for the Minister, before his visit to the Territory, a submission on the health problems created by the Northern Territory native and make recommendations in respect of these. This submission has now been prepared and copy is attached for the Minister’s information. CE Cook (Note inserted […]
Health Administration and the Northern Territory Native [EN 4/51, 8/16]
Director-General 19th June, 1951 INTRODUCTORY The health problem created by the Northern Territory native can best be understood against the background of his mode of life prior to white settlement and his reaction to contact with European civilisation. In his traditional mode of life, the native moved as one of a small family group over […]
The Northern Territory Medical Service – a 25-Year Reflective
The year 1953 marks the 25th anniversary of the formation of the Northern Territory Medical Service, an occasion worthy of note for several reasons. It recalls the first essay of any Australian Government into a comprehensive and exclusively salaried medical service for an extensive area. It commemorates the first attempt by any administration to give […]
Health and Native Administration – 1952-3
INTRODUCTION: Several factors contribute to the complexity of the problem of providing an adequate health and medical service in Northern Australia: The environment favours the endemicity of the major tropical disease. A large component of the population is of native race living at a very low standard of sanitation under conditions likely to contribute to […]
The 1953 Missions Administration Conference [EN 8/45]
An extract from the Conference transcript (p11-18) The Agenda was amended to provide for the presentation of PASTOR F.W. ALBRECHT’S paper, UNITED EVANGELICAL CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA. “Economic Rehabilitation of Aborigines” prior to that of Dr Cook’s. DR. C.E. COOK, SENIOR MEDICAL OFFICER, COMMONWEALTH DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, CANBERRA, on addressing the Conference on the subject “Educating […]
The Native Health Problem Today – 1955 [EN 8/54]
The health problem created by the native population in the Northern Territory today differs in some respects from that confronted when the Northern Territory Medical Service was first established. These differences are due principally shifts in emphasis upon particular aspects of the problem, shifts which derive in part from the successes of the Service in […]
Northern Territory Medical Service – 1951
The Northern Territory Medical Service was established in 1928 to provide effectual machinery to control and eliminate endemic tropical disease from Northern Australia and to ensure that the area might be maintained as one suitable for permanent occupation by a healthy and prosperous white community. Fundamental to its organisation were two basic principles of policy, […]