Website built by ...______
Mark SINOSICH

Website maintained by ...
Robert MARKHAM

History of the Department

The University of Sydney had no formalised structure for teaching gynaecology or obstetrics until 1915. The late Emeritus Professor John Wyndeyer was appointed Examiner in Gynaecology from 1915 to 1920 and then acting Lecturer in Obstetrics in 1918. In 1920 he was appointed Lecturer in Obstetrics and finally was appointed to the Foundation Chair of Obstetrics in 1924. This was the first Chair in this discipline within Australia and he held this appointed until retirement in 1941. Wyndeyer's teaching base and clinical attachment was to the Royal Hospital for Women, Paddington. The other major teaching hospital for obstetrics was the Women's Hospital Crown Street an association that continued with the University of Sydney until its closure in 1984.

From the early 1930's gynaecological teaching was held firmly within and administered by the University Department of Surgery with campus lectures from a series of distinguished gynaecologists - Sir Herbert Schlink, FA Maguire, Sir George Stening - clinicians on the staff of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and after 1941 King George V Memorial Hospital. This continued until 1964. Clinical teaching in gynaecology was given at the Royal Hospital for Women, the Women's Hospital Crown Street, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and then King George V Memorial Hospital.

Bruce Mayes was appointed to the Chair of Obstetrics following Wyndeyer's retirement in 1941. Mayes continued the University's association with the Royal Hospital for Women and the Women's Hospital Crown Street but placed his own primary clinical responsibilities in the newly built King George V Memorial Hospital in the grounds of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Mayes was a prolific and masterful writer of undergraduate and post graduate texts. However with teaching commitments on the campus, at the Royal Hospital for Women, the Women's Hospital Crown Street, King George V Memorial Hospital and later at the Royal North Shore Hospital without any supporting academic staff, opportunities for research were extremely limited until two seminal developments in the 1950's. The first of these was when Mayes secured in 1954 for the University of Sydney, against twenty competing groups, money raised to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. This money built the Queen Elizabeth II Research Institute which opened in 1958.

In 1957, Robert Markham was appointed as Laboratory Assistant and is currently a Senior Lecturer. He is the longest serving member of the Department.

Coincidentally the Murray Commission recommended major federal input to University funding throughout Australia which made possible substantial expansion of academic, research and general staff. In 1958 Mayes appointed BL Reid as Senior Lecturer (later Reader) and in 1961 RP Shearman was appointed as Associate Professor. In 1965 Derek Llewellyn-Jones was appointed Associate Professor with primary commitments in teaching at the Women's Hospital Crown Street. In 1964 Mayes persuaded the Dean, Frank Magarey, that the department should be renamed Obstetrics and Gynaecology and assume responsibility for teaching gynaecology as well as obstetrics and care of the newborn.

Throughout that time the Honorary Medical and then Visiting Medical Staff of the hospitals made enormous contributions to undergraduate teaching which they continue to do.

Following Mayes' retirement in 1968, Shearman was appointed to the Chair. WR Jones joined the department as a Senior Lecturer in 1969. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1973 and remained in this position until he was appointed to the Foundation Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Flinders University in 1975. In that same year IS Fraser was appointed Senior Lecturer, promoted to Associate Professor in 1980 and is currently Professor in Reproductive Medicine.

DM Saunders was appointed Senior Lecturer based at the Royal North Shore Hospital in 1971, promoted to Associate Professor in 1977 and appointed Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 1988. In 1983 an additional Senior Lecturer was appointed to the Royal North Shore Hospital.

When the medical school of the University of New South Wales was opened in 1961 the Royal Hospital for Women moved its affiliation to that medical school and St Margaret's Hospital became a teaching unit for the University of Sydney. This relationship continued until 1988 when it too became affiliated with the University of New South Wales.

Westmead Hospital opened in 1979 and CN Hudson was appointed Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology with B Trudinger as Senior Lecturer. Trudinger was promoted to Associate Professor in 1986. When Hudson returned to the United Kingdom in 1986, CRS Houghton was appointed to that Chair. When Professor Houghton was appointed to the Foundation Chair in Gynaecological Oncology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1992, Professor Trudinger was appointed to the chair at Westmead.

In 1991 Nepean Hospital became affiliated with the University of Sydney in the Western Clinical School and D Ellwood was appointed Associate Professor. On Professor Ellwood's appointment to The Canberra School, his position was filled by Associate Professor Brian Spurrett. Following the death of Brian Spurrett, the position of Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at nepean was filled by Dr Michael Peek.

To widen the teaching and research basis of the University department Suzanne Abraham, a clinical psychologist, was appointed Senior Lecturer in 1981 and promoted to Associate Professor in 1990.

Two very significant staffing developments followed identification of funds for the Foundation Chair in Perinatal Medicine and the Foundation Chair in Gynaecological Oncology. D Henderson-Smart was appointed to the first of these in 1988 and CRS Houghton to the second in 1992.

In 1991 Canberra Hospital became affiliated with the University of Sydney and D Ellwood was appointed Professor. RP Shearman died in 1993 and R Houghton was appointed Head of Department. In 1998 D Saunders was appointed Head of Department.

The appointment of Clinical Academic Staff has strengthened further the breadth and depth of the department in undergraduate and graduate teaching, in research and training and the department's commitment to serve the wider community.

The Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology is spread over several sites with facilities for staff, teaching and research in each of these. The Clinical Schools associated with the department are Canberra (principal hospital The Canberra Hospital), Central (principal hospitals Royal Prince Alfred and Concord Hospitals), Northern (principal hospital Royal North Shore Hospital) and Western (principal hospitals Westmead and Nepean Hospitals).

The University campus department is situated in the Queen Elizabeth II Research Institute for Mothers and Infants and as well as initiating its own clinical research activities is also responsible for the centralisation of the department's administration which allows efficient management of many purely University matters and the co-ordination of examinations and student assessments.

In 1990 the Sydney Centre for Reproductive Health Research, a collaborative project between the Family Planning Association of NSW and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Sydney was set up with IS Fraser as Director, Edith Weisberg Research Manager and Robert Markham Laboratory Manager. The aims of the Research Centre are to conduct research into various aspects of contraception and a range of reproductive health aspects including menopause, menstruation and sexually transmitted diseases. The Centre acts as a resource for the provision of information and advice on new or controversial aspects of contraception and reproductive health. It also contributes to training of medical and nursing students and professionals who have an interest in reproductive health.

In 1995, in association with the Department of Public Health and The National Perinatal Statistics Unit, a 2 year part-time masters course in Reproductive Medicine and Human Genetics was commenced. This is a fee-paying course conducted by course-work and treatise and was set up for Medical, Science, Nursing as well as other graduates, both local and overseas, wanting expertise in this growing area of reproductive medicine. The first student to graduate was in 1998. Frequency of student intake has been increased to annual enrolments.