Key 44: Veterinary Science [i] 1908; 1927
A degree course and a chair of Veterinary Pathology - taken up by J.A. Gilruth - were established in 1908 and a building provided on a site bounded by Flemington Road, Park Street and Story Street, Parkville.
[Source: Melbourne University Magazine, Vol X, No 2, 1908]
Students were never numerous. When numbers fell to just one, Gilruth's successor H.A. Woodruff was transferred to the position of Director of the Bacteriology Laboratory and later foundation Professor of Bacteriology (1935-44). Subsequently, students took first year at the University before transferring to complete the course at the University of Sydney. However, the first three doctorates via research thesis were conferred by the university in Veterinary Science in 1909 to Samuel Sherwin Cameron, John Anderson Gilruth, and William Tyson Kendall.
[Source: Veterinary School Prospectus 1918, following p. 4]
The School was converted to the Veterinary Research Institute where it continued to offer diagnostic services and research in conjunction with bodies such as CSIR, the Victorian Department of Agriculture and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Serious attempts to resurrect the course did not get under way until the 1950s.
[Source: Veterinary School Prospectus 1918, following p 18]