Two centuries of Australian accountants

              TWO CENTURIES OF
AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTANTS
by
Robert W. Gibson
Deakin University
Geelong, Victoria, Australia
In this bicentenary year of Australia, it
is appropriate to identify some of the ac­countants
who have made notable con­tributions
to the development of accoun­ting
in Australia. While it is tempting to
match the numbers to the years, space is
a limitation.
Any such historical review of accounting
in Australia naturally falls into two parts.
From 1788 to 1901 the continent was oc­cupied
by six sovereign colonies. Com­munications
were poor and the rigours of
coastal sailing such that the colonies
developed largely as isolated com­munities.
For the first ninety-eight years
there was no organized group of accoun­tants
in any of the colonies. It is therefore
not surprising that there is little
documented evidence to draw upon about
this first century. The second part of the
review involves the federation movement
and the creation as Edmund Barton, the
first Prime Minister, put it of one nation
for a continent. Just as the colonies had
to politically coalesce so also did the col­onial
organizations of accountants have to
come together and merge their interests
to reach the stage of dominance now ex­ercised
by the Australian Society of Ac­countants
(ASA) and the Institute of
Chartered Accountants in Australia
(ICAA). Those developments are in­separable
from any attempt to salute those
accountants who have left their mark on
the profession.
The reader should take note of the
small populations which existed in some
of the states even as late as 1945. The
historical advantage of the first settlement
being in Sydney and the impact of the
wealth from the gold rush in Victoria in
the middle of the nineteenth century can­not
be ignored. It is inevitable that this
survey reflects a bias towards people from
New South Wales and Victoria.
The post-colonial or federation period
may also be regarded as made up of two
quite different periods roughly defined by
World War II. In the pre World War II
period, the professional organizations
were primarily concerned with securing a
professional identity and eliminating "non
professional" competitive practices. In Vic­toria
there was a leavening of scholarship
led by A. A. Fitzgerald which made the ac­countants
in that state the intellectual
leaders of the profession. In the period
since World War II these roles have been
reversed to a degree largely due to the
emergence of new personalities in the pro­fessional
organizations.
COLONIAL ACCOUNTANTS
It is reasonable to conclude that
knowledge of double entry bookkeeping,
the basis of modern accounting develop­ment,
arrived with the first fleet in 1788.
The listings of occupations of those who
arrived does not identify anyone as a
bookkeeper or accountant. However,
The Accounting Historians Notebook, Spring, 1988 17