A Brief History of Science Communication in Australia

Abstract

Early science reporting in Australia – up to and including the 1940s – was often sourced from overseas. During and after World War II, attention turned to applied science, at first for the war effort and afterwards to rebuild the nation. From the late 1950s to the late 1970s, entrepreneurs in science and media in Sydney worked together to provide science material in commercial outlets as well as for the ABC. In the context of the space race, the Cold War and atomic energy, science communication flourished from the 1950s to the 1970s. Since then, science content has been widespread in the television schedules of commercial networks in forms such as children's television, lifestyle programs and news items, and is also apparent in community radio schedules as well as on ABC television and radio. Claims that Australia has little science communication may be based on too narrow a view of what constitutes science content.