Anz journal of surgery: a most hearty collaboration

At the very first meeting of the Council of the newly formed College of Surgeons of Australasia, held in Dunedin in February 1927, the decision was made to publish a surgical journal. The journal was to serve as a record of the various activities of the College; pride of place being given to articles on the science and art of surgery, and, as the first editor, Mervyn Archdall, reported to the Council in February 1929, the journal was to publish 'political or propagandist contributions', with regard to postgraduate training and hospital practice. W. N. Robertson of Brisbane, one of the College Founders, was a director of the Australasian Medical Publishing Company, publisher of the Medical Journal of Australia, and was able to offer to undertake production of such a journal, conditional on guaranteed financial provision. Mervyn Archdall, Editor of the Medical Journal of Australia, was permitted by the directors of the Australasian Medical Publishing Company to undertake editorship of the proposed College journal in his leisure time. July 1928 saw the first issue of The Journal of the College of Surgeons of Australasia which includes New Zealand, with Hugh Devine as Chairman of an Editorial Committee and Mervyn Archdall as Editor. This article traces the development of the College Journal until this point in time, a period of some 79 years.