The Australian Orchid Council was founded in 1960. Many people were involved in the foundation period leading up to the ultimate formation in September of that year. Unfortunately few published records exist. It is therefore worthy of reproducing the following short extract from the memoirs of the late Frank Slattery O.A.M., F.A.O.C., originally published in 1995. They record his perspective of the early days of the Council.

"In March 1960, having returned from my first world trip, Sir John Hall Best had initiated an expression of interest from other States regarding the formation of a national body to be known as the Australian Orchid Council. Our legal beagle, Bill Smoothey, had worked out a draft Constitution which had gone to each State for discussion. The reaction was very favourable and on 14^th September 1960 representatives of five states met in Sydney and a final draft of the Constitution was approved.

Sir John was Chairman of this meeting and he became the first President of the Australian Orchid Council (AOC). Gerald McCraith of Victoria was the first Vice-President; Cecil Harveyson of Queensland, the Honorary Treasurer; and Bill Smoothey the Registrar General of Awards. Tasmania was represented by its President, F.W. Chilvers, and Western Australia by Percy Hall. It was left to the President to appoint his own secretary. (South Australia joined the Council shortly afterwards, and the Northern Territory was accepted as an independent Territory in the early 1990’s, having previously been aligned with Queensland until numbers warranted separation.)

The degree of co-operation between states made possibly by having a national body has greatly enhanced all aspects of orchid growing as a fine Australian hobby and important social activity.

One of the major tasks in the early sixties was the establishing of uniformity in judging, a process carried on very successfully by Bill Smoothey until 1965 when I (Frank Slattery) succeeded him as Registrar General of Judging. I had been active on judging matters for many years, first in the late forties with the New South Wales panel and also in consultation with the Victorians and South Australians, and later on during a trip to Western Australia.

In 1963, I instituted a system of having our NSW judges point up flowers to send to new judging panels for their assessment I compared their pointings with ours and sent them a commentary. The Tasmanians really relished this project.

Judging is never static because hybridizers are always endeavouring to increase the standard of flower excellence. New genera and new breeding strains appear quite suddenly on the benches, and in recent years we have seen newly discovered species of horticultural importance. There is no doubt that our national approach to judging through the AOC has enabled us to keep up with all these developments.

The Council published a Judging Handbook which is updated frequently, low cost cultural books, and the bi-monthly orchid magazine Orchids Australia  (established 1989).

The Australian Orchid Council gave Australia prestige and a voice in world orchid affairs. It enabled us to seek a World Orchid Conference because the invitation came from our nation with the guaranteed support of each state. We could also arrange our own Australian conferences on a regular basis and the first of these was held in Brisbane in 1967. It has been customary since then to hold an Australian conference every three years, each State in turn, except in those years when it would clash with a world orchid conference.

We lobbied for the Fifth World Orchid Conference when the fourth was held in Singapore but in view of the fact that Los Angeles had submitted prior claim in 1960, Australia withdrew its application. It was agreed that the Australian invitation would again be submitted at the Los Angeles business session.  Conferences have become such an important part of the orchid hobby that they merit a chapter of their own.

I have always taken a great interest in the AOC because such Australia-wide co-operation can only be of benefit to growers. Like any virile organization, it has inbuilt capacity to expand to meet future challenges. I have attended every meeting where possible and wherever it was held

In 1967, the Council honoured me with the award of Honorary Fellowship. I quote

"…in recognition of outstanding personal service in the formation of the Council and its ideals for the advancement of the Science of Orchid Culture in Australia. 

I became President of the Council in 1978 and served the maximum term of three years. I feel very proud to be associated with this wonderful organization which has contributed so much to co-operation, education and the sheer fun of orchid growing. Like any virile organization, it will evolve to meet the challenges of the future."  .......... Frank Slattery

Footnotes:

Mr Slattery died in May 2000, at the age of 98, a few short months before the Conference held in Burnie, Tasmania, which celebrated the AOC’s 40^th Anniversary.  To Frank and his foresighted colleagues of the 1950s and 1960s, the Australian orchid community owes a debt of gratitude for setting such solid foundations on which others have been able to build a strong and dynamic national body.

At the Burnie Conference, we were honoured to have one of the original foundation members, Gerald McCraith OAM, FAOC, present at the closing banquet and to hear him speak on those early days. There has been huge change in the 40 year history of the AOC, one of them being the establishment of this highly successful website – the first orchid related site in Australia.