Eugenics: Spreading throughout Melbourne in the 20th Century.
Source: DNA Learning Center
Eugenics is centered around the science of ‘improving’ a human population with controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of ‘desirable’ heritable characteristics – and is a topic that very few people tend to explore as much as they should regarding it’s critically important nature.
Controlled breeding can be attained through many methods, including sterilisation, and was a very real concept throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries. Many professionals in the scientific and biological fields rigorously researched ways to improve the human race through means of breeding, and its dark ideas still continue to this day.
In this feature, Ethan Nash explores the origins of Eugenics in Australia, how Melbourne’s eugenic elite almost succeeded with their vision, and how this closely kept secret is being brought back to the surface almost 100 years later.
BACKGROUND
The term Eugenics was historically “founded” by Sir Francis Galton in 1883. Many believe Eugenics initially started as a ‘positive’ thing, encouraging healthy, capable people of above-average intelligence to bear more children, with the idea of building an “improved” human race.
This was until the power-hungry elite of the United States took their own approach to the theory, beginning a very dark, secretive period in human history that continues in modern form to this very day.
The center of the American Eugenics Movement was the Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor in New York. Biologist Charles Davenport established the ERO, and was joined in his work by Director Harry H. Laughlin.
Both men were members of the American Breeders Association. Their view of eugenics, as applied to human populations, drew from the agricultural model of breeding the strongest and most capable members of a species while making certain that the weakest members do not reproduce.
This ideology quickly spread on an international level, most notably to Germany and other countries. Many people are not aware, however, that it also spread like a plague to our own backyard.
EUGENICS IN AUSTRALIA
Australia is very familiar with following in the footsteps of international agendas.
Eugenics is another term you can add to that list, as an underworld of Melbourne Eugenicists rose from the ashes during the early 20th century, and along with some important political influences, brought about a period mostly forgotten throughout the span of Australian history – a push for perfection.
The first person that comes to mind when discussing Eugenics in Australia is Richard Berry. Berry was a Professor of Anatomy at Melbourne University from 1903 to 1929, and his worked was based around measuring people’s heads in pursuit of a theory that a small head indicated that a person had low intelligence.
Berry favoured the establishment of a ”lethal chamber” to euthanise what he called ”the grosser types of our mental defectives”. He began working frantically with others to bring the ideas of Eugenics to the public eye, and started gaining momentum amongst various government agencies and committees as a result.
Richard Berry
Photo: Melbourne Medical School
This significant push would lead to an attempt to legalise Eugenics in the form of three Mental Deficiency Bills that were presented to Parliament in 1926, 1929 and 1939 by Premier Stanley Argyle, a man who has close relations to Berry.
The bills would target slum dwellers, homosexuals, prostitutes, alcoholics, as well as those with small heads and with low IQs, in an attempt to institutionalise and potentially sterilise people who fell under these categories. The Aboriginal population was also seen to fall within this group.
The first two attempts to enact the bills failed, not thanks to any significant opposition, rather the political atmosphere around in Australia at the time. The third was passed unanimously in 1939, but (thankfully) not enacted in the first instance. This would later be due to the outbreak of World War II and social uproar against the ‘Holocaust’.
As a result, people were beginning to see how devastating the subjugation of a race could become, but it didn’t stop the Eugenics movement from spreading across Australia.
State parliaments and various groups (pictures below) were inspired to also institute such legislation, after Berry traveled across the country, delivering lectures in many town halls.
Eugenics in Australia continued during the 1920s, as Royal Commissions gave birth to a range of eugenic reforms including measures relating to child endowment, marriage laws, pensions, and a national survey of mental deficiency that was introduced by the Federal Minister for Health, Sir Neville Howse in 1928.
Neville is historically known as the figure head of half caste breeding during the Stolen Generation period, a more familiar form of Eugenics throughout Australian history.
Along with the Chief Inspector for the Insane in Victoria, William Ernest Jones, the two vigorously fought as it was tabled before Parliament. They claimed that the statistics collected showed the incidence of mental deficiency was rising, mainly due to genetics, and was more often found in the working class, and desperate action was needed to topple this issue.
This was all put to a stop during the Great Depression, as Australia didn’t have the money to fund such programs. But, yet again, it wouldn’t stop the movement, as Eugenics was introduced into Victorian High Schools by the first Director of Education, Frank Tate. Tate was a close friend of Berry, and strongly supported his research on head size and, on occasions, introduced his public lectures.
The development would lead to substantial momentum, as the first Director of the Australian Council for Educational Research, Kenneth Cunningham and one of the most significant early psychologists, Chris McRae, began publishing research claiming to show that working class children were unfit for academic secondary education.
As Richard Berry returned to England in 1929, others took up the reigns of the movement, founding the Eugenics Society of Victoria in 1936.
Its membership was comprised of some of Melbourne’s most influential people, including the Chief Executive Officer of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, the President of the Royal College of Physicians and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria.
Although the aims of the society included supporting the sterilisation of mental defectives, more and more they were involved in environmental reforms (such as slum clearance) and the birth control movement.
BRINGING LIGHT TO THE DARKNESS
The Eugenics Society of Victoria continued operating until 1961, before ‘fading out’ as new ideas of equality began rising across the world.
One man who continues to address the issue is Dr. Ross Jones, an Australian Research Council postdoctoral fellow at the University of Sydney. Jones discovered this hidden past after looking through files of long-forgotten papers stored in musty archives. What he found shocked him, as he stumbled upon the uncomfortable details about the promotion of eugenics and racial science in Melbourne during the first half of the 20th century.
“I’d be happy to put my head on the block and argue with any historians that Melbourne was the centre of eugenics in Australia,” Jones spoke in 2011.
Dr. Ross Jones outside the ‘Richard Berry Building’ (Department of Mathematics & Statistics)
Photo: Eddie Jim
How is it that such an important issue has long been forgotten with the passing of time?
One explanation, he says, is that there was a conscious cover up.
“The whole thing became taboo after World War II.”
Dr Jones hopes to publish his research about eugenics in Melbourne, which he began during his PhD studies at Monash University. He says knowing about people’s involvement in eugenics is important because it helps us understand the influence they had on Victorian social and education policy. Their influence, he says, can still be felt.
“The story of eugenics needs to be remembered.”
Eugenics continues to be hardly mentioned in the official histories of the university, and although Melbourne may wish to forget its dark past, it cannot escape the fact that powerful leaders of the eugenics movement once controlled the city, and their beliefs influenced an entire generation. Does it continue to this day? Is political influence in science a dangerous thing? It is our duty as Australians to raise these questions.
Reblogged this on Real News Australia and commented:
Please read the latest article from our friends at TOTTnews.
Eugenics appear to be the prerogative of the ruling class… it is they and their collective intellectuals cultivated through the essence of privilege that promotes this control over wether a human being should exists or should not.
Eugenics also seems to be part of ‘the right to rule’ of bloodlines that go back to Egypt and consider it their Godly right, not only to rule, but to decide on the right to live.
The human race was genetically engineered by intelligent beings that came to this planet……. read the Old Testament…. tho is a massive story!
Out of this came chaos producing two main bloodlines and one of these bloodlines was of Cain who are now our, so called, royals of today.
For those who doubt me please go and read…. Ralf Ellis, Scott Alan Roberts, Webster Tarpley, Joseph P Farrell and there are many more scholars, far more intelligent than we think we are, who spend their lives accumulating this knowledge.
Archeology/Paleonology with the aid of modern computers and dating systems are now producing evidence that what has been written in ancient times has a strong basis of fact.
Do you ever ponder as to why, we are told, a certain class of people rule?
A quote from Prince Phillip who is of Black Nobility and one of the Canaanite bloodlines…..,
“In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, in order to contribute something to solve overpopulation.”
The above statement, reported by Deutsche Press Agentur in August 1988, presents in the most concise manner, the commitment of the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, to genocide against the world’s population.
You see we are mere cannon fodder for these Canaanite bloodlines who orchestrated the carnage in the 20th century starting with the Russian Revolution.
Eugenics is real and and it is not about saving Mother earth.
I will conclude my rant with a quote from our illustrious George Bernard Shaw who was one of these selected intellectuals cultivated by these ‘right to rule’ psychopaths!….. Gus
“Under Socialism, you would not be allowed to be poor.
You would be forcibly fed, clothed, lodged, taught, and employed wether you liked it or not. If it were discovered that you had not the character and industry enough to be worth all this trouble….. you might be executed in a kindly manner; but whilst you were permitted to live, you would have to live well”….. George Bernard Shaw
Don’t worry mate, we have professors at Otago Uni here in New Zeland advocating eugenics last week! http://www.savingdowns.com/we-reject-otago-universitys-discriminatory-paper-on-down-syndrome/
Thank you for sharing Mike!
I was wondering if the passing of the 1939 eugenics Bill had any links to the Great Depression. Many of the groups targeted were those hardest hit by the depression and i am curious to find out if the sterilisation of these people was seen as a possible solution to the Great depression, by removing a significant amount of people who were unemployed, business stagnation would cease and unemployment would fall, due to many of the unemployed being ‘sterilized’.
Hi Matt,
We are not aware of any solid proof to back up a claim like that, but if you check out the “Kill the poor to balance budget” post in our ‘Spotlight’ section, it is certainly plausible to think that it may have been a reason – especially considering the mentality at the time.
We will let you know if we find anything.
I can’t recall the exact year (circa late 90s), but during my son’s primary school years at St Francis catholic primary school parents were sent home a permission slip that would allow their child to consume a NEW flavoured milk being tested at school. Yep, that’s pretty much exactly what the note said – tested. Being dead against flavours, and frangrance for that matter, I wasn’t going to give permission. My sister’s partner was alarmed when I showed him, and so began my education into a history on eugenics and how these tests are tracked throughout the life of the child. Despicable.
Look up the 1961 Eugenics Society of Vic document and let the country know what happened to the unwed mother deemed feeble and the offspring who was also deemed feeble and the advocacy that such persons should not be allowed to procreate
One has to explore how medical research institutions involved in such experiments and how they got away with it in the 70s. I have now had disclosures by a Medical Research Institution confirming my research file contains misinterpretations, misinformation and miscommunications. I am now one step away in Melbourne to exposing the misrepresentations in Medical Research to by a University’s Department of Anatomy resulting in eugenics
while i dont agree the PTB should have the power to decide for us( though DO suss out depoprovera implants ongoing sterility risks) thats being use by illinformed females voluntarily..
there IS the fact that anyone with any nous does NOT breed bad genetics in a herd.
so..it would actually be a wise personal decision for those with bad health issues/genetics to chose to not have kids.
when do we balance the desire to have offspring with the reason that we may be sterile with a certain partner or all partners for a reason?
and does a parents wish for children, regardless, over ride a life of ill health for that child??
The figures for successful IVF and the later years health of those babies arent as glossy and good as they would have us believe, the record keeping on that is pretty poor.
Ethan,
There is some very interesting information that a Australian by the name of Steven mcmurray who has openend up the MKUltra information. I think you might find it interesting which may related to Eugenics. http://www.mcmurrayreport.com/2016/07/14/ccn-unspun-episode-30-mkultra-australia/#comment-328
THE EUGENICS MOVEMENT PUT A WIDER SPIN ON IT MAKING IT ALL ABOUT POPULATION REDUCTION. In the 30’s & 40’s Hitler was the leader of the movement it is widely known about him reducing population by killing of the mentally ill, Homosexuals and Gypsies and the Jews a waste of space( as they made him feel inferior Jewish women rebuffed him and a large number of Jews stood out after the first world war as they were doing better than other Germans. But his experiments in Russian towns that were taken over by the Germans population reduction was practised ( but discovery of this after the war did not receive much exposure ) First there were meticulous records made of the whole population listing details of every person including their occupation , Education & Skills, Health etc
Then the experiment started first all the mentally ill and infirmed were taken out and killed then the next part of the experiment was working out ideal population size and what people were excess such as to many plumbers, carpenters, food producers non skilled etc. Those that were listed as excess – over population were taken away and killed (some were saved as there was a shortage of their skills in other communities where the experiment was being carried out. Hitler and some of the leading Nazis were believers of the Work of Parson Thomas Malthus (and others that carried on Malthus bullshit including Charles Darwin, Thomas Huxley, & H.G.Wells ) Hitler was also an environmentalist you could regard him as the First Greenie. The Eugenics movement after the war almost vanished as the population was in no mood for the talk about further population reduction especially with Connections to Hitler. But in the fifties there were those that wanted to rebuild the movement especially one Nazi Sympathiser with some standing due to where he stood on his family tree was able to fuck into a higher position that gave him the power and Money to pursue his interest and he had the support of his wife. To rebuild the Eugenics movement he needed a Trojan horse – so the Green Movement was created. This Nazi Sympathiser who has stated many times the world population must be reduced to below 2 billion in a decade and also has stated often that he hopes reincarnation is real as then he can come back as a deadly Virus and do a proper job of Population Reduction.
I found this quite moving documentary on the genesis of the plandemic and the damage that Gates has inflicted on the Indians and Africans.
https://oye-news/documentaries/plandemic-indoctornation-full-documentary/