A Collaborative History of Music Therapy in Australia

Preface
The first history of music therapy in Australia was written by Ruth Bright and Denise Erdonmez (Grocke) in 2000. The history was prepared for the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Australian Music Therapy Association (AMTA) and captures the personal recollections of Ruth and Denise, who were the founders of AMTA. The historical account covers the very early years from 1903 up to 1975, when AMTA was founded. It describes the first conference of AMTA at which a proposed constitution, written by Ruth Bright, was presented to the attendees. It describes the establishment of state branches, the creation of a badge, the first code of ethics and professional conduct, the early publications and the start of the first music therapy course at the University of Melbourne in 1978. Finally, there is a list of the conference themes, invited speakers and city where the conference took place, from 1975 to the year 2000. This publication is now out of print, and we have reproduced sections of the document in this current version of the history. In 2011, masters student Jennifer Bibb chose to update the history by interviewing 3 former presidents of AMTA: Denise Grocke, 1978–81 and 1989–91; Helen Shoemark,1993–96; and Louise Miles, 2008–11. Her thesis was titled: The times they are a’changing: historical and contemporary perspectives of the growth of the music therapy profession in Australia (unpublished masters degree thesis, University of Melbourne). As AMTA’s 50th anniversary approached, it was time to update the history again. Natalie Jack was appointed Chair of the 50th Anniversary Working Group with support from Jane Aylen (Communications Officer) and Bridgit Hogan (CEO). They discussed with Prof. Denise Grocke how an updated history might be best crafted for 2025. From the beginning, we decided to include contributions from all registered music therapists (RMTs) – they would be invited to submit memorable moments from their careers in music therapy. We asked state and territory branches to list key personnel who developed music therapy, key clinical/practice positions that evolved, and memorable events. We also asked for information on training courses in the respective state or territory. Many ‘memorable moments’ were captured as photographs of significant events, such as graduations, pointing to the importance of that key point of time in RMTs’ histories. Written responses were also gathered. There were areas of missing information for many of the photos, and the editor reached out to key people to fill in the gaps. What follows is therefore a Collaborative history of music therapy in
Australia 2025.