CSIR and Australian industry: 1926–49

Abstract

The primary function of CSIR, founded in 1926, was to promote primary and secondary industries in Australia. In its first decade, CSIR developed a successful model for delivering research of benefit to the primary sector. The period from the late 1930s was characterised by the expansion of CSIR, notably into secondary-industry research, and its wide-ranging and effective response to the industry and government demands during the Second World War. In the post-war years CSIR placed increasing emphasis on longer term, underlying research, as the way to benefit Australian industry. This shift raised problems for technology transfer to the secondary industry sector; it also shaped the agenda of CSIR’s successor organisation, CSIRO, in the decades after its formation in 1949.