Presentation Title: A History of Australian Navy Medicine 1900-1975
Theme: Military History
Presenter: Dr Neil Westphalen 

The Royal Australian Navy’s advancement of Australian national interests world-wide has always required a diverse range of personnel, engineering, logistic and other supporting agencies, ashore and afloat. This presentation describes some of the elements of the current historiographic gap as to how its health services played their part from 1900 to 2000 in getting ships to sea and keeping them there: not only by treating their ill and injured members, but also supporting Navy operational capability, and facilitating the return of ex-Navy members to the civilian community.

Neil Westphalen graduated MBBS from the University of Adelaide in 1985, and joined the Royal Australian Navy in 1987 as a medical officer. He transferred to the Reserve in 2016, in which he maintains an active role. His postgraduate qualifications include Fellowships of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, the Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, and the Australasian College of Aerospace Medicine. He also holds a Diploma of Aviation Medicine and a Master of Public Health, and is a Navy Staff College graduate.Neil was accepted as a HASS PhD candidate in March 2020.