William Arnold Conolly Orations

Page last updated 16 January 2026

The William Arnold Conolly Oration, which commenced in 1970, was named in Dr Conolly’s honour as an acknowledgement of the College’s debt of gratitude to Dr Conolly for his tireless efforts in the formation and the early days of the College. This speech is designed to be an inspirational piece for New Fellows, which is delivered by a GP who has walked before them. The words of wisdom shared by the Orator will be remembered as they begin their career as a general practitioner.

Year	William Arnold Conolly Orator	Number	Oration Title
1970	Sir Kenneth Beeson Noad	1^st	‘Quo Vadimus’
1971	Professor Eric Galton Saint	2^nd	‘Better Doctoring’
1972	Dr Prakash Chand Bhatla	3^rd	‘Population Problem and the Medical Profession’
1973	No Oration
1974	Sir Mark Oliphant AC KBE	4^th	‘The Foundation of Modern Culture’
1975	Professor Geoffrey C Bolton	5^th	‘The Illiterate Doctor’
1976	Dr David C Jackson	6^th	‘A Child and his Doctor’
1977	Sir Stanley Burbury KCVO KBE	7^th	‘Hippocrates in the Welfare State’
1978	Sir Edward Hughes CBE	8^th	‘Teaching Surgery’
1979	Senator Peter Baume	9^th	‘Liberty, Licence and Public Policy’
1980	Justice Kemeri Murray AO	10^th	‘Divorce – The Untreated Cancer’
1981	Professor David Maddison	11^th	‘Is Medicine an Academic Discipline?’
1982	Dr H. Stuart Patterson	12^th	‘Handing on the Torch’
1983	Sir Ninian Stephen	13^th	‘A Layman’s Encounter with Plague and Other Things’
1984	The Most Reverend Dr Peter Carnley	14^th	‘Miracles, Morals and Medicine’
1985	Dr Bryan Gandevia AM	15^th	‘Medicine in Australia – the Poet’s View’
1986	Mrs Katherine West	16^th	‘General Practice – New Threats and Opportunities’
1987	Professor Stephen R. Leeder	17^th	‘The Estimation and Modification of Risk in General Practice’
1988	Professor Ralph L Doherty	18^th	‘The Cloudy Crystal Ball – Australian Medical Workforce in 2020’.
1989	No Oration due to Pilot’s Strike
1990	Dr Keith Bolden	19^th	‘Personality, the Profession, and Change’
1991	Professor Max Charlesworth	20^th	‘Medical Ethics, Ethicians, General Practitioners, Politicians and the Community’
1992	The Most Reverend Dr Keith Rayner	21^st	‘Euthanasia: Dilemma of a Community’
1993	Mr William Faulding Scammell CBE	22^nd	‘The Philosophy of Change’
1994	Professor Richard Smallwood AO	23^rd	‘The Skilled Doctor: in Defence of the Pursuit of Excellence’
1995	Clinical Associate Professor David Bennett AO	24^th	‘Adolescent Health Care: Creative Responses for the 1990s’
1996	Dr Reg L Perkin	25^th	‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; and Lessons Learned. A Canadian Perspective on Health Care Reform’
1997	Dr John Stevens	26^th	‘Now and Then’
1998	Emeritus Professor Neil Carson AO	27^th	‘Lessons from an earlier life’
1999	Dr David A Game AO	28^th	‘Reflections – Forty and Beyond’
2000	Professor Dame Lesley Southgate DBE	29^th	‘Standards and Accountability: What must the profession do?’
2001	Associate Professor W Bruce Conolly AM	30^th	‘The Hand that Heals around the World’
2002	Professor Judith Belle Brown	31^st	'Patient-Centred Medicine and Evidence-Based Medicine: The Confluence of Two World Views’
2003	Professor Wesley Fabb AM	32^nd	‘Change’
2004	Professor Max Kamien AM	33^rd	‘Educating the Good GP’
2005	Dr Ngiare Brown	34^th	Title Unknown
2006	Professor Ian Frazer	35^th	Title Unknown
2007	Associate Professor Stephen Trumble	36^th	‘Introducing the future of general practice’
2008	Professor David de Kretser AC	37^th	Title Unknown
2009	Dr John Radunovich	38^th	Title Unknown
2010	Dr Peter Doyle	39^th	Title Unknown
2011	Professor Richard Roberts, USA	40^th	Title Unknown
2012	Professor Clare Gerada, UK	41^st	‘My gift to you Australian Fellows’
2013	Dr Jeff McMullen AM	42^nd	‘Children of the Sunrise’
2014	Professor Michael Kidd AO	43^rd	‘Lead and Inspire’
2015	Dr Alessandro R Demaio	44^th	‘Tomorrow’s challenges are today’s mandate: Leveraging impact through practice’
2016	Professor Kurt C Stange	45^th	Title Unknown
2017	Dr Jay Parkinson, CEO and Founder, Sherpaa	46^th	Title Unknown
2018	Dr Mark Miller, Censor-in-Chief	47^th	Title Unknown
2019	No Oration
2020	No Oration
2021	No Oration
2022	Dr Nina Robertson	48^th	‘The Lismore floods’
2023	No Oration
2024	No Oration
2025	Dr Bruce Willett	49th	Title unknown

References

Winton R. A'Body's body. Sydney: The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, 1983.
Gandevia B. History of general practice in Australia. Med J Aust 1972;2:381-5.
Tait I. History essay: history of the Royal College of General Practitioners, May 2002.
Collings JS. General practice in England today. Lancet 1950; 1:555-85

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