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Celebrating 30 years of Australian Rotary Health

Anthony F Jorm, Michael G Sawyer and Joy Gillett
Med J Aust 2011; 194 (6): . || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2011.tb02972.x
Published online: 21 March 2011

How one man’s vision to fund health research grew to become the country’s largest non-government funder of research into mental illness

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of Australian Rotary Health (ARH), a uniquely Australian organisation operating under the auspices of Rotary International (a worldwide organisation of humanitarian service clubs) that allows Rotary clubs to support health research. From small beginnings, ARH has evolved to become a key non-government funder of research relevant to preventing and treating mental illness.


  • 1 Orygen Youth Health Research Centre, Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC.
  • 2 Children, Youth and Women’s Health Service, Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide, SA.
  • 3 Discipline of Paediatrics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA.
  • 4 Australian Rotary Health, Sydney, NSW.


Correspondence: ajorm@unimelb.edu.au

Competing interests:

Anthony Jorm has received grant funding from ARH and receives travel support to attend Research Committee meetings. Michael Sawyer is a member of the Board of ARH and an honorary member of the Mitcham Rotary Club in South Australia.

  • 1. Henningham P. In search of health: the story of the Australian Rotary Health Research Fund. Sydney: Australian Rotary Health Research Fund, 2001.
  • 2. Dwyer T, Ponsonby AL, Newman NM, Gibbons LE. Prospective cohort study of prone sleeping position and sudden infant death syndrome. Lancet 1991; 337: 1244-1247.
  • 3. Dwyer T, Ponsonby AL, Blizzard L, et al. The contribution of changes in the prevalence of prone sleeping position to the decline in sudden infant death syndrome in Tasmania. JAMA 1995; 273: 783-789.
  • 4. Murray CJ, Lopez AD. Alternative projections of mortality and disability by cause 1990–2020: Global Burden of Disease Study. Lancet 1997; 349: 1498-1504.
  • 5. Henderson S, Andrews G, Hall W. Australia’s mental health: an overview of the general population survey. Aust N Z J Psychiatry 2000; 34: 197-205.
  • 6. Australian Rotary Health. Mental Health First Aid Workshops. http://www.australianrotaryhealth.org.au/Information-About/Programs/Mental-Health-First-Aid.aspx (accessed Feb 2011).

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