History of immunology in Australia: events and identities.

Immunology originated in Europe during the latter 1900s, and applications can be discerned in colonial Australia. The actual beginnings of immunology in Australia followed Burnet's enunciation of two fundamental principles: natural immune tolerance as an acquired characteristic in 1948 and clonal selection theory in 1957. Laboratory and clinical immunology flourished at various centres from the 1950s. The Australian Society of Immunology was founded in 1971. The merger of clinical immunology with allergy in 1991 created the Australian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy, exemplary for the reamalgamation of these related specialties. Australian immunology over the past 50 years has become recognized nationally and abroad as a highly visible component of the academic, research and biomedical scene and is still on a rising trajectory.