Kett Optometry Museum and Archive, Australian College of Optometry, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Clin Exp Optom. 2020 May;103(3):368-375. doi: 10.1111/cxo.12942. Epub 2019 Jul 11.
The enactment of the Opticians Act by the Victorian parliament on 17 December 1935 transformed the standard of optometric practice in Victoria and laid the foundations for future educational advance. Previously any person could practise optometry in Victoria regardless of their qualifications or training. The Act established an Opticians Registration Board the first task of which was to register optometrists deemed competent enough to practise on the basis of their prior experience or their optometric qualifications.
This article uses the working papers of the Registration Board at the time to construct a profile of the optometrists in practice in 1936 including the number of optometrists in practice at the time, their qualifications, the extent of their prior experience, their conjoined businesses and their geographic location.
There were 489 optometrists in practice who applied for registration in 1936 of whom 338 were subsequently registered, two-thirds on the basis of prior experience and one-third because they held an optometric qualification recognised under the Act. Eleven of them were women. Sixty-one per cent of them were solely engaged in the practice of optometry and 39 per cent practised in conjunction with another occupation, the most common of which were watchmaker, jeweller and pharmacist. Thirty-eight per cent practised in the central business district of Melbourne, 37 per cent in Melbourne suburbs and 25 per cent in regional Victoria. In 1937 the ratio of registered optometrists to population was 1:5,482.
The Opticians Act of 1935 immediately lifted the competence of optometrists in practice in 1936 by refusing to register 31 per cent of those in practice who were judged to lack the necessary competence, and laid the foundations for higher educational standards in the future.
1935 年 12 月 17 日，维多利亚议会颁布了《验光师法案》，这一法案改变了维多利亚州验光实践的标准，并为未来的教育进步奠定了基础。在此之前，任何有资格或接受过培训的人都可以在维多利亚州从事验光工作。该法案设立了一个验光师注册委员会，其首要任务是根据其先前的经验或验光资格，对被认为有足够能力从事实践的验光师进行注册。
本文利用当时注册委员会的工作文件，构建了 1936 年执业验光师的概况，包括当时执业的验光师人数、他们的资格、从业经验的程度、联合企业和地理位置。
1936 年有 489 名验光师申请注册，其中 338 名随后注册，三分之二是基于先前的经验，三分之一是因为他们持有该法案认可的验光资格。其中 11 人为女性。他们中有 61%的人专门从事验光工作，39%的人同时从事其他职业，其中最常见的是制表师、珠宝商和药剂师。38%的人在墨尔本的中央商务区执业，37%在墨尔本郊区，25%在维多利亚州的地区。1937 年，注册验光师与人口的比例为 1:5482。
1935 年的《验光师法案》立即提高了 1936 年执业验光师的能力，拒绝注册 31%被认为缺乏必要能力的执业验光师，为未来更高的教育标准奠定了基础。
