Poliomyelitis (polio) has largely been hidden from national historical narratives of post-war Australia. Professor Catharine Coleborne has closely examined the Library’s collections, particularly interviews from the Social history of Polio oral history project. These testimonials share details about treatment and care, family interactions with medical professionals in regional settings and evolving understandings of the illness. Focusing on the period 1950 to 1970, it reflects the most significant polio outbreaks and their aftermath. 

Professor Coleborne is a 2025 National Library of Australia Fellow, supported in memory of Professor Ivor Jones.

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About Professor Catharine Coleborne

Professor Catharine Coleborne is Professor of History in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences at the University of Newcastle. An Australian academic historian, she specialises in the study of illness, health and medicine, with a particular focus in mental illness and institutional settings.

Professor Coleborne’s career contributions include a focus on patients, narratives and storytelling. This includes using oral histories and the changing understandings of health and illness over time. She has published numerous books, chapters and journal articles, with her work receiving international recognition. Her most recent book is Vagrant Lives in Colonial Australasia: Regulating Mobility, 1840-1910.