Cecil Cook (physician)

For other people named Cecil Cook, see Cecil Cook (disambiguation).

Cecil Evelyn Aufrere (Mick) Cook (23 September 1897 - 4 July 1985) was an Australian physician and medical administrator, who specialised in tropical diseases and public health. He was appointed as Chief Medical Officer and Protector of Aborigines for the Northern Territory in 1927. He established much of the infrastructure of the public health system there, including four hospitals, a tuberculosis clinic, a nursing school and the Nurses’ Board of North Australia. He started the Northern Territory Aerial Medical Service together with Dr Clyde Fenton, and he was founding chairman of the Northern Territory Medical Board. He was controversial for his attempts to "uplift the morality" of Aboriginal people by "breeding out the colour".

Early life and education

Cook was born on 23 September 1897 in Bexhill, Sussex, England. His mother was Emily (née Puckle), and he had an older brother, Errol Aufrere, who was born in 1895. His father, James Whiteford Murray Cook, moved to Australia soon after Cecil was born, and the family followed in 1900 to live in Barcaldine, Queensland. Dr James Cook became the Lodge doctor in Barcaldine and he was medical superintendent of the Victoria Hospital, positions he held for thirty years. He was very well regarded, credited with bringing Victoria Hospital "into a new era of respectability and service to the public".

Cook attended the Barcaldine State (primary) school for 1906-8 and was then a boarder at The Southport School, where he was the dux in 1914. He studied medicine at the University of Sydney, living at St Andrew's College, and he graduated with MB, Ch.M. in 1920, MD in 1929, and DPH in 1931.

Medical career

Cook served his residency at Brisbane General Hospital. He briefly practised at Barcaldine with his father in 1919 to help deal with an epidemic of pneumonic influenza, then he worked in hospitals at Mount Morgan and Longreach before starting as a general practitioner in Hughenden. He worked as a ship's medical officer to pay his way to London, where he attended the London School of Tropical Medicine, graduating with a Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 1923 and winning a Wandsworth scholarship.

Cook joined the Commonwealth Public Service in 1925. He worked at the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine, Townsville.

Leprosy survey

As part of his MD studies, Cook conducted a major epidemiological study of leprosy in Australia. He published this report as his MD thesis The Epidemiology of Leprosy in Australia in 1927. The newly established Federal Health Council subsequently adopted leprosy as one of its concerns.

Northern Australia Appointment

He was appointed the Chief Medical Officer, Chief Health Officer, Chief Protector of Aborigines and Quarantine Officer for North Australia (then separate from Central Australia, later the Northern Territory) on 1 March 1927. For the first six months he was the only medical practitioner in the state, and after that he focused on establishing a public health system. From 1929 to 1939, he established general hospitals at Katherine, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, a hospital outside Darwin to treat leprosy, a training school for nurses, a tuberculosis clinic, a medical benefit fund, he commenced infant welfare services, and he founded the Nurses’ Board of North Australia. In 1934 he joined forces with Dr Clyde Fenton to launch the Northern Territory Aerial Medical Service under the umbrella of the Australian Aerial Medical Service, which later became the (Royal) Flying Doctor Service.

In 1930, he took leave to study anthropology and public health in Sydney.

Racial views and controversy

Growing public criticism of the exploitation and abuse of Aboriginal people led to passing the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897 in Queensland. This Act created the first official state control of Indigenous Australians in Queensland, including health. It authorised establishment of government reserves for Aboriginal people, and it led in 1904 to the appointment of a Chief Protector of Aborigines within the department of the Home Secretary. However its aims of protecting Aboriginal people were not realised: overcrowding, inadequate provisions and housing led to mortality rates which peaked at 13 per cent annually. While there were some improvements during the 1920s and 1930s, they remained triple the national average.

Cook irritated Alice Springs residents by urging them to allow Aboriginal patients in a proposed hospital and by allowing a Catholic mission. He also sought to protect "full-bloods" from unauthorised visitors. However, he generally opposed church missions and favoured assimilation. Hence, when it came to Aboriginal people he argued for "breeding them out" and stated:

generally by the fifth and invariably by the sixth generation, all native characteristics of the Australian Aborigine are eradicated. The problem of our half-castes will quickly be eliminated by the complete disappearance of the black race, and the swift submergence of their progeny in the white.

He also instituted the "dog tag" system of fingerprinting and medical examination of Aboriginal people.

Personal life

Cook married Jessie Winifred Miller on 4 March 1924; Jessie died in 1978.

Awards and recognition

• 1935 - CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire)
• 1936 - Cilento medal