Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet
OM, KBE,MD,PhD,FRS,FAA,FRACP,FRCP  (1899-1985)
by Mr. Peter Burke    (M. Fullard)

Frank Macfarlane Burnet was born in the residence at the Colonial Bank, in Franklin Street, Traralgon on 3rd September 1899.   He was the second of 6 children and his father was Manager of the bank.  He was a quiet, very shy child, and a bit of a loner.  He attended the local State School and he didn't appear to be exceptional at this stage.  He wandered in the bush and along Traralgon Creek, to observe white-eyes, butterflies, yabbies and beetles.
(Photo left, Macfarlane Burnet, as a boy, with sisters Doris and Anne.)

When he was 9, his father was transferred to Terang, and here he continued with his beetle collection.  His parents subscribed to "Natural History" and by now he was a voracious reader.  The Presbyterian minister recognized that he was very clever, and told his parents that they must educate him.

1913-16. He was a boarder at Geelong College where he was Dux.  He then went to Ormond College and graduated at the University of Melbourne in 1922, in medicine.  The first in his course was Dr. James Moore Andrew who spent his whole life working in Yallourn and Moe.  Macfarlane Burnet was second.

He never practised medicine; he was a biologist and went straight into research.  Ninety percent of his work was to do with viruses and infection control.  His main tools were a bench top and a microscope.  He spent most of his day in the laboratory and he stated that Science was the finest sport in the world.  He perfected the technique of using fertile eggs as hosts for virus multiplication.

Walter Hall (1831-1911) became immensely wealthy after being an agent for Cobb & Co. (1853) and then through part ownership of the Mount Morgan goldmine.   There were no children from his marriage to Eliza and on his death he bequeathed £1,000,000 to charity.  A grant of £10,000 was made to build a research facility; the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute was opened in 1921.)

1924. Macfarlane Burnet worked at the Melbourne Hospital and at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.

1926-27. He was a Beit Fellow and worked at the Lister Institute, London.  He felt very lonely there, often speaking to no one all day.  He was uneasy with strangers.  He went to numerous plays, museums, the theatre, went walking in the Home Counties, and he bicycled in Switzerland.  In 1928 he married Linda and she shared his life for 45 years.  Their 3 children were brought up in Australia.

1928. He returned to Australia to become the Assistant Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.

1931. He worked on the immunological differences between the strains of the Polio virus.

1935. Influenza research.

1942.  He was elected to the Royal Society (London) and won its Royal Medal (1947) and Copley Medal (1959).  He particularly valued this as previous recipients were James Cook, Matthew Flinders, Charles Darwin, and Albert Einstein.

1946.  Doctor of Science, Cambridge.

1944-65. Director of Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.

1951.   Knighted.

1960.  Nobel Prize for Medicine, jointly with Professor Brian Medawar of London University, for work on acquired immunological tolerance.

1961.  Australian of the Year.

1968.  Doctor of Science, Oxford University.

1969.  F.R.C.S.

1977. Q Fever in cattle.  He isolated this but contracted the fever himself.

1966-1967. University of Melbourne.

1978-1985.  Retirement.

Sir Gustav Nossal, fourth Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, said that there were 3 strands to Burnet's work:

• Microbe Hunter - Influenza, herpes, scrub typhus, and that this was difficult and dangerous work.
• Viruses - their bio-chemistry and their division
• Immune System - This work led to organ transplants.

In public life, Macfarlane Burnet spoke about public health, about diseases of old age, the dangers of obesity due to overeating, deaths on the roads, and smoking.  Originally he opposed the use of nuclear energy but in 1977 he withdrew his objections because he realized that this was the only environmentally acceptable solution to utilize known technology for the production of power.

He believed that a good education gave people the ability to handle ideas and to sense which things are important.

He worked in the dawn of immunology and was the last of the great amateurs.  He wrote 31 books, all very lucid, and some of these were translated into Chinese and Russian.  He was interested in science, evolution, genetics, ageing and sociology.

After he retired he sometimes went bird watching at "Burnet Park" Glengarry West.  He died at Port Fairy at the home of his son, Ian.

Photo, right, Sir Macfarlane and Lady Burnet, daughter-in-law Gwen, Michael and Campbell.

Our President thanked Mr. Burke for this most informative and enjoyable talk and presented him with a memento.  He also presented one to our special guest, Mrs. Nancy Burnet - Sir Macfarlane Burnet was her brother-in-law.

A statue of Sir Macfarlane Burnet was erected in Franklin Street, Traralgon, on 3rd September 1999, to commemorate the centenary of his birth.   It looks towards Traralgon Creek where he wandered as a little boy, observing fish, birds, stones, and beetles.  He would not have known that he would become one of the great intellects of the Twentieth Century, or that he would save countless lives through his research.

(Photo, left, of statue, outside courthouse and post office in Franklin Street)