Speech Pathology Australia

Speech Pathology Australia (SPA) is the national peak body for the speech pathology profession in Australia.

Established in 1949, SPA began as the Australian College of Speech Therapists, set up to regulate and maintain the qualifications and standards of the profession. The Australian Branch of the British Medical Association "granted the Australian College of Speech Therapists full professional recognition as the examining, qualifying and representative body for speech therapy within the Commonwealth".

The new organisation combined the Victorian Council of Speech Therapy, the Australian Association of Speech Therapists (New South Wales), the South Australian Council of Speech Science and Speech Therapy, and the Council for Speech Therapy (Western Australia), and granted members the right to practice in the United Kingdom.

In 1974-5, the organisation became the Australian Association of Speech & Hearing. The association no longer conducted examinations nor granted licentiates to graduates, a responsibility that was taken over by tertiary institutions.

In 1996 the organisation became the Speech Pathology Association of Australia Ltd and adopted the public name of Speech Pathology Australia.

Sydney-born Elinor Wray undertook speech therapy training at the Central School of Speech and Drama and St Thomas’s Hospital in London, as well as observing speech therapy practice at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and King’s College Hospital. She then spent three months observing at the London County Council Stammering Centres before returning to Sydney in 1929 to establish the first Australian speech therapy service.

Appointed in an honorary capacity at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children at Camperdown, Sydney (now located at Westmead) on the recommendation of surgeon (and later president of the hospital) Sir Robert Wade in 1931, Wray voluntarily conducted three clinics weekly for the next seven years, initially working with Sir Robert’s cleft palate patients. The resulting positive outcomes led to the creation of the first hospital speech therapy clinic and the speech pathology profession in Australia.

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