Great science, uncomfortable history: Sir Gustav Nossal and the long tail of eugenics

The views on eugenics of Sir Gustav Nossal, who was the director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for 30 years, have come under scrutiny in a new book called Dhoombak Goobgoowana: A History of Indigenous Australia and the University of Melbourne. Photograph: Impressions/Getty Images

A new book about the historic influence of eugenics at the University of Melbourne has shed fresh light on the career of one of Australia’s most decorated scientists, Sir Gustav Nossal.

Ross Jones, who co-edited Dhoombak Goobgoowana: A History of Indigenous Australia and the University of Melbourne, writes in the book that the membership of the Eugenics Society of Victoria, which had deep ties to the university, read like a “who’s who of the academic, judicial, scientific and educational elite of Melbourne”.