History of Social Work - Australian History

Australian History

Social work as a profession in Australia developed later than in England or America, with the first professional social workers being hired in the 1920s. Social work training began in Australia in 1940 at the University of Sydney. The profession took direction from the established schools in England until the 1960s, when a more American model took hold. Most high level training and theory was imported from abroad until the 1980s. Some Australian social work writers such as Jim Ife has criticised the impact that this has had on Australians being able to develop culturally appropriate theories and practices. Since the 1990s, Australian social work has increasingly affiliated itself with Pacific Islander and New Zealand approaches.

Social Work has been a mostly public sector or not-for-profit sector profession in Australia, with private practice being rare. The profession has experienced changes in two different direction in the last 30 years. One is a pull towards a more managerial, professionalised model, and the other is to a more community based, deprofessionalised approach. Further to this has been the trend by large organisations to replace the "jack of all trades" social work approach with less highly trained, more technical positions. Since the 1990s, other reactions to managerial control of social work have followed theories of feminism, ecological sustainability and critical theories.