Blog 4: An Intriguing AA Mystery
THE HISTORY OF AA IN AUSTRALIA
By Andrew T.
Did AA get to Australia earlier than previously thought?
AA in Australia today offers face-to-face meetings in every city and many towns, as well as online meetings available worldwide 24 hours a day. There are phone lines, live chats, websites, offices, and a wealth of publications, recordings and literature. We've come a long way in 80 years.
I find it fascinating and moving that AA managed to grow from such tenuous beginnings: Bill W, in 1935 desperately trying to stay sober, on the pay phone at the Mayflower Hotel in Akron Ohio. Rex A, Ben B and the other early AA members in 1945 Sydney, meeting in Kings Cross cafés and small rooms, confused, doubtful, but clinging to a sliver of hope, relying on a couple of Big Books and correspondence between Dr. Minogue and Bobby B. in New York for explanations of the AA program. It could so easily have been snuffed out before it started. What is it about AA that can kindle a power that enables seemingly hopeless drunks to defy the odds?
It seems certain that an earlier attempt to start AA had occurred in Brisbane as early as 1941, but this promising initial spark of energy appears to have faltered, leaving little trace other than mentions in medical journals and other publications hinting at what might have been.
Image: Dr. Edward Holbrook Derrick.
On June 14, 1941, a letter from Dr. Edward Holbrook Derrick, then Director of the Queensland Department of Health Laboratory of Microbiology and Pathology, was published in the Medical Journal of Australia. Dr. Derrick's letter demonstrates his familiarity with Alcoholics Anonymous.
He writes, among other things:
...the method employed by this group in the cure of alcoholism has been fully set out in a book 'Alcoholics Anonymous' published by 'Works Publishing Company,' priced at $3.50.
Dr. Derrick then outlines the 12 steps in full and ends by saying:
…The nucleus of an 'Alcoholics Anonymous' group has been established in Brisbane…
On June 15, 1941, the Sunday Mail (Brisbane) reported on Dr. Derrick’s letter to the Medical Journal of Australia, reiterating the claim that an AA nucleus had been established in Brisbane, but without providing further details.
Remember, this is 1941 – four years before AA started in Sydney and before Dr. Minogue and Archie McKinnon each separately wrote to AA and received Big Books. Dr. Minogue wrote to the American Journal of Psychiatry in December 1942. His letter was forwarded to Alcoholics Anonymous in New York, and the General Secretary, Bobbie B responded to Dr. Minogue in February 1943, enclosing a Big Book. But was this the first Big Book to arrive in Australia? Was a bookshop in Brisbane already selling them?
In early 1943, a person named "Taylora" from Cecil Plains, Queensland, wrote to the publication "Smith’s Weekly" seeking help for their brother, who had been drinking since he was 18 and was now resorting to "metho." In response, another reader, W.S. Billington from Glen Niven Queensland wrote to "Smith’s," and his letter was published on February 13, 1943. He stated:
The only hope a man or woman has to secure a cure is the approach of a higher, spiritual power…
Image: Advert for Bakers Book Stores, Adelaide street, Brisbane.
Mr. Billington suggested that "Taylora" should get a copy of "Alcoholics Anonymous," which was originally priced at 20/-, (20 shillings or 1 pound around $96 today) but could now be secured for 14/- (14 shillings or about $67 today).
He noted that Barker’s in Adelaide Street, Brisbane, might still have a few copies left…
The events in Brisbane in the early 1940s suggest a flurry of interest in Alcoholics Anonymous that pre-dates the founding of AA in Sydney in 1945. It raises several intriguing questions:
Why was Dr. Derrick so interested in AA? Where did he get his information?
What did he mean when he wrote that a “nucleus of an Alcoholics Anonymous group had been established” in Brisbane?
Who was W.S. Billington and what was his interest or involvement with AA?
How did Big Books get to Barker’s Book Shop in Brisbane and who was purchasing them?
What became of that “nucleus of an AA group”?
