Commonwealth Serum Laboratories
CSL
1916 – 1961
Renamed Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Commission in 1961.
Commonwealth laboratories in Melbourne that produced vaccines, antitoxins, sera, antivenoms and other biological products for Australia, including insulin from 1923 and penicillin from 1944.
Names over time
- Commonwealth Serum Laboratories1916–1961
- Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Commission1961–1991
- CSL Limited1991–1994
How it came into existence
Founded in 1916 under the Commonwealth Quarantine Service of the Department of Trade and Customs, with William Penfold as first director, to secure supplies of vaccines and sera disrupted by the First World War; it took over smallpox vaccine production from the Commonwealth Vaccine Depot. It began production in 1918 in temporary premises in the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute building at the Melbourne Hospital and moved to purpose-built laboratories at Royal Park, Parkville, in 1919.
- Smallpox (calf lymph) vaccine production
Changes during its life
- 7 March 1921Transferred with the quarantine service from the Department of Trade and Customs to the new Department of Health.
How it ended
Reconstituted in 1961 as the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Commission, a statutory corporation under the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Act 1961.
- Vaccine, serum and biological product manufacture
- Blood plasma fractionation
Reconstituted as a statutory corporation
Main functions
- Manufacture of vaccines and antitoxins
- Production of sera and antivenoms
- Production of insulin and penicillin
- Fractionation of blood plasma
- Smallpox vaccine supply
Where it sits
Last in the portfolio of Department of Health.
Lineage
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Sources
Other sources
Some dates or links for this organisation are not fully confirmed. Corrections are welcome.