Best wishes Jan Fawke, from your colleagues

Janus (Jan) James Fawke D.C. is battling cancer. All colleagues wish him well in this battle. For those who are too young to know of Jan Fawke’s personal contribution to the chiropractic profession I hope the following words assist.

It is hard to imagine anyone in the history of the chiropractic profession in Australia who contributed more of their personal life to the advancement of the profession.

Jan was an early 1960’s stand-out graduate of the Chiropractic & Osteopathic College of Australasia headed at the time by F.G. Roberts. His enthusiasm and intelligence led to his rapid rise in the College administration. In short time he had been appointed Principal of the College. With the support of many around him he took control of the College making a number of sweeping curricula changes, modeling the College on an amalgam of the Palmer and Western States courses in the USA. This was all done on a shoe-string budget mainly from student fees and large contributions of time and money from the alma mater who constituted the United Chiropractors Association of Australia (UCA). Jan had a way of recruiting this sort of commitment.

One of his many early decisions was to drop the word “Osteopathy” from the College name. He believed the main focus of the College should be chiropractic. Interestingly, he still firmly believed in Osteopathy and wisely kept many osteopathic techniques part of the course even to the end. By the early 1970’s he had phased out the part-time course and insisted on a 4-year full time programme.

In my view, some of Jan’s finest hours were his fight for Registration, his fight for College advancement and recognition and his fight for amalgamation of the profession.

He was instrumental in achieving all three goals. With respect to Registration, Jan was a good friend of the Hon. Brian Dixon MLA, later to become a Health Minister. Jan’s meetings with “Dicko” and other politicians helped cement the Registration cause and more importantly for Jan, Registration for the College graduates. He went on to become one of first two chiropractors appointed to the Victorian Registration Board.

Jan’s fight for College advancement led him inextricably to the conclusion that the College should be placed into a tertiary institution. He led discussions initially with Technisearch, the commercial arm of RMIT, and negotiated lecturers, time and space at RMIT. He also moved the College from East Malvern to a new location in Swanston St. in the heart of Melbourne. He attempted to have the College fully absorbed into RMIT in downtown Melbourne. Competing Departments within RMIT laid claim to space and money and scuttled the idea.

Undaunted, Jan using all of his political cunning spoke with the powerbrokers at the Lincoln Institute of Health Sciences, where physiotherapists trained. They were most interested in the course, as physiotherapists were just becoming interested in manipulative therapy. Jan set out a plan and a minimum log of claims for the idea of a chiropractic school at Lincoln. As negotiations were nearing a climax, Jan “leaked” the Lincoln talks purposely and this brought the Australian Chiropractors Association (Victoria Branch) to the negotiating table.

Within a short time, the College had transferred its students and some staff and equipment to the new Preston Institute course sponsored by the ACA. Unification of the ACA and UCA in Victoria had occurred and served as a model for the rest of the country. This outcome was Jan’s preferred option.

After this time he took a long earned rest and retired back into private practice.

The chiropractic profession owes a great debt to Janus James Fawke, I know I do. Many of us would not be practicing today if was not for his personal efforts. Stick with it Jan, we are thinking of you.

Bruce Walker