In the last fifty years, complementary and alternative medicine practices (CM) have become increasingly popular in Australia, as they have in the United Kingdom and the United States.  Formal recognition of these health disciplines varies from country to country.  Australia has been a pacemaker in state recognition of certain CM systems, granting degree status to such as chiropractic and osteopathy, and including them in health fund benefit schemes.

In this paper I shall look at one case study – the success of chiropractic in becoming part of the Victorian health industry between 1975 and 1978.  In this period chiropractors achieved state registration as licensed professionals and took the first steps towards establishing their place within Victorian universities.  These successes occurred just a few years after orthodox or evidence-based medicine appeared to have triumphed over all its rivals.

Studying how the debate progressed in Victoria forty years ago provides significant insights into an issue that will probably never be resolved – how to accommodate divergent, possibly contradictory, health practices within the one system.