Alcoholics Anonymous The Australian Experience - Commemorative Edition from 1995

Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book

 The Australian Experience

Commemorative Edition from 1995 

This is an Alcoholics Anonymous big book that was printed in June 1995 in celebration of 50 years of Alcoholics Anonymous in Australia.

Here is some information about this book from an excerpt of the Preface:

“This special Australian commemorative edition of the Big Book is dedicated to the pioneer men and women who followed up on the initial enquiries made by Dr M. and Archie McKinnon to A.A. in America, and indeed to all the men and women who have walked through the doors of Alcoholics Anonymous in the last fifty years and who have played their part in keeping our Fellowship united and viable. Also to the devoted non-alcoholics who, through their love and friendship, helped to stabilize the Fellowship. We cannot forget our gratitude and sincere thanks to the early members in America, for without them we would not now be celebrating fifty years of Alcoholics Anonymous in Australia.

Australia was the first country outside of North America to accept Alcoholics Anonymous as a means of recovery from the disease of alcoholism. The first contact was made in 1942 by Dr Sylvester M., the medical superintendent of a psychiatric hospital at Rydalmere in Sydney. His interest was captured by an article in the American Journal of Psychiatry on the workings of A.A. in America. Dr M. wrote to the journal and his letter was forwarded to A.A. Headquarters in New York (now known as the General Service Office). Some months later, he received a letter, together with the first Big Book sent to Australia. The letter was from Margaret (Bobbie) B., the secretary of the Alcoholic Foundation in New York (which became the General Service Board of A.A. in 1954).

Archie McKinnon, a psychiatric nurse working at the Darlinghurst Reception House, who had been interested in trying to help the alcoholics in his care, had also made contact and received a letter and a Big Book from New York. However, it was 1945 before A.A. began functioning in Australia on a group basis.

The early members felt that the character of Australians was different and that what had worked for American alcoholics would not necessarily work for Australians. Dr M. was in agreement with this and said so in one of his letters. However, he either did not realize or want to admit that he was an alcoholic himself. He later revealed this in one of his letters to Bobbie B. He also apologized for his audacity and admitted the Aussie alkies were wrong.

The Traditions had not been written at that time, so there was a lot of confusion. A house was provided for "down and out" alcoholics at Loftus, an outer Sydney suburb, through the help of Father Tom D., who was known nationally for his charitable work. It was called Christmas House because it opened at that time of the year. Clothing, food, and even a ration of alcohol were handed out—to keep them off the cheap "plonk" and "metho"-and the place was used as a holiday house away from the city and away from the police and the Inebriate Act. There was no incentive to live according to the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous. There were lots of disturbances, so the police finally shut the place down.

The first member of Alcoholics Anonymous in Australia to remain sober for a considerable time was Rex A. There may have been other members who stopped drinking before him but most of these dropped out of sight and started drinking again. Some of the others who came along during the early days were Ben, Victor, Ron, Norman, Wally and Jack. They were followed not long after by Russ and his wife Dorothy. Fred and Eileen also were part of those early meetings. Clive and Lorna had what was virtually the first "Central Office" in their home for over a year. The wives mentioned here were non-alcoholics. Archie McKinnon and his wife Dulcie were also heavily involved in the A.A. meetings. In those days the non-alcoholics became the secretaries, treasurers, etc.

There was even a breakaway group of A.A. which was called "The Commonsense Group". This came about because one of the members had difficulty in accepting the spirituality of the program. He was able to persuade quite a few of the members to join him.

He deleted all reference to God and emasculated the Steps, but the group only lasted for a month. They all returned except this unfortunate man (who later died from an overdose of paraldehyde while trying to recover from a long bout of active alcoholism).

A.A. is a fellowship of men and women and the members realized this when our first woman joined the group in 1946. Betty was a pretty red-haired housewife who was no stranger to A.A. She had assisted Father Tom eighteen months earlier at Loftus. She attracted other women, and since then thousands have joined the Fellowship over the years.

Frank Sturge Harty was approached to spread the word about the Fellowship. He was a radio broadcaster whose program, "Let's Talk It Over", discussed problems sent in by listeners. Many of the problems involved alcoholism. He spoke regularly of Alcoholics Anonymous and the Twelve Steps and became a lifelong friend of the Fellowship.

The program of Alcoholic Anonymous is a spiritual one but this was not so apparent to the early members. Father Richard Murphy, a Jesuit priest, interpreted the Twelve Steps and together with "Sturge" was able to spread the message of Alcoholics Anonymous, assisted by Dr M.

Father Tom, Doctor M. and Archie McKinnon had diverse ideas on how Alcoholics Anonymous should be "run", but all of them helped to keep A.A. going in the early days, with the support of Father Richard Murphy. Dr Bill Spence was the first official nonalcoholic Trustee but, surely, McKinnon, Father Murphy and "Sturge" Harty were the early, unofficial non-alcoholic Trustees of A.A.

In the beginning, it was difficult to progress because of the shortage of books. Archie and Rex got together a pamphlet called "The Basic Principles of A.A.". It contained an article on alcoholism by Dr M. and Rex wrote his own story. It also included articles by Dr Foster Kennedy, Dr Kirby Collier and Dr Harry Tiebout. These men were very well known in America and well respected for their ideas on medicine and psychiatry. It was a very instructive little booklet, which turned out to be most valuable.

Alcoholics Anonymous has continued to grow and today we have about two thousand groups nationwide.

We have delegates and a National Conference as well as our General Service Board and General Service Office and we are represented at the World Service Meeting.

We also have 18 Central Service Offices around the country, which co-operate with the General Service structure. They work together as "partners in ser-vice", to carry the message to still suffering alcoholics.

From the early days, literature has been published in Australia. A.A. Publishing was established in 1967 and since 1986 the Big Book has been printed in Australia. Most of the books, booklets and pamphlets are now printed locally.

To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Alcoholics Anonymous in Australia, we print this special edition containing forty personal stories by women and men in the Australian Fellowship of A.A.

The basic text (the first 164 pages) remains intact, but—with the exception of "Dr Bob's Nightmare" which has been retained-the Australian segment of stories replaces the personal stories in the standard (Third) edition.

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This book is in brand new conditions as it appears to have never been read, no wear and no writing or markings inside the book.

Please view all of the photos for the conditions.