ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Howard Florey

Stephen Whiteside 27.10.2011

Here's a hero. Howard Florey.
Made enough to fill a lorry.
Talkin' bout that penicillin.
Earned himself, through work, top billin'.

Brilliant student. Good at tennis.
Targeted that dreaded menace,
Scourge of doctors - Streptococcus.
(Hey, we do our best. Don't knock us.)

Asked the Brits to pump it out.
All their plans went up the spout.
Turned to the United States.
Told them to put on their skates.

Gotta hand it to the Yanks.
Fact'ries built with solid planks.
Turned out bottles by the score.
Treated soldiers in the war.

Howard Florey. Here's a hero.
Started out from close to zero.
Gave that drug the highest possie.
Best of all...HE WAS AN AUSSIE!

I enjoyed your little verse Stephen. You touched on a very sore point there, aren't there several Australians who have come up with brilliant inventions or designs and have received no support in their own country, had to go elsewhere to get things produced ?

Yeah I got no help with my automatic fly desexer

Bob

Neville, I was surprised to read that Florey left Australia for England at the age of 23. At that stage of his life, it wouldn't have been for penicillin specifically, but just to enhance his career opportunities as a scientist. When it came to the question of the industrial production of penicillin later in his life, it was the Brits that let him down, not the Aussies - so he turned to America.

Very good Stephen I am enjoying these sorties into a part of your world - so many good things don't get the recognition they deserve. If it ain't glitzy it ain't glamorous, or so it sometimes seems.

Bob you are an idiot - but a nice one

No, I don't think anybody could accuse Howard Florey of being glitzy.

Stephen,

My sister (in 1945) was one of the first to have penicillin applied to an open wound. She had been suffering from a serious infection and they thought she would lose the arm. I don't know who the doctor, was only that it was in Brisbane. He obtained this 'New Miracle Drug' and saved the arm. This is as far as the family anecdote goes. So I guess we say Goodonya Mr Florey.

Amazing story, Zondrae.