Australian National Chapter

About the SMRT Australian National Chapter
(formerly part of the SMRT ANZ Chapter)

Australia is a vast continent with a sparse population and few MRI machines per capita, located mainly in the capital cities. Despite this, MRI radiographers in Australia have always been keen advocates of and participants in MRI education.

The first MRI users group in Victoria, Australia, was held in 1995, a 2 day event at a restaurant and winery, with an international speaker sponsored by one of the MRI vendors. Since then, 14 annual 2 day SMRT ANZ meetings have been held, rotating locations on the east coast of Australia and in Auckland, New Zealand. We have between 250-400 people at these meetings and they have been sponsored by the major MRI and contrast vendors in Australia, to enable us to engage high quality international and local speakers.

SMRT ANZ now has 9 divisions in the chapter. Each division has between 1-4 local meetings per year. We began meeting formally as a committee with the division representatives, president, secretary and treasurer in 2018 and are in the process of formulating a strategic plan for future educational opportunities such as virtual meetings. We also engaged a professional conference organiser in 2018, to enable us to concentrate on the educational content of the annual meeting and present other educational opportunities for members in future.

Many SMRT ANZ committee members have served on the SMRT policy board and as SMRT presidents and other positions over the years. We hope to grow and continue to educate our MRI colleagues near and far in the future.