A national twin research registry is established when the Victorian Twin Registry combines forces with a team of twin researchers from Canberra led by Dr Nick Martin. It is named the Australian NHMRC Twin Registry; based at the University of Melbourne with John Mathews as its Director, and funded by a grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council. Its first major initiative is a questionnaire posted to nearly 4000 twin pairs seeking demographic and health information. One of the first studies by Professor Grant Townsend looks at children’s teeth and facial development; another looks at high blood pressure or hypertension.

With the help of AMBA and several media appeals, member numbers grow to almost 16,000, making it the largest voluntary twin registry in the world. Areas of major study interest: use of alcohol and tobacco; anxiety and depression; cardiovascular risk factors; osteoporosis; gout; and allergic responses.

The registry marks 10 years of funding support by the NHMRC and this support continues today. Registry researchers meet His Holiness Pope John Paul II during a Papal Audience for the International Congress on Twin Studies in Rome.

A milestone reached with 80 registry-based studies instigated since 1981, and 130 publications in scientific journals. Major studies into melanoma, osteoporosis, heart disease, hyperactivity, premenstrual tension or PMS, children’s learning; eating and dieting; and motion sickness.

The NHMRC Twin Registry re-named as the Australian Twin Registry, and a new logo and inaugural website launched.

The ATR joins with AMBA to hold the first Twins Plus Picnic, the forerunner of the Australian Twins Plus Festival; held in the grounds of Government House, Melbourne

Launch of the Mothers and Twin Children study (MATCH) to collect vital data on the prenatal conditions of twin births, and the health of mothers during pregnancy.

The biggest ever Twins Plus Festival held in Melbourne with 3000 attendees.

The first of its kind held in Australia, the Healthier Kids: Insights from Twin Research conference brings twins and researchers together in Melbourne. The ATR named as an Australian Centre for Excellence in Twin Research, the country’s first such centre, with funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council. This marks over 35 years of continuous funding by the NHMRC and reflects the vital part played by twin research in national health goals.

Milestones reached: membership grows to 74,000 twins and 1320 triplets; 230 studies; 1134 publications. SBS-TV broadcasts a national two-part series on twin research viewed by half a million people each episode.