Brief History

The seeds for a national twin registry were sown at a meeting held in Miami, Florida, in 1973, attended by Richard Lovell of The University of Melbourne and Michael Hobbs of The University of Western Australia.

The meeting was arranged by the Council for Tobacco Research in the USA, possibly inspired by an earlier Swedish report of no difference in the mortality of monozygous twins discordant for smoking. The Australian representatives returned convinced that, notwithstanding “deep reservations about the leading role apparently being played by a tobacco-related research organization”, establishment of an Australian twin registry as a research tool for medical science in general had a number of potential benefits.

A letter seeking enthusiasts was published in the Medical Journal of Australia in 1974, but drew no response. Nevertheless, in time several twin registries were established around the country. R. J. Walsh established a small Sydney-based registry at the University of New South Wales in the mid-1970s. The Victorian Twin Registry commenced in 1977 through a grant from The Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria to John Mathews at The University of Melbourne. In the course of his PhD in Birmingham, Nick Martin performed the first power calculations of the numbers of twins required to obtain meaningful answers to questions about the relative importance of nature and nurture. His calculations suggested that prior studies had been too small and that thousands of pairs were required.

Martin returned to Australia in 1978 determined to establish a large registry and with John Gibson initiated an Australian Twin Registry at the Australian National University. In 1981, through a five year grant of $25,000 per year from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the then ATR and VTR combined forces to establish the “Australian NHMRC Twin Registry” as a national resource for biomedical research.

The first major initiative was the development and mailing by of the “Canberra Questionnaire” to the more than 4000 adult pairs then on the Registry. The questions addressed demographic and general health matters. The responses received have since formed the basis of a large number of Registry-based projects. In particular, the survey has served as the springboard for the extensive twin research activities led by Nick Martin at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR).

The ATR was reviewed by the NHMRC in 1983, leading to the establishment of a Scientific Advisory Committee chaired by Warren Ewens of Monash University, with John Mathews as Director. Christine Clifford succeeded Dr Mathews in 1985 and served until 1990, when the current Director was appointed and Graeme Griffin became the Chair. On Griffin’s retirement at the beginning of 2001, Geoff Tregear was appointed Chair. During this period the ATR was reviewed regularly by NHMRC and awarded successive 5-year awards, the latest for 1998–2002 at an average of $120,000 per year.

Over the two decades of its operations, the ATR’s objectives, policies, and procedures have undergone a maturation process, and continue to be refined in line with developments in research methodologies. As an openly shared resource for twin researchers, the ATR has been able to play a role in fostering the development of synergistic research programs and has become a model for integrating public health and biomedical research.

Funding continues to be a predominant issue for the Registry, however, in July 2004 the NHMRC Research Committee allocated a 5 year Enabling Grants to the ATR which guarantees funding until June 2009.