CPAS's Dr Laura Dawes has been appointed a Visiting Fellow at the State Library of NSW for 2026, for her project "Sunburnt Nation: Herbert Moran and the making of skin cancer as 'Australia's cancer'".

Skin cancer is often called 'Australia’s cancer' due to its high prevalence and intimate connection to national values, characteristics and behaviours. This connection has been recognised since the 19th century, but Herbert Moran went further than his colleagues in dermatology in communication skin cancer as a national public health crisis. He pushed the issue as a societal one, worthy of government response.

Laura's project will investigate Moran’s role in establishing skin cancer as Australia’s defining disease, its use in early 20th-century medical professionalization, and Moran’s advocacy for public health intervention. 

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Laura Dawes speaking during a seminar

"The Fellowship is a wonderful support for my research on the history of skin cancer in Australia, giving me access to Moran's personal papers kept at the library as well as help from the librarians and archivists. I'm particularly excited to be part of the library's community of other fellows using their superb collection and looking forward to collaborating with them throughout the year and spreading news of CPAS. "

The project will contribute to public and scholarly understanding of the early 20th century history of skin cancer in Australia and specifically its translation from private medical matter to national public health issue.

For more of Laura's writing around the history of sunscreen, see "How a 1928 invention is helping turn down the heat for Olympians" and "A short history of sunscreen, from basting like a chook to preventing skin cancer".