The first professors of accounting in Australia

A range of contributions in the accounting history literature deal with "the first". While such studies set out to identify key points in time in the development of accounting, they may also narrow perspectives on accounting's past. This study on the first professors of accounting in Australia seeks to clarify the historical record while, at the same time, pointing out the difficulties of the task. A call is also made to set such studies within the ambit of a theme identified by Carnegie and Napier (1996, 2000) as "comparative international accounting history".