Corporate Communications

RCH Annual Meeting and Vernon Collins Oration

  • The RCH Annual Celebration and Staff Awards

    The first annual general meeting of The Royal Children's Hospital (formerly the Hospital for Sick Children) was held in 1870.

    From 1995 to 2000 RCH and The Royal Women's Hospital formed Women's & Children's Health and during that time the annual meeting became an event to celebrate staff achievements. 

    The RCH now holds The RCH Annual Celebration and Staff Awards, where staff awards and scholarships are presented and staff who have worked at the hospital for more than 25 years are congratulated and presented with a memento of service.

    Vernon Collins Oration

    Vernon Collins was the first Medical Director of the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne from 1949 to 1960. He later became the foundation professor of Child Health in the University of Melbourne.

    The first Vernon Collins Memorial Oration was given in 1981 under the auspices of the hospital's Board of Management and Medical Staff Association.  From 1998 to 2006 the Oration has been presented at the annual meeting of the Royal Children's Hospital.

    In 2006 the RCH Alumni proposed that the oration become a stand alone event once again and in 2007 the Oration returned to its original format under the auspices of The Royal Children's Hospital, the University of Melbourne, the RCH Medical Staff Association and the RCH Alumni.

    Vernon Collins Orators

    • Professor Sandra Eades, Associate Dean Indigenous Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics School of Global and Population Health, The University of Melbourne (2018)
      Responding to contemporary challenges in Indigenous child and adolescent health
    • Professor Shitij Kapur, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Services, The University of Melbourne (2017)
      Improving health in the era of biomedical revolutions
    • Professor Dinah Reddihough AO, Director of Child Development and Rehabilitation, The Royal Children’s Hospital (2016)
      Disability at the crossroads
    • Professor John Daley, Grattan Institute Chief Executive Officer (2015)
      The Politics of health
    • Dame Quentin Bryce, Former Governor General (2014)
      The best we have to give
    • Professor Frank Oberklaid, Director, Centre for Community Child Health, The Royal Children's Hospital and Professorial Fellow, Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne (2013)
      Child Health in the 21st Century: Challenges, opportunities, and a leadership role for the RCH
    • Professor James Angus AO, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne (2012)
      From hay, corn and horses to building a world class medical precinct
    • Professor Graeme Barnes, Senior Gastroenterologist, The Royal Children's Hospital and Professor, Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne (2011)
      RCH on the Move, Looking forward….looking back
    • Professor Peter Doherty, Laureate Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Melbourne (2010)
      Evidence-based reality and our children’s future
    • Professor Kerr Graham, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery (2009)
      As the twig is bent, the tree’s inclined
    • Professor Des Gorman, Head School of Medicine The University of Auckland (2008)
      The role of the doctor in the future
    • Professor Graeme Barnes, Gastroenterologist, The Royal Children's Hospital (2007)
      reseaRCH matters: "it's just a touch of gastro". Rotavirus revealed.
    • Pru Goward, Sex Discrimination Commissioner; Commissioner Responsible for Age Discrimination (2006)
      Finding time to care
    • Professor Lou Landau, The University of Western Australia (2005)
    • Professor Graeme Clark AC, Director, The Bionic Ear Institute (2004)
      The story of the bionic ear
    • Professor Henry Ekert, Oncologist RCH (2003)
      Past, present and future diseases of blood and in cancer (PDF 101KB)
    • Dr Don Edgar, academic & social commentator (2002)
      The secret garden; valuing children in our community (PDF 113KB)
    • Sir GustavNossal (2001)
      Australian biotechnology & global health challenges
    • Dr John McNamara, Paediatrician RCH (2000)
      Just a farmer's son
    • Dr Ian Hopkins (1999)
    • Professor Richard Larkins (1998)
    • Dr Norman Swann, Broadcaster (1997)
      Health care and the new millennium
    • Professor Peter Phelan, Stephenson Professor, University of Melbourne
      The future for paediatrics
    • The Hon Marie Tehan, Minister for Health
      The RCH & the government's role in children's health
    • Professer David Danks, Chair Murdoch Institute
      Healthy people, not custom made people: future use of genetic knowledge
    • Mr Brian Burdekin, Federal Commissioner for Human Rights
      The rights of the child
    • Professor Fiona Stanley
      Technology seduction, lost opportunities for children
    • Professor Arthur Clark
      Children's hospitals
    • Dr John Court
      What is the use of children
    • Emeritus Prof Geoffrey Blainey
      A glimpse of vanished children
    • Professor Roger Short
      Breastfeeding, birth spacing, infant health
    • Ms Joan Montgomery, Headmistress PLC
      Education: the greatest gift
    • Mr Peter Jones, surgeon RCH
      The coming of age of paediatrics in Victoria.
    • The Hon Mr Justice Asche
      The rights of the child