Osteopathy in Australasia: From marginality to a fully professionalised system of health care

Osteopathy emerged in the late nineteenth century as a manual medical system in response to what its founder Andrew Taylor Still, a disenchanted regular physician, viewed as the shortcomings of regular medicine. In the early twentieth century osteopathy diffused to various other countries, particularly Anglophone ones, namely Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. This essay focuses upon the development of osteopathy in the latter two countries where its respective histories have been interwoven with chiropractic in complex ways. In part due to its smaller size, osteopathy in both Australia and New Zealand achieved statutory registration somewhat later than chiropractic. The political economy of national health care systems plays an important role in shaping the nature of osteopathy within its various national settings.