Phil Carswell

Phil Carswell trained as a science teacher at the State College of Victoria, Rusden 1972-1976 and was a member of the National Executive of the Australian Union of Students. He taught at Victorian technical schools from 1976 to 1982 and was also a member of the State Executive of the Victorian Technical Teachers' Union and their editor from 1983 to 1984. He was a founding member and inaugural President of the Victorian AIDS Council, formed in 1983. In 1984 he was appointed by the Health Commission of Victoria as a liaison officer between the Commission and the gay community on AIDS-related issues and participated in the organisation of the 1st National AIDS Conference held in Melbourne in November 1985. He visited the United States of America and Europe in 1986 and produced a report on AIDS education resources and collected an extensive range of materials. He represented the Victorian AIDS Council on the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations Council and was appointed as a gay community representative to the National Advisory Council on AIDS (and its successor, the Australian National Council on AIDS). He was an inaugural trustee of the AIDS Trust of Australia in 1987 and convenor of the project to create the AIDS Memorial Quilt in Victoria. In 1993 he left the Victorian Department of Health and Community Services where he headed the AIDS/STD Unit, to take up the position as Manager, HIV/AIDS and Sexual Health Section in the Queensland Department of Health in Brisbane.