ABSTRACT
100 years have elapsed since the formation of the first professional accounting body in Australia.
Although individual histories of the major accounting bodies have — been written (and some of the antecedent bodies), there has not been any overall survey made of the history of accounting bodies in Australia.
This paper identifies a number of the reasons why so many accounting bodies have been formed in Australia. Secondly, it traces the formations and rationalisations that have occurred over the past 100 years. Finally, it describes the possible consequences of integrating the Australian Society of Accountants and the Institute of Chartered Accountants and suggests an alternative to integration to avoid these consequences. The expectations held in the early years that rationalisation would be a natural process have not been fulfilled.
