Development of Fertility Treatments and the Medicalisation of Infertility in Mid-Twentieth Century Australia Tomoko FUJITA Controlling fertility with reproductive techniques and treatments has become a significant aspect of not only individual family life but also state policy. In particular, rapid development of and widespread access to assisted reproductive technology (ART) in the past several decades have led to public discussion on issues relating to access and regulation. In 1984, the State of Victoria became the first jurisdiction in the world to enact legislation to regulate ART research and practice. Parallel to the political discourse, a body of historical research on the Australian family has developed since the 1970s, illustrating the process of family modernisation and diversification. While covering developments in methods for preventing reproduction, they have overlooked the advances in infertility treatments which eventually led to the recent ART developments. Considering that these technologies of conception are logically connected to the older technologies of contraception and abortion, and that vast numbers of babies have been born through these technologies of conception, historical research on the Australian family needs to be reconsidered from the perspective of "making children." This study scrutinises the initial stages of clinical fertility treatment and their effects on family in mid-20th century Australia, focusing particularly on the establishment of sterility clinics at public hospitals in the 1930s-1940s which were greeted by lines of women seeking treatment as well as related political debates. The examination of the state and professional interventions in managing fertility reveals that the establishment of special clinics and the medicalisation of infertility as part of the treatment of childless couples' difficulties in having children led to the reconstruction of gender roles and family norms along with the reduction of women's bodies into social resources.