The continent of Australia is surrounded by water and most of its 13 million inhabitants live within a few miles of it; nevertheless. it is not a big shipbuilding nation (Table 1). There are five major Australian shipyards building merchant vessels: two each in the states of Queensland and South Australia and one in New South Wales. There are also three naval dockyards. two in New South Wales and one in Victoria. In New South Wales the facilities for building, fitting. and repairing ships include four graving docks. three of which are in Sydney. There is also a large floating dock attached to the State Government Dockyard at Newcastle. In addition. in every state, there are numerous yards building small steel, wooden. aluminum, and fiber glass working and pleasure craft. Orders held by the Australian Shipbuilding Board. as at December 31. 1970, were valued at 139 million dollars and numbered 24 vessels; these included a bulk carrier of 78,000 tons and two tankers of 62.000 tons dead weight. Since the Board was established in 1941 as a wartime measure, it has arranged for the construction of 214 vessels. including specialized vessels. such as oil drilling rigs and floating cranes, valued at approximately 581 million dollars (3). As with any type of construction industry. from time to time occupational health problems arise; in the main, these manifest themselves either as acute pathology or as industrial disputes. Sometimes the latter result from communication failures. toxicological misconceptions, because of unsatisfactory employeremployee relationships. or because of the lack of job satisfaction. Finnish investigators (4) have enquired into matters such as the type of work carried out by, and the workload of. shipyard welders and their morale. I believe that industrial medical officers, whether employed by government or by private industry, have a role to play in bringing about conditions which improve morale and which may consequently prevent labor problems arising from “a sense of unworthiness, from a lack of purpose or challenge or from insufficient opportunity to show initiative”; such matters are now assuming major importance in America and in some European countries (5). The Division of Occupational Health and Pollution Control of the Health Commission of New South Wales is a state organization and employs about 120 persons. The Division has five professional branches; its Industrial Hygiene and Medical Branches annually visit about 2,700 factories and other work places (6). Most of their investigations are carried out either at the request of management, unions, in-plant medical or safety personnel. or at the request of the State Department of