Reviewed by Hekinus Manao Cleveland State University
Australian accountancy has been a special interest of accounting scholars, not only because of its lively academic influence upon the development of accounting thought, but also for its recognizable differences compared to that of the USA and the UK. Accounting in Australia — Historical Essays is a collection of 27 prominent essays and other related works in Australian accounting history, aimed to provide “an opportunity to examine how accounting techniques, institutions, and concepts have been imported and adapted to an environment similar to, but not exactly the same as, that of the exporters.”
Several characteristics of accounting development in Australia can be observed in the series of readings. The early growth of the profession was fragmented by state. Australian accountancy was influenced by British accountancy until 1970 and by American since then. Except in Victoria, it was unregulated until the early part of this century. It has also been characterized by some innovative attempts to improve accounting reporting. Therefore, Australian accountancy has been a world leader in accounting theory contributions, particularly since the 1960s as some notable publications, including those of Chambers, achieved international reputation.
These twentyseven selections were organized under seven sections. Four articles were included in the first section to provide a historical inquiry into the early accounting records in Australia. During the first forty years of European settlement in this continent, there was no legal currency; therefore, barter transactions were dominant. In the barter economy, accountancy took a role to make such transactions easier by “using money as a unit of account even if money is not available as a means of payment” [p. 46]. Even so, Goldberg’s survey, published in 1953, found no instance among the accounting records of this period of a set of doubleentry records.
Six articles were included under the section heading “Corporate Financial Reporting”. The first selection [Gibson, 1979] views the development of corporate accountancy in Australia as having passed through four phases, namely the introduction of minimum standards of disclosure, the extension of statutory requirements (e.g. income statements and consolidated reports), the phase of details of disclosure improvement, and the challenging problem of accounting measurement. The “Land Boom Case” of the 1880s played an important role in the regulation of company financial reporting in Victoria. Meanwhile, the disclosure requirements for banks and mining companies had the major influence in New South Wales where corporate disclosure was substantially unregulated [Morris, 1984]. Tracing back the historical phenomena of the evolution of financial reporting in these two important Australian states, Whittered [1986] comes to the conclusion that the introduction of consolidated reporting was “a natural response to an increasingly innovative market” [p. 137]. Other than those, the renowned Zeff’s “Forging Accounting Principles in Australia” [1973] regarding the development of accounting principles in this country until the early of the seventies, is, of course, another important part in this section.
Another major section, “Professional Accountancy”, provides a historical explanation of Australian professional accountancy. The first two articles by Macdonald [1936], “Historical Survey 18861930,” and Steele [1950], “An Accountant Takes Stock of the Past and Glances into the Future,” respectively, serve to supply a historical description of the two surviving professional organizations in Australia: the Australian Society of Accountants (ASA) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA). Before the movement toward the integration of both the professional organizations and practicing firms, the rise and fall of many professional organizations was a unique phenomenon. The list of thirtyfive different accounting organizations in the appendix of Gaven’s article, which is not claimed to be complete, illustrates this rise and fall.
Only two articles are found in the section “Audit”. The first selection, digressing from the mainstream of the contents of this book, regards the origin of the audit in the public sector. However, the worth of this section emanates from the second essay [Gibson and Arnold, 1981] which explains how the contributions of one man, F. E. Trigg, have largely marked the ideas of auditing standards development in Australia. Unfortunately, Trigg’s paper, titled “Contemporary Audit Practice”, was not presented in this book.
Another important section consisting of five articles provides a historical representation on the Australian accounting literature. This section includes the essay regarding the popular theory, CoCoA (Continuously Contemporary Accounting), proposed by chambers since the 1960s.
Next is a section of biographies and bibliographies. This last section includes two biographies of Chambers and Fitzgerald. The latter is a former Chairman of The Commonwealth Grants Commission who inspired various improvements in the public accounts.
In the introduction of Accounting in Australia, the editor explains that the seven headings in this book are “to some extent arbitrary.” It is difficult, however, to speculate as to the reasons why the editor classified the two short articles regarding the common use of the same financial year in Australia, i.e. June 30, as a separate section following the first. This section contributes no important information about the main purpose of this book, and it seems out of context. In fact, the role and development of accounting education in Australia, although more important, is, unfortunately, not covered by this book.
This book should have included a rough map of Australia to help readers in identifying the different regions and historical locations. It’s a deficiency, too, to have the first part of this book (cover pages, content pages, and the introduction) without page numbers (i.e. Roman numerals). The source publication of the second essay in “Accounting Literature” section as mentioned in the list of contents is different from the actual source. Also, some mistypings and needed punctuation in the introduction were just ignored.
Apart from the deficiencies identified above, this book is still able to act as an important vehicle to better knowledge about accountancy in Australia.
