Significant events

Inaugural meeting of the COSA Board (July)

COSA membership votes at the AGM to change the organisations governance structure and become a Company Limited by Guarantee

COSA receives funding from Cancer Australia to develop a consumer-training program to enhance consumer engagement in clinical cancer research

First COSA ACT & NSW Oncology Weekend (ACTNOW) clinical meeting

 

First COSA cancer care coordination conference

First COSA workshop on cancer in adolescents and young adults

COSA survey on the prevalence and predictors of burnout in the COSA oncology workforce

COSA report mapping rural and regional oncology services in Australia published

COSA and the Cancer Cooperative Trials Groups awarded an NHMRC Enabling Grant

COSA report on optimising cancer care in Australia published

First issue of the COSA newsletter, the Marryalyan

Cancer Forum first published by COSA and ACS

First COSA Annual General Meeting

The Division of Clinical Oncology becomes independent from the ACS and adopts the name Clinical Oncological Society of Australia (COSA)

ACS forms a Division of Clinical Oncology incorporating a Head and Neck Group and a Breast Group

Multidisciplinary cancer clinics established in Sydney and Melbourne

Establishment of the Australian Cancer Society (ACS), now Cancer Council Australia

 

COSA Presidents

2025
Professor Sabe Sabesan
2023-2024
A/Professor Dion Forstner
2021-2022
Professor Fran Boyle AM
2019-2020
Professor Nick Pavlakis
2017-2018
Professor Phyllis Butow AM
2015-2016
Professor Mei Krishnasamy
2013-2014
Professor Sandro Porceddu
2011-2012
Professor Bogda Koczwara AM
2009-2010
Professor Bruce Mann
2006-2008 
Professor David Goldstein
2006-2006
Professor David Currow
2004-2005
Professor Steve Ackland
2002-2003 
Dr Lizbeth Kenny AO
2000-2001
Professor John Zalcberg AO 
1998-1999
Professor Henry Ekert AM
1996-1997
Professor Robert Thomas OAM
1994-1995 
Professor Alan Coates AM
1992-1993 
Professor William McCarthy AM
1990-1991
Professor Richard Fox AM 
1988-1989
Professor John Levi (Deceased)
1985-1987
Dr Malcolm Coppleson (Deceased)
1983-1985
Professor Gordon Clunie (Deceased)
1981-1983
Professor Martin Tattersall AO (Deceased)
1979-1981
Dr Robert Melville (Deceased)
1976-1979
Professor Leicester Atkinson (Deceased)
1973-1976
Mr Brian Fleming AM (Deceased)

 

 

The COSA logo
and the legend of
the Marryalyan

The Marryalyan is the two-snake emblem of the Warramirri people who occupied a large group of islands in the Arafura Sea off the northern coast of Australia, now known as the Wessel Islands. Most Warramirri people now live on Elcho Island.

The Marryalyan was one of their major gods, possessed of infinite inventiveness. He lived under the sea and through the power of his breathing boiled up the vapour that makes the clouds, the weather and the storms. He invented living creatures, starting with minute particles in the sea, pinching them together to make different forms until he had filled the ocean. 

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Marryalyan Logo