practise as a gp has low or no standing and status. comments heard by many gps including; 'you are just a gp' or 'what do you intend on specialising in?’ reflect something of the community understanding of the general practitioner. this is not without precedent. the history of the general practitioner shows that gps in early australia through to gps in mid and late 20th century, 'defaulted' into general practice having disliked surgical or physician training or having failed exit exams too often. also, while australian general practitioners were part of the creation of the royal college of general practitioners and instrumental in highlighting the need for professional and practice standards, australia was one of the last developed countries to recognise general practice as a specialty. it was 1978 before the national specialist qualification advisory committee (the predecessor to the australian medical council) recognised general practice as a specialty. in contrast, the united kingdom had a powerful case for recognition by the late 1960s, and the united states recognised general practice in 1969. strengthening general practice the standing of general practice within academic faculties of universities and professionally has undergone a marked increase in recent decades. the racgp has been a key driver of this shift. the development and consolidation of training programs, standards for training, standards for practice, curriculum of general practice and various evidence based guidelines and publications have occurred internally within the racgp. academic general practice demonstrating again the slow shift towards recognition, australia was late in accepting that general practice should be taught or regarded as a discipline in its own right. the whitlam government's karmel committee into 'expansion of medical education in australia' compromised with departments of 'community medicine' – a confusing anachronism that persisted for many years in australia's tertiary institutions. the racgp sought strongly but unsuccessfully that this committee accept general practice into the universities. today, general practice is listed or has been added alongside community medicine, highlighting the shift since the early 1970s (e.g. department of general practice and community medicine monash university) nine foundation professors of 'community practice' were appointed between 1974 and 1976. again, australia lagged behind the us and the uk who appointed their first professors and chairs of general practice and family medicine in 1967 and 1963 respectively. the foundation professors were: charles bridges webb md fracgp, sydney university. professor of community medicine max kamien md fracp, mrcp, fracgp, dpm, dch university of western australia, professor of general practice professor neil edwin carson fracgp fracp professor of community medicine monash university jean norella lickliss md mracp, frcp bmedsc dtm&h professor of community medicine university of tasmania timothy george murrell md fracgp dtm&h clj professor of community medicine anthony james radford frcp mrcp fracp mfcm sm dtm&h professor of primary health care flinders university james geoffrey ryan bsc fracgp professor of community practice university of queensland ian william webster md fracp professor of community medicine university of new south wales ross wharton webster fracgp mracp professor of community health university of melbourne notably, many did not hold general practice qualifications either from australia or international. arms coat of arms of royal australian college of general practitioners notesthe arms of the royal australian college of general practitioners consist of: creston a wreath azure and gules a golden wattle tree flowered and leaved proper. helmmantled azure and gules, doubled argent. escutcheonargent on a cross gules a forked staff entwined with a serpent or between four mullets of six points gold. supporterson the dexter side a kangaroo proper and on the sinister side a unicorn argent armed unguled crined and tufted or. mottocum scientia caritas (with skill, tender loving care)