tories. The latest hardware and software for analysing, synthesising, and managing speech data was discussed with vigour.

• In 1984, a determined effort was made to define a broad-based national focus that resulted in SST-86, our first multidisciplinary speech national conference in the now well-established SST series.
  

In my experience, the speech research community in Australia  moves forward in significant ways every few years. As I sense that a new wave of advance may be close by, it is perhaps interesting to see from whence we have come.

• Through most of the 1970s a few academics, drawn mostly from linguistics, phonetics, and computing, and fewer scientists working in the software industry on interactive techniques, maintained a loose linkage through an occasional newsletter.
  
• In 1978, an informal Australian Speech Research Association was formed. The number of people involved increased and the disciplines expanded to include some people in psychology and in clinical areas. At this stage the technological component of our concerns was largely the instrumentation available in research labora

"...I sense that a new wave of advance may be close by..."

• In 1988, ASSTA was formed with a membership crossing many disciplinary boundaries in speech science

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