George Currie & John Graham 
The Origins of CSIRO [PDF ebook] 
Science and the Commonwealth Government 1901-1926

March 16th, 1966, marked the jubilee of Commonwealth sponsored scientific research in Australia. In 1916 the Commonwealth Government set up an Advisory Council of Science and Industry. This was the culmination of an interest in scientific research which went back to the very beginning of federation and had been expressed by active attempts to bring science to the aid of agriculture.This book is an account of the developments which led up to the formation of the Advisory Council by the Hughes Government in 1916. It carries the story on to 1926, when a later Prime Minister, Mr S. M. Bruce, introduced the Bill to found the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. In those days there were vivid contrasts in the views of scientists, politicians and men of affairs as to how science could most effectively influence the nation”s future.