Abstract
Australians are a reasonably creative culture, particularly when including our Indigenous Australians, but we aren't so good at building industries around our ideas. We have developed a range of technologies that have suited our particular needs or requirements and in several cases seen them adopted internationally. A notable example is the aircraft 'black box' flight recorder, invented in 1956 but largely ignored in Australia until the United Kingdom began production in the following few years. Today, every commercial aircraft must carry the devices and they have been critical to accident investigation and improved aviation safety for several decades. Unfortunately, the Australian development of Assistive Technology (AT) continues to suffer the same indifference from many professionals and funders today.