“A huge weight off my shoulders”: 81 years of AA in Australia, and the families changed along the way
Since the first Australian meeting in 1945, Alcoholics Anonymous has helped countless members find a different way to live, and the families who stood by them have been part of the story from the beginning
In March 1945, a small group of Australians held the first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous in this country. Eighty-one years later, some 2,000 AA meetings take place across Australia every week, and the fellowship’s reach extends far beyond those who attend them.
Alcoholism has never affected only the person drinking. Its effects ripple outward – into families, friendships, workplaces, and communities. AA has always understood this, and the evidence of it is visible in the lives of the families who have stood alongside its members across eight decades of Australian history.
The partners who came first
That pattern of family members playing a vital role in a loved one’s recovery is as old as AA in Australia itself. Letters from Dr Sylvester Minogue – a psychiatrist and Medical Superintendent at Rydalmere Hospital who was one of AA’s earliest and most influential supporters in this country – record that in the early days it was often the despairing partners of alcoholics who brought their loved ones to meetings, hoping against hope that something might change.
At a gathering in Sydney Town Hall in 1965 marking AA’s twentieth anniversary in Australia, one of the fellowship’s earliest members, Russ J, directly acknowledged their contribution. “None of us would be here if not for them,” he told the assembled group.
Eighty-one years on, that observation rings as true as ever.
“A huge weight off my shoulders”
May (not her real name), now 89, is a living example of that tradition. Her son, who has been sober for 36 years, credits her unwavering support, and her willingness at times to be tough as well as loving, with helping him find his way to AA. She first heard about the fellowship from other parents whose sons and daughters had found help there, and who recognised in her son’s drinking the same signs the others had once seen in their own children.
“When I first became aware of his drinking, I didn’t understand that he was in the grip of an illness, and that he needed help to recover,” she recalls.
The change, when it came, was profound. “Once he was going to meetings, it was a huge weight off my shoulders. I didn’t have to worry anymore. I got to see him become a husband and father, study, build a career and a home, and become a much-loved member of our family again, instead of a source of pain, fear and worry. I know that helping others is a big part of AA, and that he takes this seriously. I am proud of him.”
May has also noticed a broader shift in how Australians talk about alcoholism and recovery over the decades since AA arrived here. “When I first heard of AA, it seemed like something that was hidden and not spoken about much. Now it’s talked about more. It’s in movies and TV shows, and it’s just a normal part of life, out in the open. The people who go are just normal everyday people. I think that’s a good thing.”
A prediction that proved true
The scale of what has unfolded since that first meeting in 1945 could hardly have been imagined at the time. As far back as May 1941 – four years before AA arrived in Australia – the Medical Journal of Australia noted, in one of the first mentions of the new organisation in this country, that “every alcoholic who recovers most likely brings happiness, or at least lack of suffering, to a whole family.”
Eighty-one years of AA in Australia has shown just how true that observation was, and on a scale its author could never have foreseen.
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About Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in the United States in 1935 and held its first Australian meeting in Sydney in March 1945. It is a voluntary fellowship open to anyone with a desire to stop drinking. There are no fees or membership requirements, and AA is self-supporting through its own members’ contributions. Hundreds of meetings are held across Australia every week, and help is available at aa.org.au.
