Recently, a number of papers have addressed the international history of contact lens practice. In this paper, the unique features of early Australian contact lens practice are reviewed. The most important landmark was the introduction of ground glass haptic lenses to Australia during the 1920s. However, Australian ophthalmologists subsequently entered into an exclusive trade agreement with the manufacturers, Zeiss of Germany. Only when contact lens development entered the age of plastics, during the 1940s, were Australian optometrists able to readily prescribe contact lenses.
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