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Organ donation in Australia

Open-knowledge reference entry

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ23073778 ↗
Source-derived summary

Organ donation is when a person gives their organs after they die to someone in need of new organs. Transplantation is the process of transplanting the organs donated into another person. This process extends the life expectancy of a person suffering from organ failure. The number of patients requiring organ transplants outweighs the number of donor organs available.

History of organ transplantation

Australia's first organ transplants were corneal transplants in the early 1940s. Following in chronological order are monumental first in Australia's organ transplantation history.

Early 1940s Australia began corneal transplants in Sydney and Melbourne

1965 Australia's first successful (living) kidney transplant

1984 Australia's first successful heart transplant

1985 Australia's first successful liver transplant

1985 Australia's first successful kidney transplant from a deceased donor

1986 The Brisbane Technique for splitting livers to benefit three recipients initiated

1986 Australia's first successful heart/lung transplant

1987 Australia's first successful kidney/pancreas transplant

1987 First segmental liver transplant (for children) (Australia)

1989 First successful living liver transplant (Australia)

1990 Australia's first successful single lung transplant

2002 First single segment liver transplant on a baby (24 days old) (Australia)

2003 Australia's first triple transplant (heart, lung, liver)

2006 World's first kidney/liver/pancreas transplant (Australia)

2012 Australia's first pediatric intestinal transplant (liver), (small bowel), (duodenum), (pancreas)

The following table (Table 1.1) shows the global transplantation milestones in chronological order.

Table 1.1. Global transplant milestones

Table 1.1 Source: Australian Government Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority. http://www.donatelife.gov.au

Donor types

There are two types of donors; living donors and deceased donors.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Organ donation in Australia” as open-knowledge reference entry. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Organ, donation and Australia.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1965, 1984, 1985, 1986—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Organ, donation and Australia providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Organ donation in Australia”, the useful work is to connect “open-knowledge reference entry” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q23073778. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1965, 1984, 1985 and 1986.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Organ donation in Australia”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Organ donation in Australia primary sources, Organ donation in Australia archive and Organ research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Organ donation in Australia”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Organ donation in Australia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.