The development of ‘Australian criminology’has been the subject of some comment in the last decade, in common with a recent interest internationally in the formation of the discipline. An influential account by Carson and O'Malley (1989) placed much emphasis on the erosion of criminology's critical potential by a mix of political, intellectual and professional currents in post-war Australia. On the basis of a review of evidence in the papers of Sir John Barry, it is argued here that the establishment of Australia's first academic criminology department, at the University of Melbourne, was characterised by a greater openness to critical and inter-disciplinary inquiry than might be expected. This study suggests the need for a more detailed scrutiny of the formation of the discipline in Australia and elsewhere.