with the discovery and subsequent large-scale production of the wonder drug penicillin, a project for the production of penicillin in australia became a high priority defence need. captain bazeley was brought back from new guinea, where he was a captain in the 2/8th australian armoured regiment, to head the team given the task of producing penicillin. dr. bazeley visited the united states and returned to set up production at csl. in the face of great difficulties, given wartime conditions, his personal contribution to the success of the project cannot be underestimated. he was a driving force and spent long hours at the laboratories grappling with the problems of the new venture. by christmas of 1943, the first australian penicillin had arrived in new guinea to save countless lives. in the months to follow, enormous quantities of penicillin were produced in the primitive csl plant, and australia can boast of being the first country in the world to have had penicillin available for its civilian population, having met not only the needs of its own defence forces, but also those of the american allies in the southwest pacific.