The system led to the formation of the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) in February 1947, a non-government, not-for-profit association, which is the largest and oldest such organisation in the world.

Test reliability is largely invisible to the public at large but is absolutely fundamental to almost every aspect of domestic life, ranging from the impacts on pathology services, transport and defence systems, environmental monitoring and protection, issues of public health and safety, occupational health, forensic services, construction and general commerce in industry agriculture and resources.

But there is also a global dimension to confidence in testing and measurement, given the fact that so many goods and services are traded with test data accompanying the goods across national borders. The need for international acceptance of test data has spurred the need for mechanisms to enhance the confidence in such data.

National laboratory accreditation bodies, many of which have been directly modelled on Australia’s initiatives, have moved to fill this need for international confidence through the establishment of the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), which itself celebrates its 30th birthday this year.

In Australia’s case, the need for confidence in testing originated from Australia’s isolation during the Second World War. At the time, Australia had an urgent need to harness the best available testing and measurement services to ensure the munitions it manufactured were of the standard demanded by ‘modern’ warfare.

Out of this wartime necessity the Approved Wartime Test House Scheme was borne, which laid the foundations for accepting testing conducted in non-government laboratories based on a demonstration of their testing competence.

The success of this scheme led to a conference in late 1945 on the coordination of testing services. The conference, attended by State and Federal government representatives, led to the formation of the National Association of Testing Authorities a little more than a year later, in February 1947. The new association was charged with providing a national testing service to Australia which would span across all technical, industrial and geographical areas of the country.

The notion of ensuring testing standards were themselves tested was a novel one and led to NATA’s beginning.

While NATA’s early focus was on industrial support, its accreditation now covers the full gamut of testing and measurement needs in Australia. This ranges from tests on construction integrity of off-shore platforms through to verification of software for security systems.

Growing areas of ‘social testing’ includes the need for NATA accreditation of pathology laboratories to secure Medicare benefits for tested patients. It also covers laboratories involved in forensic services, where again NATA was the international pioneer in developing accreditation criteria for crime scene examination. Most recently NATA has added accreditation for research and development bodies to its range of activities.

“NATA is evolving all the time. It’s an organisation which increasingly finds itself working in spheres it would never have dreamed of when it was first established,” said NATA Chief Executive Officer Tony Russell. “In forensic science services for instance, NATA is becoming increasingly involved in sciences that have a direct social impact.”

NATA is an organisation that has continued to grow and is still the largest national laboratory accreditation body internationally, employing 160 people and relying on the voluntary services of almost 3,000 of Australia’s expert scientists, engineers and technologists to evaluate the competence of accredited facilities.

NATA’s national roles and its relationship with the Australian Government formed part of a Productivity Commission research study in 2006, resulting in a recommendation that the Government continue to formally recognise NATA’s national and international functions and to fund agreed national interest activities performed by NATA. Since its establishment, NATA has been transformed from an organisation established and fully funded by Government to an organisation whose operations are now almost entirely funded by the direct users of its services.

“We believe Australia has benefited greatly from the added confidence which NATA’s accreditation activities have provided over the past 60 years. But we recognise that a pioneer can only remain of value if its focus is on the future, not the past,” Mr Russell said.

The notion of ensuring testing standards were themselves tested was a novel one and led to NATA’s beginning.