The publication of the Curriculum Development Centres discussion paper core curriculum for Australian schools in June 1980 stimulated discussion of the concept of core curriculum in Australia. The driving force came from the foundation director of the CDC, Malcolm Skilbeck. This study discusses the themes and directions to which Skilbeck was committed through a study of his work prior to his return to Australia in 1975 and his subsequent writings. The study considers Skilbeck's work against general thinking on educational matters in Australia and overseas. The study looks at Skilbeck's approach to cultural mapping and school based curriculum development as the two fundamental planks of his approach to the development and implementation of a core curriculum for Australian schools. The study concludes that the CDC discussion paper was a valuable stimulus to discussion of curricular foundations at the time it was released but represented a point of view that was not fully understood or appreciated at the time. It laid the foundation for the renaissance of the general concept as democratic curriculum in 1984 and provides important indications of the potential for the development of the Participation and Equity Program.