The school subject general science struggled into existence in Australia, initially in Victoria, during the Second World War. Amid considerable controversy about the purpose and scope of science education, influential individuals were able to impose an expanded science education on a traditional field of study dominated by the academic disciplines of physics and chemistry. Through the writings of some of the key figures who influenced general science, particularly the textbook authors who supported the syllabus produced by the Melbourne University Schools Examination Board, this thesis traces the reaction to the subject in Victoria over 25 years from its introduction in 1943 through to 1970. The main focus of the thesis is on the attempts of reformers to redefine science education at the Australian Science Education Project (ASEP) Guidelines Conference, in 1970. The research is based on collected papers and discussions with some of the participants at the conference, but the analysis of the cyclic nature of the changes has been stimulated by Herbert Kliebard in his influential book 'The struggle for the American curriculum 1893 - 1958'. From this historical perspective, Kliebard asserts that in the struggle for control over the common school curriculum in the United States, certain persistent reform ideologies can be identified. Similarly, these were identifiable at the ASEP Guidelines Conference. Against the background of shifting interests in educational priorities, for example, from the exuberant confidence of the seventies to the nervous atmosphere of controlled accountability of the nineties, this study offers a sense of the ideological resources available to the Australian science educators and hence provides a window on Australian culture. It is also a study of why change does not occur, which in studies of school subjects may be as important as studies of what facilitate change.