The history of the role of CAEs in Australian accounting education is written against a backdrop of several decades of turmoil in higher education in Australia. Accounting struggled to be recognized as a genuine university discipline, labored under sustained student demand for places and endured minimal government funding. Yet CAEs developed into assemblies of professionals and educators who created vocational courses which catered for the needs of those whom universities had shunned: mature age and part time students. Their lasting legacy includes: strong professional links; a deeper appreciation of learning and teaching; connections with mature students; an emphasis on the scholarship of teaching; and a continuance of the discussion about accounting as an academic or vocational discipline.