From "CSIRO research for Australia" (1962) pdf page 56:
"When the Second World War broke out in 1939 Dr. F. P. Bowden, F.R.S., a noted Cambridge physical chemist, happened to be in Australia. At that time, Australia was in the process of establishing an aircraft industry. There was, however, nobody in the country familiar with the problems of manufacture of aircraft bearings and the Government of the day persuaded Dr. Bowden to stay in Australia to initiate studies in this field. Dr. Bowden was lent by his University to C.S.I.R., and soon established a small group which was called the Lubricants and Bearings Section, housed in the Department of Chemistry of the University of Melbourne.

Out of the group's war-time work emerged much of our present-day knowledge of the nature of friction. Special techniques for bearing manufacture were worked out, and bearings were actually produced at the University under the supervision of C.S.I. R. officers. The Section tackled several other important projects of practical importance to the war effort. One important achievement was the development of an electronic device for measuring the muzzle velocity of shells from big guns.

After the war, Dr. Bowden returned to England, and Dr. S. H. Bastow became Officer-in-Charge of the Section. The study of lubricants and bearings was extended to cover all aspects of the study of metal surfaces, and a new name, "Tribophysics", meaning "rubbing physics", was coined to describe the Section's work."