After completing a Bachelor of Science at the University of London, Eric Cunningham Dax decided to take up medical studies at St Mary's Hospital Medical School. Upon graduating he worked as a resident in several hospitals and in 1939 joined Netherne Hospital. By the time he was appointed Superintendent in 1941 Dax had realised how antiquated and flawed psychiatric treatment was. He endeavoured to rectify this and by introducing new techniques such as art therapy, 'physical' treatments and community based treatments turned the Netherne Hospital in to one of Britain's best mental hospitals.

Upon arriving in Victoria Dax was shocked and appalled at the treatment of the mentally ill and at the state of the mental hospitals. He was especially concerned about the infamous Kew Hospital where patients were exposed to open drains and primitive lavatories. His first statement to the Victorian press was the need to "foster a new attitude to mental illness" and that "the prejudice against mental patients" needed to be broken down.

Eric Dax set about doing this by introducing community-based psychiatric care rather than asylum-based care, improved treatment regimes, rehabilitation projects, an increase in the number of psychiatric superintendents in Victoria's hospitals from nine (1951) to seventeen (1960), and improved local training for both psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses. One of Dax's greatest legacies was his art therapy programs. The Cunningham Dax Collection is a tribute to this work.