 In 1945 Broom, who was working at the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria at the time, gave a public lecture at the University of the Witwatersrand.During his lecture, Broom informed all in attendance of the plight of South African fossils.Thousands of fossils were being lost every yer in South Africa because there were no museums or places of research adequately equipped to store, categorize, and protect fossils that were recovered from the field.