This article presents a transcript of the 21st Fritz Duras Memorial Lecture, presented at the 27th ACHPER International Conference on Tuesday April 19 2011, at Prince Alfred College, Adelaide, South Australia. In this lecture, the author focuses on Physical Education, rather than the broader field comprising all those areas that, at least in recent times, are located within the Learning Area of Health and Physical Education (HPE), although he hopes that what he says will be relevant to them as well. The author wants to make some observations about where Physical Education has come from, in order to propose some issues for consideration as the field considers where it is going in this new century. He argues that throughout its history, the subject of Physical Education has been on the margins of the official curriculum in Australia, in terms of time and status. This has continued with the current processes of designing and developing a National Curriculum. However, the fact that HPE has been marked down for development in Phase 3 opens up some rare opportunities for advancing the Learning Area. He suggests that there is an urgent need to fashion a strategy which is based on a strong and coherent rationale for PE, drawing on the latest research about the brain, ensuring that there is an integration of mind and body, and picking up on the contribution that PE can make to social as well as individual well being. Such a rationale should inform not only the Learning Area of HPE but also the opportunities presented by the General Capabilities to give physical activity a presence across the curriculum.