Since major opportunities for the prevention and early detection of cancer rely on changing the behaviour of individuals, public education is a major focus of many cancer control organizations. Some public education messages in Australia have been constant for over a decade. Despite this, many people still do not follow recommendations for cancer prevention and early detection. Little information is available on the extent to which the community has assimilated the educational messages produced by cancer education agencies. A randomly selected community sample (n=76) were surveyed regarding their knowledge of five common cancers; lung bowel, melanoma, breast and cervical Areas of knowledge commonly included in educational material were considereth the lifetime risk of developing each cancer, five year survival, preventable risk factors and the methods for early detection of each cancer. Results indicate that respondents tended to overestimate the lifetime risk of developing each cancer. Survival from lung cancer was greatly overestimated by a high proportion of respondents. Smoking as a risk factor for lungcancerwa.s well recognized, as was sun exposurefor the risk of developing melanoma. Despite this, these two cancers were not viewed as preventable by a high proportion of respondents. Symptoms for melanoma, bowel cancer and breast cancer were well known, however, the tests to detect these cancers were not equally well known. The importance of early detection for increased survival was well recognized. The implications of these results for publk education strategies are discussed.