While important new design rules for stress development of straight D500N reinforcing bars by end anchorage or lap splicing were being written for inclusion in Section 13 of Australian Concrete Structures Standard AS 3600-2009, bond test series were independently being undertaken at three Australian universities. One test series focussed on lap splices in slabs, which are characterised by widely-spaced bars, supposedly without the adverse influence of edge effects which can occur in beams. Transverse reinforcement was absent, and lap lengths were deliberately made short enough to ensure bond failure occurred. Another test series used wide concrete blocks in unconventional pull-out tests, again with large side cover to the laps, while transverse bars were included in some of the specimens. The Steel Reinforcement Institute of Australia (SRIA) funded the third test series, which also involved widely-spaced bars, but the lap splices in the large-scale flexural specimens were designed and detailed in accordance with AS 3600-2001. Otherwise, the SRIA specimens were very similar to a wide specimen tested decades ago in America, included in the large data base involving test specimens without transverse reinforcement, on which the ACI 318 design rules are partly based. The SRIA tests, which also included rigorous strength proof testing to AS 3600, are described in detail. The results from all three test series are examined statistically in relation to the large body of published data obtained from flexural bond tests. The old and new AS3600 design rules are also reviewed with respect to strength and ductility requirements.