|
|
|
|
|
- NURSES
AND DOCTORS:
- Women
pioneers of the Australian medical
profession
-
- While
the first nurses in Australia were two
Paris-trained nuns from Ireland who arrived in
Sydney in 1838, professional training for
Australian nurses began reputedly in Melbourne
in 1859. The first training school for nurses
was established in Sydney in 1868 by Lucy
Osburn, sent from England by British pioneer of
modern nursing, Florence
Nightingale.
-
- However,
women were prevented from becoming doctors for
almost another 20 years. The country’s
first female medical practitioner, Dr Constance
Stone, had trained in North America after being
refused admittance to the University of
Melbourne’s medical school in 1884 on
account of her being a woman. A Melbourne
magazine wrote at the time of her registration
in 1890 “Those who visit Dr Stone in the
expectation of seeing a strong-minded female in
spectacles and perhaps “Bloomers” will
be sadly disappointed for they will only find a
comely young lady of trim figure and medium
height..." In 1885 Dagmar Berne became
Australia's first female medical student but was
forced to complete her degree in Edinburgh due
to increasing male hostility. Australia's first
female graduates of medicine qualified in 1891;
Clara Stone (Constance’s sister) and
Margaret Whyte from the University of Melbourne
and Laura Fowler from the University of
Adelaide.
-
- Like
many of their male counterparts, the first women
dentists had no official training. Mrs Hierons
has been quoted as the first female dentist in
Australia, setting up her practice in South
Melbourne’s Napier Street in 1884. She had
probably learnt her trade assisting in her late
husband’s dental practice. In 1899, Myra
Rendle became the first qualified female dentist
in Queensland when she opened her own practice
on her 18th birthday after a four-year
apprenticeship.
-
- The
University of Melbourne produced Australia's
first woman graduates in dental science, Dorothy
Gray and Martha Burns in 1907 and three years
later, the first woman to receive a Diploma of
Public Health, Jane (Jean) Greig who pioneered
regular dental inspection and treatment amongst
Victorian school children.
-
- Women
were also working in the field of optometry for
some years before formal training was
introduced. Queenslander, Ella Pink was probably
Australia’s first trained female optician,
qualifying in London and the first female member
of the British Optical Association in 1915. Her
Diploma was altered by hand to read that she had
“... satisfied the examiners with her
knowledge...” as opposed to
his.
|
|
|
- Some
first women in Australia's medical
profession...
|
 - University
of Sydney Archives
|
- DAGMAR
BERNE (1866-1900)
- Australia’s
first female medical student was admitted to the
University of Sydney in 1885. However, hostility
towards her caused her to complete her degree in
Edinburgh, returning to set up practice in
Sydney’s Macquarie Street in
1895.
|
 - By
permission of the National Library of
Australia
|
- (EMMA)
CONSTANCE STONE (1856-1902)
- Born
in Hobart, Tasmania, she was Australia’s
first woman doctor registering with the Medical
Board of Victoria in 1890 after training
overseas. She practised one day a week at the
free dispensary attached to Dr Singleton’s
Collingwood mission later being joined by her
sister, Dr Clara Stone. First President of the
Victorian Medical Women’s Society formed in
1895, she was instrumental in the founding of
the Queen Victoria’s Memorial Hospital for
Women and Children, the first of its kind in
Australia.
|
 - Queensland
Women’s Historical
Association
|
- LILIAN
COOPER (1861-1947)
- Queensland’s
first woman doctor set up her own practice in
Brisbane in 1891 after a London training. In the
early days she used a horse and sulky by day and
a bicycle by night to do her city rounds. Later
she became one of the first women to drive a car
in Brisbane.
|
 - Courtesy
Battye Library, 2017B
|
- ROBERTA
JULL (1872-1960)
- The
first woman doctor in Western Australia set up
her own practice in Perth in 1897 after training
at Glasgow University, visiting her patients in
country areas by goods train and
horseback.
|
 - Courtesy
of Mrs SB Denton
|
- (FREIDA)
RUTH HEIGHWAY (1907-1963)
- First
Australian woman member of the College of
Obstetricians & Gynaecologists, she was
admitted by examination in 1934 later becoming
the first woman MD at the University of Sydney
in 1939.
|
 - Courtesy
of the Launceston
Examiner
|
- IDA
BIRCHALL (1906-1994)
- One
of Tasmania’s first female doctors, she
became the first Tasmanian member of the Royal
College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists in
1936.
|
 - Courtesy
of Ms Helen MacKnight
|
- ELLA
MACKNIGHT (1904-1997)
- First
woman to serve on the Asian Federation of
Obstetrics & Gynaecology in 1965, she was
also first female President of the Australian
Council of the Royal College of Obstetricians
& Gynaecologists in 1970.
|
 - University
of Melbourne, School of Dental
Science
|
- (FRANCES)
DOROTHY GRAY
- Australia’s
first female Bachelor of Dental Science
graduated from the Australian College of
Dentistry, University of Melbourne in
1907.
|
 - Ann
Webber, Optometrist, Toowong,
QLD
|
- ELLA
PINK (1890-1986)
- First
female member of the British Optical Association; only Australian
female Fellow of London’s Spectacle Makers’ Company
and Australia’s first female Optician. She set up her practice
in Sydney in 1917.
|
|
Should
you experience any difficulties with this site
please contact the webmaster.
|
|
