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Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Lives: A pictorial history of Tasmanian Bush Nursing 1910-1957
Marita Bardenhagen
Professional historian, VIC
PP: 199 - 200
Article Text
The travelling exhibition Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Lives - A pictorial history of Tasmanian Bush Nursing 1910-1957 celebrates the lives and achievements of a group of ‘ordinary' women who as Tasmanian Nurses pioneered Bush Nursing in Australia by providing services to Tasmania's rural areas and an Aboriginal reserve.
Generally Bush Nurses, many of whom trained at the Launceston General Hospital, worked in isolation from their peers, their families and support for their clinical activities. Demonstrating leadership roles in developing and maintaining the health services for their communities, they were at the forefront of redefining roles of women especially in relation to professional life and marriage. They also redefined the relationships between nurses and doctors:
Bush Nurses ... should be unmarried and without children, and of temperate disposition ... be capable of relying on (their) resources in a great many emergencies; have the physical strength to enable (them) to ride or drive to distant country calls and to remain on duty for long hours; be professionally well trained; have skills in riding horses and driving buggies; be able to fit into the conditions, and be endowed with missionary spirit! (Launceston General Hospital)
Sister Una Saville, Bush Nurse on Cape Barren Island c.1950
© Collection of Dr Marita Bardenhagen
Women are poorly represented in Australian histories, and those represented are often extraordinary women - wives of ‘important men', or women of fame or notoriety. Bush Nurses achieved much for their community and for women. As ordinary women they are almost absent from the Australian story.
This project provides a better understanding of the contemporary meanings of the term ‘Bush Nurses' and closer comprehension of the outstanding contribution made by this group of women. The exhibit is aimed at the general public interested in the history of rural women, at students of nursing, women's and Aboriginal studies, and at health professionals.
The travelling exhibition is significant because women's history, particularly rural history, is often invisible - usually rural women were too busy to keep records, or the records did not survive.
The project addresses the optimal status and position of women by working to remove stereotypes and assumptions about women. It reinforces the critical role of women in the development of the Australian Bush and for the maintenance of health. It demonstrates vividly that their achievements were made despite great hardship. Further it demonstrates how powerful these ordinary women were as they created significant social change through quiet personal achievement - Bush Nurses were at the forefront of emancipation of women despite their working in isolation. By exploring Bush Nurses' lives, the project demonstrates aspects of the lives of their clients - women in isolated rural communities.
The Bush is seen as the archetypal masculinist preserve. But without Bush Nurses these rural settlements would not have survived, and Bush Nurse's activities frequently saw them move outside the traditional female gender role boundaries. Health histories are, in the main, male, and hospital, biased. Telling the story of women (nurses) who provided a service that men (doctors) were unwilling or unable to provide, and who created a professional role that was way beyond that allowed, or expected, of other nurses, will help redress this historical imbalance. Bush Nurses were the pioneer nursing independent practitioners.
Launceston was the base from which these women were sent out. Lilydale, now a dormitory suburb of the greater Launceston, led the way in establishing the longest serving and self-sufficient (local council and local association) Bush Nursing Centre in Tasmania - serving as a model for other municipalities to follow. Recently the Bush Nursing Centre was renamed the Mary Walsh Centre in recognition of the special place Mary held in the hearts of the local populace where she practised as a Bush Nurse for approximately 34 years. It was her dedication and selfless work that assisted in her recent recognition on the State List of Significant Women. This solo nurse's reputation and her relationship with the LGH were legendary.
The exhibition is curated by Dr Marita Bardenhagen, a professional historian who has brought together oral histories, photographs, nursing memorabilia and objects over many years culminating in this display. This exhibition will travel to rural areas in liaison with local historical groups and libraries. A website will be freely accessible to the general public and available as an educational tool.
Women Tasmania, The Royal College of Nursing, Australia, The Family Child and Youth Services, Tasmania, the State Library of Tasmania and Launceston City Council are among those supporting this exhibition.
For more information, please contact:
Dr Marita Bardenhargen
Phone: +61(0)3 6334 4990
E-mail: mbardenh@bigpond.net.au
Sister Mary Walsh (MBE) Bush Nurse at Lilydale for 34 years and
recently listed on Tasmania's Honour Roll of Women
(for more information, see www.women.tas.gov.au/honour_roll/entries/walsh.html)
Source: © Collection of Dr Marita Bardenhagen
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