Resources

Australia's Nurses

Welcome to the Australian Nursing and Midwifery History Project (ANMHP), a self-funding autonomous project hosted by the Department of Nursing at the University of Melbourne's School of Health Sciences. The ANMHP aims to increase the profile of nursing and midwifery history in the community, and ensure that historically important nursing and midwifery resources are identified, conserved, and accessible.

• Biographical register

  Encyclopaedia of Australian Science Database

  The Federation Biographical Nursing Project

  Contributing to the Encyclopaedia of Australian Science

  (incorporating the Bright Sparcs database)

  Thank you to the sponsors of the biographical entries completed by the ANMHP.

  Background

  The ANMHP's National Federation Biographical Nursing Project began in May 2001 to recognise the contribution of nurses and nursing in the development of Australian science, medicine and healthcare. Through the sponsorship of individuals and organisations, several biographies of nurses and midwives have been added to the Encyclopaedia of Australian Science database (EOAS).

  The EOAS is a community resource and a research tool, receiving around 500,000 hits per week from an estimated 20,000 individuals, mostly secondary school students. The EOAS features information about individuals, organisations, societies, institutions, and industries. The database also lists the sources of data about each entry: published, archival, and material available online.

  With support from nursing organisations, past trainee associations, nurses' boards and private individuals, the ANMHP has increased the number of nurses whose biographies features on the EOAS. It has also contributed information about nursing organisations and collections.

  Nurse	Sponsor of this biography
  Judy Parker	School of Nursing, The University of Melbourne
  Lucy Osburn	Sydney Hospital Graduate Nurses' Association
  Mavis Avery	Tim and Peter Avery
  Betty Jeffrey	Alfred Hospital Nurses League
  Annie Sage Pat Slater	Royal College of Nursing, Australia Royal College of Nursing, Australia
  Joan Penridge Joan Godfrey Faith Thomas	Queensland University of Technology Queensland University of Technology Joan Durdin
  Olive Anstey Muriel Knox Doherty Agnes Lions Georgina McCready Margaret Guy	The College of Nursing (incorporating the CoN NSW) The College of Nursing (incorporating the CoN NSW) The College of Nursing (incorporating the CoN NSW) The College of Nursing (incorporating the CoN NSW)
  Sylvia Curley Merle Parkes Gwen Burbidge	ACT Nursing and Midwifery Board School of Nursing and Midwifery, Curtin University Richard Burbidge
  Dora Bailey	Nurses Board of Western Australia

• Nursing organisations

  Nursing History Interest Groups

  Around the world there are formal and informal groups which support nursing history activities and/or are engaged in nursing history scholarship.

  Australia

  Australian Nursing and Midwifery History Group (ANMHG), a network of nurses, midwives, historians, archivists, curators and scholars, all of whom are passionate about nursing history.

  Location	Contact
  ACT	Dr Maxine Dahl Email: mcdahl@grapevine.com.au Area of interest: All aspects of Royal Australian Air Force nursing, women in the military Ms Marilyn Gendek Email: mahgen@tpg.com.au Area of interest: Ephemera, especially stamps and postcards
  NSW	Dr Mavis Gaff-Smith Email: mavis.gaff-smith@bigpond.com Area of interest: Midwives, nurses, women's health, education, regulation and practice Dr Judith Godden (Honorary Associate, Department of History (A14), University of Sydney) Email: judith.godden@sydney.edu.au Area of interest: History of the Women's Hospital (Crown Street) Sydney, biography, Nightingale nursing Dr Trudy Rudge (Sydney Nursing School, University of Sydney) Email: trudy.rudge@sydney.edu.au Area of interest: Biography, Nightingale nursing, social context of nursing Ms Elizabeth Skinner (PhD Candidate, University of Sydney Medical School) Email: 81_kensingtonst@live.com Area of interest: Midwifery and women's health, feminist theory
  QLD	Dr Odette Best Email: odette.best@qut.edu.au Area of interest: Indigenous nurses, policy, oral history Ms Sue DeVries Email: sue@de-vries.ws Area of interest: All aspects of nursing history Dr Wendy Madsen (Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Health, Central Queensland University) Email: w.madsen@cqu.edu.au Area of interest: Nursing, health, teaching nursing history Dr Margaret McAllister (Centre for Mental Health Nursing Innovation, Central Queensland University) Email: m.mcallister@cqu.edu.au Area of interest: Teaching history of nursing in undergraduate curriculum, mental health
  SA	Dr Mayumi Kako (School of Nursing and Midwifery, Flinders University) Email: mayumi.kako@flinders.edu.au Area of interest: Education and governance, disaster nursing
  TAS
  VIC	Dr Janet Butler (School of Historical and European Studies, La Trobe University) Email: J.Butler@latrobe.edu.au Area of interest: World War I Dr Madonna Grehan (Nursing, School of Health Science, The University of Melbourne) Email: mgrehan@unimelb.edu.au Area of interest: Women's health, nurses, midwives, education, regulation and practice, military nurses Dr Kirsty Harris (School of Historical Studies, The University of Melbourne) Email: kjharris@unimelb.edu.au Area of interest: World War I, Australian Army Nursing Service, women in the military Ms Helen Hamilton (Australian College of Nursing) Email: helenham@bigpond.com Area of interest: All aspects of nursing history Ms Jennifer Rabach (School of Nursing and Midwifery, Victoria University) Email: Jennifer.Rabach@vu.edu.au Area of interest: Operating theatre nursing Mrs Marie Rogers Email: rogermr@alphalink.com.au Area of interest: All aspects of nursing history Dr Natisha Sands (School of Nursing and Midwifery, Deakin University) Email: natisha.sands@deakin.edu.au Area of interest: Mental health nursing Ms Susan Sherson Email: susan.sherson@mh.org.au Area of interest: All aspects of nursing history Ms Robyn Waymouth (Royal Women's Hospital, Parkville) Email: robyn.waymouth@thewomens.org.au Area of interest: Women's health, archives and collections Dr Pamela J Wood (School of Nursing and Midwifery, Federation University) Email: pamela.wood@federation.edu.au Area of interest: NZ nursing history, midwifery, maternity services, public health, history of dirt, typhoid fever, convalescence
  WA	Dr Carol Piercey (School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Notre Dame) Email: Carol.Piercey1@ndu.edu.au Area of interest: All aspects of nursing history, education Dr Linda Shields (Tropical Health Research Unit for Nursing and Midwifery Practice, James Cook University and Townsville Health Service District) Email: linda.shields@jcu.edu.au Area of interest: All aspects of nursing history, education, paediatrics
  (New Zealand)	Dr Kate Prebble (School of Nursing, The University of Auckland) Email: k.prebble@auckland.ac.nz Area of interest: NZ nursing history, psychiatric and mental health, disability, gender

  International networks/centres

  Canada

  • Canadian Association for the History of Nursing
  • Margaret M Allemang Society for the History of Nursing

  Europe

  • European Association for the History of Nursing
  • UK Association for the History of Nursing and Midwifery (disbanded in Sep 2018)

  USA

  • American Association for the History of Nursing
  • Barbara Bates Centre for the Study of the History of Nursing

  Research Centres

  Australian Centres

  • The Australian Nursing and Midwifery History Project, The University of Melbourne
  • The Nursing History Research Unit, University of Sydney

  International Centres

  USA

  • Barbara Bates Centre for the Study of the History of Nursing

  Canada

  • Nursing History Research Unit, University of Ottawa

  Ireland

  • UCD Irish Centre for Nursing & Midwifery History

  UK

  • UK Centre for the History of Nursing and Midwifery
  • Nurses Voices Oral History Project
• History topics

  Military Nursing

  Nurses have been involved in military nursing as civilian volunteers (as early as the 1880s) as and as members of the Australian Defence Forces (from the early 1900s). Other resources are also available at the Australian War Memorial, the National library and the National Archives.

  World War I

  • Australian Imperial Force Nominal Roll

  World War II

  • Australian Imperial Force Nominal Roll
  • Sinking of the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur and Sister Ellen Savage
  • Nurses Memorial (Vyner Brooke Memorial), Bangka Island, Indonesia
  • Vivian Bullwinkel and survivors of the Vyner Brooke
  • Betty Jeffrey and POWs in Sumatra
  • Australia's War 1939-1945

  Indigenous Nursing in Australia

  TBC

• Bibliography

  Bibliography

  A bibliography of Australian nursing and midwifery history research is under construction.

  If you would like to contribute items to the bibliography, please email us: anmhp-nursing@unimelb.edu.au

  Journals

  Featuring articles on nursing, midwifery and health history

  • British Journal of Nursing (formerly Nursing Record and Hospital World)
  • Bulletin for the History of Medicine
  • Health & History, Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Society for the History of Medicine
  • Nursing Inquiry History Edition
  • Nursing History Review
  • Social History of Medicine
  • Temperamentvm, International Journal for the History of Nursing and Nursing Thinking (Spanish)
  • Intute Medical History Resources (website closed Jul 2011)
• Archives, libraries and museums

  National

  National Collections and Archives with material on nursing/midwifery history. If you want to add a collection link here, please email us: anmhp-nursing@unimelb.edu.au

  By state

  New South Wales

  • Australian Army Museum Bandiana
  • College of Nursing (New South Wales)
  • EM Lane Nurses' Museum, Concord Hospital (Tel: 02 9767 5256)
  • Guide to Health and Medicine Museum Collections in NSW and ACT
  • Kenmore Hospital Museum
  • Lucy Osburn – Nightingale Foundation Museum
  • Morriset Hospital Historical Society
  • NSW Midwives Association Collection
  • Royal Prince Alfred Hospital RPA Museum and Archives
  • Powerhouse Museum
  • Prince Henry Hospital Trained Nurses Association Nursing and Medical Museum
  • Sydney University Nursing History Research Unit
  • Society for the Preservation of the Artefacts of Surgery & Medicine
  • Parramatta District Hospital: Brislington House Museum for Medicine and Nursing, 10 George Street, Parramatta NSW 2150

  Northern Territory

  • Charles Darwin University Nursing Museum, Casuarina Campus, Darwin NT 0909

  Queensland

  • Australian Country Hospitals Heritage Association and Museum

  Rockhampton

  • Mount Isa Underground Hospital Museum, Joan Street, Mt Isa QLD 4825
  • Princess Alexandra Hospital Diamantina Health Care Museum
  • Queensland State Archives
  • Royal Brisbane and Royal Women's Hospitals' Museum of Nursing History
  • State Library of Queensland

  South Australia

  • Royal Adelaide Hospital Heritage Office (Adelaide Hospital records)
  • State Library of South Australia (visual resources, letters, oral history)
  • State Records of South Australia (government records)
  • Flinders University Library (Australasian Nurses' Journal: The Journal of the Australasian Trained Nurses' Association)
  • Flinders University Library Special Collection (Nursing Education Collection)

  Thanks to Dr Mayumi Kako for supplying these links.

  Tasmania

  • Royal Hobart Hospital Graduates Association Museum (by appointment only; email: anmhp@unimelb.edu.au)
  • Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office (State records)

  Victoria

  • Alfred Hospital Nursing Archives
  • Fairfield Hospital Collection
  • Australian Nurses Memorial Centre
  • Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
  • Royal Children's Hospital (Melbourne) Archives
  • Royal Melbourne Hospital Archives
  • Royal Women's Hospital Melbourne Tracy-Maund Historical Collection
  • St Vincent's Hospital
  • University of Melbourne Johnston-Need Medical History Museum and Collection
  • Southern Health* (Tel: Dr Monica Lausch, Honorary Curator, 9594 1399)

  *Incorporating Monash Medical formerly Queen Victoria Hospital and Prince Henry's/Homeopathic Hospital, Melbourne Benevolent Asylum/Kingston Centre, Dandenong and Moorabbin Hospitals

  Western Australia

  • Australian Inland Mission Museum
  • Royal Perth Hospital Museum
  • Western Australian Medical Museum, Cnr Barker & Railway Road, Subiaco WA 6008