Country Generosity towards Queensland's nurses - 1948
By Dr Madonna Grehan, 2015 John Oxley Library Fellow | 16 August 2024
Queensland’s Centaur Memorial Fund for Nurses launched in early 1948, aiming to reach every person’s pocket in every corner of the state. Madonna Grehan, 2015 John Oxley Library Fellow and guest blogger, highlights the contribution of rural areas to this public-spirited campaign.
After the Second World War, charitable organisations supporting injured soldiers, war widows, and disabled children competed for the same bucket of money, amid continuing food rationing and persisting drought. Fortunately for the Centaur Memorial Fund (the Fund), Queenslanders had a great regard for its nurses, recognising their ongoing commitment to serving the public. According to historian of military nursing Dr Kirsty Harris, during the two World Wars, more than 1000 nurses from Qld had military roles at home or abroad. Countless others manned the home front, staffing civilian hospitals and bush nursing centres.
When the plan to create a memorial “centre” was initiated, country support was palpable early on. Qld had 11 regions for the administration of health services and these provided the framework for the Queen of the Nurses Quest. In five months, 44 committees were operating in country regions.
Although the Fund’s records are incomplete, we know that nurses were sponsored in the regions of the Northern Downs (Dalby, Chinchilla, Roma, Toowoomba; Southern Downs (Beaudesert, Boonah, Laidley, Stanthorpe); South-Western (Charleville); Wide-Bay (Biggenden, Bundaberg, Gympie, Maroochydore, Mundubbera, Nanango, Wondai); Port Curtis (Gladstone, Rockhampton); Central Western (Barcaldine, Longreach); Mackay (Collinsville, Mackay, Proserpine); Edgecumbe (Bowen, Charters Towers, Townsville); Rockingham (Atherton, Babinda, Cairns, Gordonvale, Innisfail, Mossman); North Western (Cloncurry, Mt Isa).
Regional entrants in the Centaur Memorial Fund for Nurses, Queen of the Nurses Quest attending a morning tea at the Greenslopes Repatriation Hospital, Brisbane, 18 December 1948, OMEG Centaur Memorial Fund for Nurses Records, 2017, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
The Wide Bay Region alone had seven active committees. Gympie nominated Sister Marjorie Spiller. Her committee was chaired by Dr Leslie Macdonald Outridge, a local general practitioner and one of 64 survivors from the sinking of the 2/3 Australian Hospital Ship Centaur in 1943. Bundaberg’s nurses selected Sister Emily Broadhurst from a well-known family at Mt Perry and an operating theatre nurse at the Base Hospital. Among Broadhurst’s supporters was Mr Percy Wyllie, Manager of Millaquin Sugar, whose daughter Joyce Wyllie was one of the 11 Australian Army Nursing Service nurses killed in 1943 in the Centaur’s sinking.
Nurse training schools were based at some country hospitals allowing students to be candidates too. Nellie Jensen, a first-year trainee at Wienholt District Hospital was sponsored by the district of Wondai. Miss Beryl Crow, another trainee in her first year, was Nurse Maryborough. Biggenden, aided by the town of Childers, sponsored Sister Josephine Murphy. Cracow and Eidsvold Hospitals put their weight behind Nurse Mundubbera, Miss Iris Cliffe, a trained nurse. Nanango and District sponsored Sister Edna Stark.
Entry form of Edna Stark for the Queen of the Nurses Quest 1948, OMEG Centaur Memorial Fund for Nurses Records, 1948-1979, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
Sister Edna Jean Stark entered "Queen of The Nurse", OMEG Centaur Memorial Fund for Nurses Records, 2017, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
Nurse Gladys Edwards, entrant in the Centaur Memorial Fund for Nurses, Queen of the Nurses Quest, 1948, OMEG Centaur Memorial Fund for Nurses Records, 1948-1979, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
Nurse Muriel Nellie Jensen from Wondai entered the Queen of the Nurses Quest 1948, OMEG Centaur Memorial Fund for Nurses Records, 1948-1979, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
Sister Josephine A. Murphy entered the Queen of the Nurses Quest 1948, OMEG Centaur Memorial Fund for Nurses Records, 1948-1979, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
Bowen sponsored trainee Gladys Margaret Edwards, while Cairns chose student nurse Elizabeth Curnow and Collinsville supported Patricia Jenkins. Committees held dances, balls, carnivals, film and theatrical nights, horse races, car races, sailing races, footy matches, cycling events and raffles. Concert performances featured singing dogs, opera stars and yodelling women.
Records of the Townsville Committee sponsoring student nurse Averil Brown show that to make money, committees had to spend money. In 1948, it even cost money to hold a raffle. Then called “Art Unions”, raffles required approval from the Justice Department of QLD before they could go ahead. The District Progress Association at Springsure paid a fee of £1.0.8 to conduct Art Union No.2431.
Part of the Port Curtis Region, Springsure was keen to participate but did not have enough people for a committee so they decided to raffle a horse. The Progress Association’s Secretary Mr WH Drummond, informed the Fund that:
‘the well known firm of graziers Messrs Clark & Tait of “Mantuan Downs” Springsure have donated to my Association a well-bred Gelding to be disposed of by Art Union (Horse valued at 100 guineas). We have had 3000 tickets printed, and are posting to various centres. Tickets are priced at 2/- each. Date of drawing is 1 Jan 1949. Owing to dry weather condition, we had a lot of delay in having the horse selected by the Manager of Mantuan Downs. We now have the horse in our possession ... PS Proof of Tickets enclosed.’
Townsville Committee Statement of Accounts 28 February 1949, OMEG Centaur Memorial Fund for Nurses Records, 1948-1979, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
Springsure’s Horse Raffle, October 1948, OMEG Centaur Memorial Fund for Nurses Records, 1948-1979, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
Advertising (1949 Jan 27). The Central Queensland Herald pg25, Image courtesy of Trove, National Library of Australia.
WH Drummond Sec to Centaur Fund Organising Secretary, 20 Feb 1949, OMEG Centaur Memorial Fund for Nurses Records, 1948-1979, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
Springsure’s ‘blood horse raffle’ raised £126.0.11, the lucky winner being Mr Gordon Young of “Yandaburra Station” Springsure. To the north west, in just three months, Muttaburra and Jundah hospitals raised £300 in support of the Longreach Hospital’s candidate, Sister Betty Maxwell. Similar activities went on throughout 1948.
Telegraph 18 December 1948, p.9. Image courtesy of Trove, National Library of Australia.
Funds raised went towards the purchase of Centaur House at 337 Queen Street, Brisbane where country nurses could stay while studying or on the way through to holidays and employment. Any information about rural entrants in the Queen of the Nurses Quest is welcome.
Other blogs by Dr Madonna Grehan
- Centaur Day Commemorations 14 May
- Highlighting Queensland’s links to the Centaur Memorial Fund for Nurses
- Imagining Centaur
- Centaur House Memorial Hostel, Magnetic Island
- Centaur Day, 14 May, and Red Roses for Remembrance
- 75 years on – Photographic conundrums in the Centaur Memorial Fund Collection
- A Centaur memorial event at State Library of Queensland, Monday 14 May 2018
- Centaur House, Mt Gravatt, 1949: Almost the first raffle of real estate in Queensland
- Flotsam from the 2/3 Australian Hospital Ship Centaur
- At the Brisbane Ekka, 1950-1977 – the Centaur Memorial Fund’s money spinner
- Centaur Memorial Fund For Nurses Records - Digitised @SLQ
- Centaur House, Queen St, Brisbane: A Memorial Edifice to Queensland’s Nurses in two World Wars
- Len Shillam’s 2/3 AHS Centaur Memorial, 1957
- Fiesta Gardens 1948 – a touch of Hollywood at Slacks Creek (with Dr Hilda Maclean)
- Brisbane’s First Street Markets – the Spring Hill Fair 1973
- Two men and a presentation cricket bat
- Queen of the Nurses Quest
- How to crown a Queen
- Avenging the Nurses: Government’s response to the sinking of 2/3 Australian Hospital Ship Centaur
- ATNA Nurses’ Rest Home, 17-19 Mallon St, Bowen Hills
- The Diggers Friend
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