For Nurses. Everywhere.
Vivian Bullwinkel was the sole survivor of the 1942 Banka Island massacre. Post-war, she was Matron of Melbourne’s Fairfield Hospital.
Vivian Bullwinkel grew up in Broken Hill, New South Wales, and Adelaide, South Australia. Her father had migrated to Australia from Essex in 1912 and worked as a jackaroo on a station near Broken Hill before he married and took on a clerical post with Broken Hill South Pty Ltd. Vivian’s grandfather was William John Shegog, a member of the South Australian Police Force. At the age of nine, she moved to Adelaide to live with her grandparents but returned to attend Broken Hill High School when she was thirteen. In 1934 she began nursing and midwife training at the Broken Hill and District Hospital. From February 1939 she was working at the Kia-Ora Hospital in Hamilton, Victoria, but moved to Melbourne to enlist at the outbreak of war and worked for a time at the Jessie MacPherson Hospital.
Bullwinkel served in Japan in 1946 and 1947 before resigning from the Army as Captain, but she rejoined the Citizen Military Forces in 1955 and served until 1970, when she retired as Lieutenant Colonel. Post-war, Bullwinkel spent 16 years as Matron of Melbourne’s Fairfield Hospital and continued as Director of Nursing there until 1977. In that year, she married Colonel F.W. Statham and moved to Perth. She was a member of the Council of the Australian War Memorial and president of the Australian College of Nursing. In 1992, she returned to Banka Island to unveil a shrine to the nurses who died there.
Vivian Bullwinkel was appointed to the Order of Australia (AO) on 26 January 1993, appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) on 1 January 1973, and awarded the Royal Red Cross Medal on 6 March 1947 for service to the veteran and ex-prisoner of war communities, to nursing, to the Red Cross Society and the community. She was also a recipient of the Florence Nightingale Medal.
- 1941 - 1941 Staff member: 13th Australian General Hospital, Australian Infantry Forces
- 1942 - 1942 Sole survivor of 21 Australian army nurses of the Banka Island massacre,
- 1988 - 1989 First female warden of Western Australian State War Memorial
- 1973 - 1978 Member of the Council of Directors of the Royal Humane Society
- 1973 - 1977 Member of the Council College of Nursing Australia
- 1973 - 1974 President of the College of Nursing Australia
- 1972 - 1974 President of the Soroptimist Clubs, Victoria
- 1964 - 1973 Deputy Principal of the Commandant Australia Red Cross Society
- 1992 - 1992 Honorary Life Member of the Australia Red Cross Society
- 1963 - 1977 Trustee of the National War Memorial, Canberra
- 1977 - 1977 Married Col. F W Statham OBE, ED
- 2001 - 2001 Inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women
To obtain a smile for this simple virtual, please answer the following 2 questions and send them as a message to skuzzybear:
1) How many people, including silhouettes and murals, are on the wall between the white flag pole and the memorial fences
2) How many propellors can you find in the mural?
3) Please post a photo in front of the memorial of you, your team name, or your geocaching critter with a date.
Thank you for coming to this mural
**CONGRATULATIONS** FTF-Locus Cache, 2TF-Team Waldron, 3TF Unssy, then shonkylogic, Freddo, Uni and Medusa
Virtual Rewards 4.0 - 2024-2025
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between January 17, 2024, and January 17, 2025.
Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 4.0 on the Geocaching Blog.