AN RSL Anzac Day badge this year honours Sister Vivian Bullwinkel, the sole surviving nurse of the Bangka Island Massacre on February 16, 1942.
Vivian was born in Kapunda, South Australia, and was educated at Broken Hill where she trained as a nurse and enlisted for service.
The Paringi silo art honours Sister Elaine Balfour-Ogilvy, a Renmark-born nurse, who was executed with 21 other nurses in that World War II massacre.
The nurses were evacuated from Singapore with civilians on February 12 on the SS Vynar Brooke which was attacked and sunk two days later.
Elaine was one of the nurses who made it to Bangka Island. She had trained at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital and served with the 9th Field Ambulance in Malaya and Singapore.
Nurses, as healthcare workers, are protected in war and many serving nurses showed extreme selflessness and bravery as they worked to tend the injured and sick.
Cardross nurse Sister Vera Torney was recognised for her bravery in her actions protecting wounded soldiers while their ship MV Empire Star was under aerial fire on February 12, 1942.
Like Sisters Bullwinkel and Balfour-Ogilvy, they were under attack while evacuating from Singapore.
The ship was on fire and Vera and nursing Sister Margaret Anderson rescued soldiers onto the deck away from the fire.
The planes returned, showering the deck with bullets, and the two nurses used their bodies to shield the men they had just rescued. Miraculously they, and the men, survived; the MV Empire Star was able to remain afloat and reach Batavia for repairs and complete the journey to safety at Fremantle.
This year for Anzac Day lessons, schools have been asked to “discover the story of Veterans in your local area” which may include the nurses who served in wartime.
Red Cliffs was a Soldier Settlement after World War I and like Vera Torney, many of its sons and daughters served in World War II.
Most of the World War I veteran settlers were men, but a settlement allocation was offered broader than to Australian servicemen.
Nurses, female relatives of deceased servicemen and anyone who had served in British Allied Services could apply.
It had one of only two successful female applicants for a Soldier Settlement block in Victoria.
Nellie Veir Scott, a single nurse, successfully gained a block in the first allocations of 1920. She is one of three women recognised on the Red Cliffs Wall of Honour banners listing the pioneer irrigation blockies. All three were nurses, two had served in a World War I conflict area.
Sister Veir Scott was educated at Wilcannia and undertook her nursing training in Broken Hill.
She joined the Queen Alexandria Imperial Military Nursing Service and worked in Alexandria at first and then in 1916 on the hospital ship Vildivia, travelling between Salonica, Malta and Lemnos. Her fiancé was killed at Villers Bretoneaux.
After the war she returned to Mildura to nurse and while there applied for a Soldier Settlement block at Red Cliffs.
She met and married Frank Carey who was also allocated a settlement block. They ran two blocks and when Frank died aged 42, she ran them both.
Sister Isabel Tyzack was from Durham, UK, and had served with the 12th West Yorkshire Company of the WAAC in France.
She married Jim Taylor, an Irishman who served in the RAF. Jim and Isabel immigrated to Australia and were successful in gaining a block at Red Cliffs.
Isabel’s brother, Ern Tyzack, followed under the ex-serviceman’s migration scheme. He requested and was granted a block near to his sister. Isabel ran his block and by 1931 it was transferred it to her.
Many nurses of the early community had served during the war. The Red Cliffs & District Historical Society has knowledge of some of these but is hopeful of gaining more knowledge about others.
Some nurses married veteran settlers and became the mothers, housewives and blockhands of the early Red Cliffs settlement.
Some served as midwives and nurses in the community.
Anyone who can help add to the collected knowledge has been asked to contact [email protected].
The five Wall of Honour banners honouring 719 pioneer blockies in the Red Cliffs Irrigated Soldier Settlement Scheme are displayed in the Red Cliffs Court House on Jamieson Avenue.
They will be available to view after the Anzac Day service at Red Cliffs Thursday morning.
