Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This silent clip shows the working activities of nursing sisters at the Australian Inland Mission (AIM) nursing hostel at Birdsville in Queensland in 1947. A sister is shown bandaging a young girl’s finger and applying drops to a boy’s eye, with close-up shots revealing her skill. Footage of goats in a pen is followed by scenes of a nursing sister approaching and entering the pen. She immobilises the goat in a device that holds its head still before milking it, and then empties the milk into a pan hanging on the fence. Smoke from a fire in a tin is used to keep flies away from the milk.

Educational value points

• This clip highlights the hardships experienced by AIM nursing sisters and their need to be self-sufficient. While medical service was their primary role, in most hostels the nurses had to bake bread and cook all the food for themselves and their patients. They had to wash their uniforms and hostel linen in big coppers, constantly suffer flies and from November to February frequently endure temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius.

• This clip was designed to promote the work of the AIM by showing the devoted service of those who worked for the organisation in the harshest of environments. The primitive working conditions of the sisters that the clip reveals make their skilful and loving care seem all the more admirable as they provide medical services to those in the outback. The starkness and isolation of the environment in which they live is glimpsed beyond the goat fence.

• The nursing hostel in Birdsville was established by the AIM as part of their mission to take the Christian gospel and pastoral support to families and communities living ‘beyond the furthest fences’ in the Australian outback. Founded by the Reverend John Flynn (1880–1951) in 1912, the AIM provided a ‘network of safety’ to those living in remote parts of Australia through its nursing and flying doctor services, padres and communication network.

• The nursing sisters shown in the clip were among the 354 trained nurses who volunteered for service in bush hostels during John Flynn’s lifetime. The nursing sisters who staffed the hostels provided first aid and an emergency medical response. Serious cases were sent to larger centres through the flying doctor service. The nurses needed to be self-reliant, able to cope with the isolation and capable of making decisions.

• The Birdsville nursing service featured in the clip was started in 1923 and operated as a health facility until it closed in 2005. The service was housed in the purpose-built prefabricated metal buildings from 1937 after moving from the former Royal Hotel building. The hostel burned down in 1951 and a new hospital opened in 1953 from money raised after an Australia-wide fundraising campaign.