The Australian Diaries of a 'Ten Pound Poms' Era British Nurse, 1954 1955

Bell, Mary

Published by 1954-1955, 1954

About this Item

Comprising, 2 notebooks, one in red card boards and one in blue, both with green cloth spine strips. 131 & 187 pages respectively, approximately 85,000 words. Beginning on April 14th with her arrival in Melbourne and ending on September 8th 1955 in Cairns with a visit to Yorkeys Knob Beach. Additionally with 4 letters written by Mary to her mother in England, 2 from March 1954 during her voyage to Australia on the S. S. Stratheden, accompanied by 6 photographs of Mary and fellow nurses aboard ship on the voyage out, and two shortly after her arrival detailing her early impressions of life and work in Australia from May and June 1954. This was peak Ten Pound Poms era and nurses were in high demand, but there's no sense from the diaries that this was a permanent emigration, and on a visit to Melbourne a few months after arriving she notes that: "we called in at the Orient Line shipping office to enquire about the fare home & it is not so expensive as we had feared". The diaries are chatty and detailed, Mary is accompanied throughout by a woman named Jean, who from the way she is referred to and the resemblance between the two in the photographs, seems certain to be her sister. They take on short term appointments and intersperse them with holidays, generally coach trips, including one around Tasmania and another across the Northen Territory to Darwin. Their first job is near Yallourn, a relatively short-lived Company Town, at the Latrobe Valley Community Hospital, working in the maternity ward. Mary is a non-specialist nurse and writes: "I wonder if I shall ever get the hang of midwifery", she soon does, delivering babies by various means, often having to act on her own initiative when the Doctor cannot be found in time. They take regular trips to neighbouring towns (Moe, Morwell, Traralgon and Warragul), visiting the cinema, and also hiking in the Haunted Hills, without any terrifying incidents occurring. They leave Yallourn on October 23rd 1954 and after a coach tour to Canberra & Mount Buffalo begin a new job at a smaller hospital in Hastings on November 1st. Here Mary takes on more general and varied nursing duties. They stay there until February 11th 1955, when they fly to Hobart on a D.C.6 and take a 10-day coach trip around Tasmania. Between Feb 28th and May 1st they work at another smaller hospital in Birchip, where Mary varies her social activities with a trip to the races, after which she drinks her "first Australian beer still don't like the bitter taste of beer.". Another holiday this time to Mildara, which includes a paddle steamer trip up the Murray River. Between May 9th and August 15th they take a job at Murray Bridge. The diaries finish with a detailed account of a 3 week holiday, first to Alice Springs, and camping in Palm Valley near the Finke river, with a description of the conditions at the Lutheran Mission, particularly for the Aboriginal Australians who work there. They make their way to Darwin, stopping at various places along the route. At Pine Creek there is a casual reminder that this is the atomic age as she writes regarding the patrons of a noisy bar: "young fellows […] probably from Rum Jungle where they are finding uranium", a reference to the nearby uranium mine which had only recently officially opened in September 1954, and would supply both British and American nuclear programmes. A varied account of an important period in the development of modern Australia, as seen through the eyes of a young British woman, including opinions of the food, which is often described as somewhat meagre, as well as the prevailing medical and nursing practices & conditions. Seller Inventory # 5889

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Australian Diaries of a 'Ten Pound Poms'...

Publisher: 1954-1955

Publication Date: 1954