Timeline of nursing history in Australia and New Zealand

The timeline of nursing history in Australia and New Zealand stretches from the 19th century to the present.

18th–19th century

1780s 1788 – Tent hospital set up on Dawes Point, Sydney after arrival of First Fleet. 1789 – Arabanoo nurses four indigenous victims of smallpox epidemic but dies of the disease.

1810s 1811 – Castle Hill Lunatic Asylum established. 1816 – Opening of the "Rum Hospital", later Sydney Hospital. Convict men and women undertook the nursing.

1820 1821 – Benevolent Asylum opened to care for destitute aged and others.

1830s 1838 – The first trained nurses arrive in Sydney, five Irish Sisters of Charity.

1840s 1840 – Settlement of New Zealand as a colony and the establishment of state hospitals. 1841 – People considered to be mentally ill were considered criminals. The first case of insanity in New Zealand's society was recorded in 1841.Papps, E, 2002 1847 – Wellington Hospital was established, The first New Zealand Hospital.Giselle's Journal, http://mylittleculturediary.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/first-new-zealand-hospital-labyrinth.html (Barber, L., & Towers, R. (1976). Wellington Hospital 1847–1976. Wellington: Wellington Hospital Board.) 1848 – The Yarra Bend Asylum was opened so that those mentally ill could be moved out of gaol. This Asylum was later known as Melbourne.

1850s 1852 – Ex-convict Bathsheba Ghost appointed Matron of Sydney Infirmary. 1854 – The first lunatic asylum was built, in Wellington, New Zealand. 1857 – Sisters of Charity under Mother Mary Baptist De Lacy established St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney. 1860–1883 – Approximately 16,378 single women emigrated to New Zealand; 582 identified their occupation as a nurse, monthly nurse, sick nurse, trained nurse, nurse girl, midwife, hospital nurse or professional nurse. 1868 – Lucy Osburn and her four Nightingale nurses arrived at Sydney Infirmary (to become Sydney Hospital). They soon start the first nursing school.

1870s 1870 – New Zealand had 37 hospitals as a result of the population increase of the gold rush.(Potter and Perry's fundamentals of nursing. Crisp & Taylor, 2009, page 4 1879 – Sister Mary Jane West Armfield serves in Zulu War.

1880s 1884 – Little Sisters of the Poor begin aged care in Melbourne. 1885 – following the Hospital and Charitable Aids Act conditions improved.(MacDonald,1990)

1890s 1892 – Suzanne Aubert founds Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion in Jerusalem, New Zealand. 1896 – Lady Lamington Nurses' Home, Brisbane, begun. 1899 – Australasian Trained Nurses' Association was founded in New South Wales. 1899–1902 – Nurses led by Nellie Gould serve in the Boer War, serving as private citizens or with the British nursing forces.Daly, J. Jackson, D. Speedy, S. (2010). Contexts of nursing (3rd ed.). Chatswood, NSW 2067. Australia. Cecotti, L. Prejudice meant that although hundreds of female nurses applied there was conflict with those already in the military. Few however did serve in South Africa, including around 33 New Zealand nurses.

20th century

1900s 1900 – Death of Boer War nurse Fanny Hines in Bulawayo. 1900 – The Private Hospital, Wakefield Street in Adelaide becomes the first training hospital for nurses in the colony of South Australia, under Alice Tibbits (1854–1932). 1901 – New Zealand is the first country to regulate nurses nationally, with adoption of the Nurses Registration Act

1901 – Royal Victorian Trained Nurses' Association is formed.Dock, Short History, p 268 1902 – Ellen Dougherty of New Zealand becomes the first registered nurse in the world on 10 February. 1902 – Australian Army Nursing Service formed. 1904 – Queen's Memorial Infectious Diseases Hospital opened in Fairfield, initially as a 'fever' hospital. 1906 – Sisters of Mercy establish Mater Misericordiae Hospital, North Sydney. 1907 – Indigenous woman May Yarrowick receives nursing certificate in Sydney. 1907 – First of Karitane hospitals for training neonatal nurses opened in Dunedin. 1908 – Ākenehi Hei, of the Whakatohea and Whanau-a-Apanui tribes, was the first Maori registered nurse in New Zealand. 1908 – Kai Tiaki, the first New Zealand nursing journal, is published. 1909 – A new role called 'backblocks' nursing was introduced to New Zealand providing services to rural parts of the country 1909 – Waterfall State Sanatorium opened.

1910s 1910 – Ākenehi Hei, the first qualified Maori nurse in New Zealand, dies on 28 November 1910 after contracting typhoid from family membersDow, D. (2009). Remembering the unsung heroines. New Zealand Doctor, 36. she was nursing. 1911 – New South Wales Bush Nursing Association founded. 1912 - Evelyn Marsden survives sinking of Titanic. 1913 – Eileen O'Connor and Fr Ted McGrath found Our Lady's Nurses for the Poor to look after the Sydney sick poor at home. 1914 – First baby health centre established at Alexandria NSW. 1914–1918 – Australian and New Zealand nurses serve outside their countries in World War I. 29 Australian nurses die in WWI.

1914 – Alice Gordon Elliott and Sister Janet Radcliffe are the first nurses to sail abroad to assist in World War One. 1914 – Australian nurses in England join Australian Voluntary Hospital in northern France. 1915 – Wounded from Gallipoli treated on Lemnos and at converted Heliopolis Palace Hotel, Cairo; death of Louisa Bicknell. 1915 – The New Zealand Army Nursing Service set up in 1915, largely at the urging of Hester Maclean (1863–1932). 1915 – 10 New Zealand nurses killed when SS Marquette torpedoed in Aegean Sea. 1916 – Group of 20 Bluebirds depart Sydney for Western Front.

1916 – Narrelle Hobbes serves on Mesopotamian front. 1916 – Hundreds of Australian Army nurses sent to work in India. 1917 – Alice Ross-King and three other nurses awarded Military Medal for bravery in hospital bombing, Flanders. 1918 – Death of Edith Blake when hospital ship Glenart Castle torpedoed. 1919 – Deaths of a number of nurses in the Spanish flu influenza pandemic. 1919 – Victorian Government refuses Archbishop Mannix's offer of nuns to nurse Spanish Flu patients. 1919 – Opening of Westwood Sanatorium for miner's phthisis and tuberculosis.

1920s 1920 – South Australia the first state to set up a Nurses Registration Board. 1925 – New Zealand attempts to have a degree nursing programme available at the University of Otago.Crisp, Taylor, Douglas & Rebeiro, 2013

1930s 1930 – Cecily Maude O'Connell founds Grey Sisters to look after poor mothers and children in Melbourne. 1936 – Sr Mary Gertrude establishes Derby Leprosarium. 1937 – Four Australian nurses serve in Spanish Civil War, and three from New Zealand including René Shadbolt. 1938 – The New Zealand Social Security Act of 1938 marks the introduction of a comprehensive health system that mandated the provision of free care for all. 1939 – Registering of nursing aides commenced in New Zealand 1939 – St Anne's Guild of Catholic Nurses formed. 1939 – Elouera House nurses home opened in Wollongong. 1939–1945 – Australian and New Zealand nurses serve outside their countries in World War II.

1940s 1940 – Royal Australian Air Force Nursing Service formed. 1942 – Banka Island massacre: Twenty-one Australian nurses, survivors of a bombed and sunken ship, are executed by bayonet or machine gun by Imperial Japanese Army soldiers on 16 February, with sole survivor Vivian Bullwinkel.

1942 – Royal Australian Naval Nursing Service formed. 1943 – 11 Army nurses killed when hospital ship Centaur torpedoed off Queensland. 1944–45 – Medical Air Evacuation Transport Units take wounded from New Guinea. 1945 – Native Nurses Training Scheme begun in some Queensland aboriginal settlements. 1945 – Muriel Knox Doherty works as matron at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after its liberation. 1946 – Rosalind Russell stars in biographical film Sister Kenny, portraying Elizabeth Kenny's treatment for polio. 1949 – Formation of the NSW College of Nursing. 1949 – Formation of College of Nursing, Australia

1950s 1950–1953 – 153 Australian nurses serve in Korean War.

1950 – Publication of Scarlet Pillows: An Australian nurse's tales of long ago by Mrs Arthur H. Garnsey (Ann Stafford Bird). 1954 – Betty Jeffrey's memoir White Coolies describes her captivity in Sumatra in World War II. 1958 – Completion of Napier Waller's stained glass windows in Hall of Memory, Australian War Memorial, including one of nurse symbolising "Devotion".

1960s 1960 – Elizabeth Burchill's Innamincka describes remote area nursing of the 1930s. 1963 – Sister Mary Bernice Elphick begins long term as head of St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney. 1967 – New Zealand nursing undergo changes from being hospital-based apprenticeships to tertiary education institutions. 1967 – Nurse and aviator Robin Miller begins outback flights delivering polio vaccine in northern Western Australia. 1967–1971 – 43 Australian army nurses serve in Vietnam War.

1970s 1971 – The Carpenter Report was released; a review released by New Zealand centred around the nursing education system, the report advocated training nurses in an educational environment. The government however decided that polytechs, not universities, were more appropriate for this; however the consequences of this were that nurses were only diploma level not degree level. 1971 – Australian Nurses' Journal (later Australian Nursing Journal, later Australian Nursing and Midwifery Journal) founded. 1973 – Christchurch and Wellington Polytechnics offer diploma-level nursing education; Massey and Victoria Universities (Wellington) start their post-registration bachelor's degrees. 1975 – First nursing diploma programme in Australia in a College of Advanced Education (CAE) in Melbourne, followed quickly by programs in New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia.Crisp, J., Taylor, C., Douglas, C., & Rebeiro, G. (2013) 1975 – First National Mental HealthNurses Congress.

1980s 1980 – The Roper, Logan and Tierney model of nursing, based upon the activities of daily living, is published. 1982 – Australian Nursing Assessment Council established to regulate registration of foreign-trained nurses. 1983 – The importance of human rights in nursing is made explicit in a statement adopted by the International Council of Nurses. 1983 – Former nurse Elizabeth Jolley's novel Mr Scobie's Riddle portrays life in a nursing home. 1988 – Anne Casey develops her child-centred nursing model while working as a paediatric oncology nurse in London. 1988 – Australian Critical Care journal founded. 1989 – Nurses' Health Study 2 begins.

1990s 1990 – Last student graduated from New Zealand hospital program.Crisp & Taylor, 2009, p 4 1990 – Former nurse Lowitja O'Donoghue becomes inaugural chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. 1992 – "Cultural safety" was made a requirement for nursing and midwifery education programs by the Nursing Council of New Zealand. Cultural safety allows effective nursing of patients and/or family members of those of another culture by a nurse who has reflected on one's own cultural identity and understands the impact of differing cultures in nursing practice and patient care.Papps & Ramsden, 1996 1992 – The Australian and New Zealand national governments signed a Mutual Recognition Agreement.Daly, J., Speedy, S., & Jackson, D. (2010). Contexts of Nursing. (3rd ed). Sydney, Australia: Churchill Livingstone Elsevier. 1992 – Jan Bassett's Guns and Brooches surveys the history of Australian Army nursing. 1996 – The Flight Nurse Association was created by the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) to recognise the need of training and education of the same standards throughout New Zealand. 1997 – Movie Paradise Road based on the testimony of Betty Jeffrey on WWII captivity in Sumatra. 1997 – Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives formed.

21st century

2000s