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Nursing staff of a mobile hospital, including four Australian nurses, 1917. Image courtesy of Australian War Memorial: P01908.007.
For centuries women have been involved in every kind of war and conflict imaginable, especially as nurses. Australian nurses have dealt face-to-face with war - the sick, the wounded and the dead. They have served in Australia, in war zones across the world and on hospital ships and transports.
More recent conflicts have seen the gender based boundaries traditionally seen in wartime blur. These days, there are few jobs within Australia's armed services that are not open to women. Similarly, female soldiers are also commonplace.
And while women still fulfil traditional roles of administrators and nurses, it is not unusual to see male nurses and female doctors working together on military missions, such as when the Australian military provided support to victims of the December 2004 tsunami in Indonesia.
Australian nursing services
The involvement of Australian women as nurses in war began in 1898 with the formation of the Australian Nursing Service of New South Wales, from which sixty nurses served in The Boer War. The service was incorporated into the newly formed Australian Army Nursing Service Reserve (AANS) in 1902.
The Royal Australian Army Nursing Service (RAAFNS) was established much later, in 1940. Members of the RAAFNS have served in The Korean War, The Malayan Emergency and The Vietnam War.
According to the Australian Department of Defence, 2,562 AANS nurses joined active service during World War I, with 423 of these women serving in Australia. Twenty-five AANS nurses died in other countries during the war.
Fulfilling their traditional roles as caregivers, Australian nurses worked behind the lines in field hospitals and worked on medical ships that anchored off shore near battlefields that were inaccessible by land. World War One was the first time in Australian history that women had made a major contribution to the war effort, outside of the home and country.
Essay, France. 1917. Sister Hilda Loxton, third from left, and other nurses in a slit trench in the grounds of the French military hospital during a visit to Essay. Sister Loxton was one of twenty trained civilian nurses who volunteered in Australia in 1916 for service in French hospitals. Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial.
World War I
In the First World War, nurses were recruited from both the nursing service and the civilian profession and served as an integral part of the AIF. They served in Egypt and Lemnos during the Gallipoli campaign, in England, France and Belguin in support of the fighting on the Western front, and in Greece Salonika, Palestine, Mesopotamia and India. At least 2139 nurses served abroad between 1914 and 1919, and a further 423 worked in military hospitals in Australia, while 29 died on active service.
The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History, page 62.
Women's service organisations
During World War I, some women contributed actively to the war effort through military service. But it was not until 1942 that war services other than nursing were opened up for women.
These eventually included the Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS), the Royal Australian Women's Army Corps (WRAAC), the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) and the Women's Royal Australian Air Force (WRAAF).
World War II
In World War Two, Australian women fulfilled similar roles. For most of this war, nurses were the only females to serve outside of Australia in any capacity, except for the Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS). Their losses were much higher, too. Between 1939 and 1945, 71 Australian women lost their lives during active service overseas. During World War II, 3,477 AANS nurses served, and seventy-one never returned.
During World War II, some women serving as AANS nurses, including Vivian Bullwinkel, were taken prisoner of war by the Japanese forces - thirty-two on Banka Island and Sumatra, six in Rabaul and Japan. Trauma, deprivation, and illness marked this awful war-time experience. Friendships, loyalty and mutual support rose to the fore in these trying circumstances, but not all of the women survived.
AWAS who arrived in Lae from Australia wait for the trucks to transport them to the AWAS barracks at Butibum Road, New Guinea, 1945. Australian War Memorial: AWM 091457.
Women's Auxiliary Air Force, Naval and Army Services
Tens of thousands of women joined the Women's Air Force, Naval and Army Services during World War II. This was in addition to the work of Voluntary Aid Detachments (VAD) which continued on from World War I. Many of these women went into the Australian Army Medical Women's Service (AAMWS), formed in December 1942.
Women in the service organisations fulfilled all sorts of duties, from intelligence officers and cryptoanalysts, to drivers, typists and cooks, to wireless telegraphists and aircraft ground staff. As well as positions that were military-based, women also undertook work that was necessary but more general in nature. As with most paid civilian employment at the time, women who worked during the war were paid about two thirds of what men were paid for doing the same job.
The Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS) included over 24,000 women, the largest of the women's service organisations. 'The AWAS was the only non-medical women's service to send personnel overseas during the war; in 1944 and 1945 AWAS served in both Dutch and Australian New Guinea.'
The Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) was formed in March 1941 after considerable lobbying by women keen to serve and by the Chief of the Air Staff who wanted to release male personnel serving in Australia for service overseas. The WAAAF was the largest of the Second World War women's services.The Women's Australian Auxiliary Air Force (WAAAF) consisted of over 18,500 women in 1944. It was disbanded in December 1947.
Women's Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS) was formed in April 1941 as a result of a shortage of telegraphists in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). During World War II there were over 2000 WRANS members although it was disbanded at the end of the Second World War.
Mogadishu, Somalia. 1st March, 1993. Corporal Julie Baranowski a member of the Military Police, serving with the Australian contingent to the Unified Task Force in Somalia (UNITAF), in a jeep during a street patrol. She was in demand as the Somali men used to hide weapons under their women's clothes in the hope of avoiding searches by male soldiers. Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial.
Post World War II
By 30 June 1947 all members of the AWAS, WAAAF and WRANS had been demobilised.
Facing a severe manpower shortage due to the demands of the Korean War and national service in a time of full employment, a new Australian women's air force was formed in July 1950 and in November became the Women's Royal Australian Air Force (WRAAF). Enlistment for the Women's Royal Australian Army Corps (WRAAC) began in April 1951 and WRANS was also re-constituted in 1951.
In the late 1970s female soldiers began to be integrated into the Army at large and in early 1984, the WRAAC was disbanded. The WRAAF was disbanded in the early 1980s and female personnel were absorbed into the mainstream RAAF. WRANS was made a permanent part of the RAN in December 1959. WRANS personnel were gradually absorbed into the RAN during the early 1980s and in due course the service was disbanded. Women were not permitted to serve aboard ships until 1983.
Australia's first female air force pilots graduated in 1988 and today, with the exception of the airfield defence units, there are few jobs within the RAAF barred to women.
Korean, Vietnam and Gulf Wars
The Vietnam War involved forty-three members of the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps (RAANC). In 1972, the RAANC appointed its first male Nursing Officer. During the Gulf War, three Australian women and one man served for three months as nurses on the USA Hospital ship Comfort , as part of Australia's contribution to United Nations forces.
Recognising Australian women's war efforts
Australian women have received formal recognition in their own right, for example 388 of the 2,562 women who served as AANS nurses in World War I were awarded medals.
Recognition of women's war service with the military has not always been extended to the right to march with servicemen on ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day.
The Australian Nurses Memorial is one of several public reminders to commemorate and honour the war efforts of Australian servicewomen, and the supreme sacrifice some made.
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- Australian War Memorial resources - Australian Women at War
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- ANZAC Day.org.au - search for information on women
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Last updated: 28th February 2008
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