An Australian Pioneer Biography
This is the heartwarming true story of two pioneering women who became heroes of their day.
1940s Australian rural and city culture comes to life through the unforgettable experiences of the courageous Methodist Deaconess Nursing Sisters in Angels of Augustus.
In 1946, Marjorie Wilkinson and Ethel Helyar arrived in the Australian outback town of Brewarrina with nothing but their district bags, authority to perform marriages, baptisms and burials – a rarity for women of the era – and an ambulance named Augustus.
In a heart-rending drought, they began the first free-to-patient mobile health care the region had ever seen and became living legends remembered through the generations.
Patrolling a remote region of 35,000 square miles, Marjorie and Ethel crossed state, race and religious divides on a pioneering journey that both united and challenged their personal lives.
Yet their belief in a compassionate cause and their sense of humour overcame severe hardship in the most unusual of circumstances.
‘Angels of Augustus’ pioneers
It is often asked: “Who is Augustus?”
‘Augustus’ was the name fondly bestowed on the 3-ton Ford ambulance which was custom-built for nursing, dental and emergency patrols in the outback.
This photo shows happy days for (L-R) Margaret Tipping, deaconess, Ethel Helyar, registered nurse, and Marjorie Wilkinson, registered nurse, who patrolled vast remote regions in ‘Augustus’.
On the success of the first mobile unit in Brewarrina, NSW, other district nursing units were commenced by the Methodist Church of Australasia in later years.
In order of establishment they were:
Brewarrina NSW 1946; Menindee NSW 1949; Newtown NSW 1949; Ashfield NSW date unknown; Brisbane (West End) Qld 1953; Newcastle NSW 1955; Port Kembla NSW 1961, Hungerford Qld 1966; and the spread of ‘Blue Nurses’ throughout Queensland from 1953.
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 Elk & Ice Books
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Australian Distributor
Since its publication and until it sold out, this book was kindly promoted and distributed by Dennis Jones and Associates Pty Ltd, Melbourne.
A TRUE ACCOUNT AS COMPELLING AND AMUSING AS THE OUTBACK ITSELF
“There are some books whose pages turn over by themselves. This is one such book. I find it breathtaking in its action. The audacity of the women who established the outback nursingservice, in an era when women were so restricted, is amazing. It is a gripping read.”
Rev Hon Dr Gordon Moyes, AC, MLC (foreword to book)
“Angels is a delightful and completely unassuming insight into the working life of two young women in some of the harshest and most remote regions of our bush. Told with candidacy, humour and a well-honed talent for keeping the action rolling, the story is one which needed to be told to the present generation, and one which cant fail to intrigue and amuse the reader.”
Shelley Ross, Australian Flying (May / June 2007)
“Stephanie Somerville has produced a remarkable account of the first two women to be deployed … This remarkable book … is a wonderful social history of an era that has long passed.”
Dr Keith Suter,
Radio 2GB, ‘Sunrise’ Network 7, Wesley Centre, aired: RADIO 2GB