At this year’s Anzac Day Dawn Service in Darwin, Territory nurses were represented by Janie Mason, of Charles Darwin University (CDU), and Greg Richard and Angela Brannelly, of Northern Territory Department of Health.
Together, they laid a wreath at the Cenotaph to commemorate nurses, both civilian and military, who served Australia during wartime.
At the end of the dawn service, they moved to the nursing plaque laid by CDU’s Nursing Museum, located on the walkway behind the Cenotaph.
There, with Marie Hughes and Velda Schubert, the five nurses laid bouquets of flowers on the plaque and paid special tribute to the memory of Sister Margaret de Mestre.
Sister Margaret died after Darwin’s first bombing raid on February 19, 1942, on the hospital ship Manunda, in the bay below the cliffs of the Cenotaph.