National History Challenge 2005

National winner of the WHM Racy Women's Category:
Amelia Street
Mary McConnel
St Catherine's School
Waverley NSW

Why is Mary McConnel important

Do you remember your first day at primary school? Do you remember the first time you had a detention that truly wasn't your fault? Do you remember the last time you went around to your best friend's house and laughed till you sides hurt? Imagine that those memories were taken away.

Imagine that you could only remember which teachers to avoid and not why, that you could only remember the names of your favourite movies but not what you loved about them. Imagine this and think about who that would make you. Would you exist without your passions, without your past?

That's why history is important. History is about who we are and why we are. It's about how we got here and where we're going. And it's about thinking, exploring, questioning everything on that journey.

Today we take hospitals for granted. If we're sick we call the emergency services and we know that help is on its way. Often we don't get very sick before our vaccinations or medications kick in, but I wanted to think about what happened long before that. The general theme for 2005 was "Australians All" and that made me think about children - without the kids there would be no Australians "all" or otherwise. I combined these two trains of thought and wondered who established the first children's hospitals in Australia. I hit on Mary McConnel, a woman well ahead of her time, who believed that children's health care was valuable. I was fascinated by the idea that children under five were actually refused admission to hospitals and appalled by the lack of information about Mary McConnel who established the first hospital for children in Queensland.

Synopsis

Mary McConnel (nee McLeod) was born in 1824, in Scotland, to a family involved in both medicine and the church, and died in Brisbane in 1910. In 1848 she married David McConnel who had recently been in Australia and arrived in Brisbane on 1 May 1849. They bought and developed a property at Bulimba, built Bulimba House and had two children. But after five years in Australia they returned to Europe in 1854 where Mary gave birth to four more children. In 1862, they returned to Australia for good. On 11 March 1878, Royal Brisbane Children's Hospital opened, with Mary as Patroness until her death. She wrote her memoirs, Memories of Days Gone By, in 1905. It was Mary's conviction of the need for a hospital for children, despite the prevailing opinion of the time that children under five were the responsibility of the medically untrained mother and her ability to go against the norms, challenging that belief, that led to the establishment of the Royal Brisbane Children's Hospital.
Amelia Street
February 2006

www.workingwonders.com.au/content/?id=140

www.workingwonders.com.au/content/?id=120

NB The story of Mary McConnel is to be the subject of a new module in the National Museum of Australia's Eternity Gallery in 2006.
Amelia - A Brief Biography.

Amelia Street was born at home in Adelaide but was moved to Sydney while still a baby. She was Vice-Captain and Dux of Claremont College, Randwick, where she did her primary schooling, and then she accepted a scholarship to St Catherine's School, Waverley for high school. She is now in Year 12 there and is the Enrichment prefect.

Over the years Amelia has had a number of interests, both academic and non-academic. Initially her academic interest focused on mathematics, twice being invited as one of 25 students Australia-wide to attend Australian Mathematical Olympiad training camps. Subsequently she was invited to attend the National Chemistry Summer School in January 2006. Last year she was one of the barristers for St Catherine's mock trial team which finished in the final 16.

She has always been very interested in composing music and in reading about history. The arrival of a new history teacher at St Catherine's meant that she became aware of the National History Challenge. She has always been disappointed by the fact that often few women feature in historical events and so Celebrating Racy Women seemed a small chance to redress this situation.

Her out-of-school interests include judo, for which she has a senior green belt, and bushwalking, recently spending a week hiking along a section of the Colo River. She is currently working towards her Gold Duke of Edinburgh award.

State winners of the Racy Women Category

WA - Tegan Flemming A celebration of the life and success of Kylie Minogue, Corpus Christie College, Willeton.

SA - Samantha Prendergast The life and social contributions of Dorothy Leila Rankine. Trinity College North Campus, Gawler.

VIC - Tyla Hodgson Kirsty McInnes Goldfields No Place for a Woman ,Yarra Valley Grammar, Ringwood