Pittwater MP Jacqui Scruby will announce the Pittwater Woman of the Year at the Zonta International Women's Day Breakfast to be held at the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club this coming Thursday, March 6.
International Women's Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality. The 2025 theme is 'Accelerate Action'.
At the current rate of progress, it will take until 2158, which is roughly five generations from now, to reach full gender parity, according to data from the World Economic Forum. Focusing on the need to Accelerate Action emphasises the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality. It calls for increased momentum and urgency in addressing the systemic barriers and biases that women face, both in personal and professional spheres.
IWD has occurred for well over a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people. Today, IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere. IWD is not country, group or organisation specific.
In the lead into the announcement of the 2025 Pittwater Woman of the Year, and next Saturday's IWD celebrations, one of our former Pittwater inspirational ladies who would certainly have warranted being a Pittwater Woman of the Year, Dr. Lucy Gullett, who spent most of her life calling for gender equality.
While investigating Lucy a picture emerged of a Socialite who was also a socially conscious woman. Dr Gullett gave numerous Talks on various subjects, was a keen golfer and loved the outdoors, a bridge player, a frequenter of Race Days (horses), was very literate, a doctor of Medicine with a Major in Chemistry, an advocate for indigenous peoples health rights, but mostly a champion of women’s and children’s issues.
Lucy was a member of Sydney’s Feminist Club when ‘feminism’ was defined as ‘the Women’s Movement is no sex-limited thing, but a great human movement in which women are free to serve their day and generation in what ever direction their talents give them the opportunity, not apart from their men folk, but in conjunction with them'.
The heart of the Women’s Movement is the compassion and justice which should be at the centre of every woman's nature, to be called forth with an instant response for any and every personal, national or world need. It views with dismay the present attitude to the woman wage-earner in the financial stress of today, when her right to earn in order to live is often questioned. Neither can the movement stand idly by and endure the attitude of unthinking citizens to the needs and great injustices under which the aboriginal and half-caste citizens of Australia labour. (Rischbieth, Sydney Morning Herald, Dec. 1933).
This ‘feminism’ would have been fuelled by the attitude towards women during the earlier years of her. From the Heritage Document for Rachel Forster of 2008:
'Dagmar Berne, who enrolled in 1884 in an Arts degree at the University of Sydney and when at the end of her first year the University decided to also allow female students to enrol in Medicine, she became the first woman to do so.
While her fellow male students acknowledged her admirable concentration and immersion in her studies, Berne faced difficulties in receiving passes for all of her professional examinations, although she excelled in others, even winning Professor John Smith's Prize for Experimental Physics, an annual book prize awarded to the most distinguished student at the Class Examination Viva Voce in Experimental Physics. Anderson Stuart, the Dean of Medicine and HN Maclaurin, the University's Vice Chancellor were not supportive of women training in medicine, an indication of the kind of prejudice that Berne faced. Anderson Stuart said;
'while there is a place for a certain number of women in medicine, there are certain limitations of usefulness, and they will never, in my opinion, take the place, or be equal to men in general medical work',
while Maclaurin stated that he would never allow a woman to graduate in Medicine while he was Vice Chancellor.
In 1885 Berne had met Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, a British doctor lecturing at the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts. Having faced similar issues, Garrett Anderson suggested that Berne completed her studies at the London School of Medicine for Women, where Garret Anderson was Dean. Berne was fortunate in that she had a supportive family, with the kind of income that made this suggestion feasible, so in 1890, still not able to graduate, she travelled with her sister Florence to London. She graduated in 1891 from the London School of Medicine for Women, then proceeded to Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dublin for further qualifications. With these qualifications, work experience and glowing recommendations she returned to Sydney and on 9 January 1895 was registered with the Medical Board of New South Wales but still, as a woman, was not permitted to work in Sydney's hospitals. Berne set up a private practice in Macquarie Street and became heavily involved in public health and education, giving public lectures aimed particularly at women.
‘While women were permitted to study medicine at Sydney University from 1885 onwards, they were routinely denied appointments as residential medical officers in New South Wales public hospitals.
New South Wales would be the last of Australian hospitals to accept female resident medical officers. Female medical graduates in New South Wales typically undertook Health Department lecturing, travelled inter-state to undertake their residency in states were they could obtain hospital appointments, or worked at the Sydney Medical Mission in Elizabeth Street. Following a brief period during World War I when female doctors had been appointed to hospital wards, they once again faced exclusion from staff positions.’
Born the third child of Henry Gullett, a journalist and NSW Legislative Member from 1908-1914, whose mother Isabella, née Keats, was a cousin of the poet, and Lucy Elizabeth née Willie, who also under the pseudonym ‘Humming Bee’ and later hosted the first The Women's Literary Society meeting in her Drawing Room in 1890, Lucy grew up in an atmosphere of high culture and strong morals.
MARRIAGES.
GULLETT—WILLIE.—On the 25th ult., by the Rev. R. Hart, at the residence of the bride's parents, Henry Gullett, of Melbourne, to Lucy, daughter of Mr. W. Willie, of Williamstown. Family Notices (1872, December 2). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5843525
Named for her mother, with four sisters Amy Florence b 1873, Minnie Dorothea b1875, Bessie b 1878 d 1880, and Constance Winifred b 1882 (born in Sydney), Lucy and her sisters were educated and afforded all their parents could to produce healthy, active minds and a sense of caring for others and building community. They were a family of Australian ‘little women’.
Educated at Sydney Girls' High School Lucy then attended Sydney University to become a doctor (M.B., 1900; Ch.M., 1901).
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Photograph of Lucy Edith Gullett, doctor [no date], courtesy NSW State Records and Archives. Item: FL400630
W JOHNSON.
One of Sydney's leading photographic firms is situated in London Bank Chambers at the corner of Pitt and Market-streets, and directly opposite Farmer's. Mr. Johnson's work is of a very high-class quality, and his photographs are gems of art. Thare is a very big staff employed on the premises, and it is a pleasure to witness the deft manner in which the customers are dealt by the employees. Mr. Johnson is always ready to go to schools and colleges by appointment, and it would be of value if the heads of schools wrote to the Johnson Photographic Studios for term be fore going elsewhere. W JOHNSON. (1902, December 6). Freeman's Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1932), p. 38. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article111071335
Her mother passed away shortly before she graduated, aged just 46, on June 23 1900:
GULLETT.— June 23, at Hawkclough, Wahroonga, Lucy, the beloved wife of Henry Gullett. The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912) Sat 30 Jun 1900 Page 1557 Family Notices. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/165302780
DEATH OF MRS. H. GULLETT.
We regret to have to announce the death of Mrs. H. Gullett which took place on Saturday evening at her residence Wahroonga, from failure of the heart's action. Mrs. Gullett had a wide circle of friends, by whom her sudden demise will be deplored, both, in this colony and in Victoria. For many years during the editorship by her husband of the "Australasian " in Melbourne, she attended to the social department of that journal, and on coming to Sydney acted in a similar capacity in connection with "The Daily Telegraph."
She was a pioneer among lady journalists, and her excellent contributions to this paper will be well remembered by old subscribers. After relinquishing press work, she devoted considerable attention to philanthropic movements. Latterly she suffered greatly from ill-health, and her condition was further impaired by a severe attack of Influenza, while on a visit to England last year. On Saturday, afternoon she appeared to be In her usual health, but about half-past 5 o'clock she suddenly succumbed, her end being a painless one. The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930) Mon 25 Jun 1900 Page 4 DEATH OF MRS. H. GULLETT. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/237312843 [10]
FUNERAL OF MRS. GULLETT.
The funeral of Mrs. Henry Gullett, who died on Saturday, at her Residence at Wahroonga, took place yesterday afternoon, at the Gore Hill Cemetery, and there was a large gathering of relatives and friends to pay a last token of respect. The ceremony at the graveside was conducted by the Rev. R. Livingston, the incumbent of St. John's Church of England, Milson's Point. The coffin, which was of polished oak, was covered with floral tributes. The relatives present were Messrs. H. Gullett (husband), Thomas Heney (son-in-law), H. Gullett (nephew), and Sydney Ramsden and M. Somer (brothers-in-law), whilst amongst others were Messrs. Watkin Wynne (general manager of "The Daily Telegraph" Newspaper Company), W, Curnow. (editor of the "Sydney Morning Herald"), R. J. Black, M.L.C., A. de Lissa, R. Nall, A. P. Cooper, F. J. Donohue, J. C. Wharton, G. Marr, Thompson, Leslie Curnow, Walker, L. K. Ward, R. H.,Elvy, E. D. Hoben, P. Proctor, G.; H. Barrow, Trevor Jones, J. T. Ralston, and J. M. Couroy. The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930) Tue 26 Jun 1900 Page 5 FUNERAL OF MRS. GULLETT. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/237305211
Lucy’s career as a doctor began on Graduation, a ceremony presided over by the then Duke and Duchess of Cornwall, when she was the first female resident Medical Officer at the Women’s Hospital in Crown street from 1901 to 1902. By May 31st, 1902, she was heading north to be resident Medical Officer at the Children’s Hospital, Brisbane.
We get a glimpse of what she was confronted with soon after arriving there in the form of one of the scourges of the time ‘ptomaine poisoning’. From the Brisbane Courier of July 5th, 1902,
“At the South Brisbane court yesterday, Mr R.D. Neilson J.P, concluded a Magisterial Inquiry into the death of William Holger Ludwig Schipper, aged 12 years, who died at the Children’s Hospital June 7th last, and Waldemar George Schipper, aged 5 years, who died in the same institution on the 9th of June last.
Dr. Lucy Edith Gullett, resident medical officer Children’s Hospital, deposed that on the 5th the deceased were admitted into the hospital. They were both in a state of weakness when brought in. On the evening of the 5th June she came to the conclusion they were suffering from ptomaine poisoning. Both boys died in the hospital, Wilhelm on the 7th June, and Waldemar on the 9th June. Ptomaine poisoning was caused by the condition set up after consuming decomposed meat or vegetable matter. A decomposed sausage or cooked corned beef, in her opinion, could have caused the poisoning, She did not think that the condensed milk -would have caused so violent an attack. The poison would not have been caused by the cheese. In her opinion the two boys died from ptomaine poisoning.”
Lucy was a GP at Bathurst from 1906 to 1911 - this article hints at how women doctors were perceived then:
SOME OF OUR WOMEN DOCTORS.
We give on this page the portraits of some of the women doctors whose names appear on the Register of Medical Practitioners for 1906, by way of illustration of the controversy regarding the status of the sex in medicine, which is at present raging.
On the opposite page is a special article in which plain views are expressed regarding what may be described as the 'Dr. Aspinall' controversy, and the situation of New South Wales' women practitioners— numbering between 20 and 30 generally, with regard not only to the Hospitals and the Senate, but also to the male practitioner and to their own sex. At the same time opportunity is taken to express some opinions upon the position of the medical man in relation to medical ethics, and the responsibility |his position places on him.
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Photo. by Swiss Studios. DR. GRACE BOELKE. Photo. by Tesla. DR. AGNES BENNETT. Photo. by Tesla. DR. IZA COGHLAN. Photo. by Talma, 374 George-street. DR. ALICE NEWTON-TABRETT. Photo. by Charleston, Newcastle. DR. MAY HARRIS. Photo. by Swiss Studios. DR. MABEL GRAHAM. Photo. by Falk Studios. DR. KATIE HOGG. Photo. by Bain Studios. DR. LUCY GULLETT. Photo, by Talma, 374 George-street. DR. LAURETTA KRESS. Photo. by Tesla. DR. ELLEN M. WOOD. Photo. by Tesla. DR. MARY BOOTH. Photo. by Tesla. DR. HARRIETT BIFFIN. Photo. by Talma, 374 George-street. DR. ALICE PRITCHARD. SOME OF OUR WOMEN DOCTORS. (1906, February 28). The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), p. 555. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article164043957
Lucy returned to Wahroonga to live with her unmarried sister Minnie and opened a practice in North Sydney in 1912. Her father had a large home and garden, Hindfell, at Wahroonga, where he entertained often but quietly. Henry Gullet died there on 4 August 1914 and was buried in the Anglican section of Gore Hill cemetery. He was survived by four daughters including Dr Lucy Gullett and Amy, who married T. W. Heney, his successor at the Herald. His estate was valued for probate at £137,831, which diminished Lucy's appetite for practicing medicine and enabled her to focus on her more volunteer work. [4.]
The Gullett sisters campaigned together for mental health reform from 1912 on.
Minnie Gullett, a Shakespeare 'buff', enthusiastic member of the Lunacy Reform League of Australia, was also a generous supporter of stray animals, drunks and ex-patients from lunatic asylums to whom she devoted most of her inheritance. Dr Gullett publicly shared Minnie's concern for mental health reform. Together they also persuaded their reluctant sisters to commission from (Sir) Bertram Mackennal the Shakespeare memorial that their father had proposed just before he died in 1914. Costing some £10,000, the six-figure group was installed in February 1926 on a prominent site near the Mitchell Library. [5]
'Four Winds' at Palm Beach
In 1912 Lucy Gullet was one of the ‘spinsters’ who purchased a block of land on Sunrise Hill, Palm Beach overlooking Palm Beach Golf Course. Reputed to be playing bridge most afternoons at this time, Lucy must have longed for the links and wilds and peace of Barranjoey, as it was spelled then. A house was built at 40 Sunrise Road, which stood until a recent rebuild.
Lucy paid £100 to The Barrenjoey Company in 1912 and received £1025 when she relinquished her ‘weekender’ 10 years later.
Lucy Gullet Lot 151 - sold to Eldred Moses in 1922
Records show Eldred Moser bought the house from Dr. Lucy Gullett in 1922 when it was named it "Four Winds". This was a 1534 sq m Sunrise Road holding with a cottage of a sandstone base, probably from the site itself, and rough-cast walling called 'pebble-dash'.
The Four Winds are the classical compass winds, the winds associated with the points of the compass, and may refer to the situation of the weekender on the land; open to all cooling breezes from all directions.
Given Lucy was a member of a literate family, in literature and mythology they can refer to a group of mythical figures in Mesopotamian whose names and functions correspond to four cardinal directions of wind. They were both cardinal concepts (used for mapping and understanding geographical features in relation to each other) as well as characters with personality, who could serve as antagonistic forces or helpful assistants in myths.
In ancient Greek religion and myth, the Anemoi (Greek: Ἄνεμοι, "Winds") were wind gods who were each ascribed a cardinal direction from which their respective winds came (Classical compass winds), and were each associated with various nature, seasons and weather conditions. They were the progeny of the goddess of the dawn Eos and her husband, the god of the dusk, Astraeus.
Mr. Moser was a Wool Broker, a foundation member of the Palm Beach Golf Club and President of the Surf Life Saving Club from 1933 to 1935. He passed away in the Spring of 1937, although his family held onto his weekender on Sunrise road until recently.
OBITUARY.
MR. E. R. MOSER.
Mr. Eldred Roger Moser, chairman of directors of Schute, Bell, Badgery, Lumby, Ltd., woolbrokers, died at his residence at North Sydney on Friday. He was one of the oldest personalities in the wool trade in Sydney, having been associated with it for more than 50 years. He was one of the original partners of Schute, Bell, and Co., Ltd., which began operations in 1906. He was also a director of the Sun Insurance Office, Ltd.
He was president of the Palm Beach Sun Club, and a member of the Union Club and the Royal Sydney Golf Club. He was unmarried.
The funeral took place privately at Rookwood on Saturday. OBITUARY. (1937, September 7). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 8. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17398590
Mr. Shorter provides:
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Enlarged section from EB Studios (Sydney, N.S.W.). (1917-1925). Panorama of Palm Beach, New South Wales, 12 Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-162488494 - with Barranjoey House
The rounds of golf Dr. Gullett may have played on our local Palm Beach Golf Course during its first years, with sisters Minnie and Winnie accompanying her there, as may have other guests, could have been supplemented by late afternoon bridge, as her recorded habits suggest. Palm Beach had become ‘the place to be’ by the 1920’s, sophisticates had moved in among the fishermen and dairy cow herders.
After selling at Palm Beach Lucy became a land owner along the Collaroy-Narrabeen stretch of holiday weekenders, possibly as this was closer to her 'town premises and work' and easier to access.
These weekend idylls were interrupted by Lucy travelling to France during 1915-1916 to serve in the French Red Cross military hospital at Lyons at her own expense:
A Lady Doctor on Tour.
Among the Mongolia passengers, which left Melbourne this week, was- Dr. Lucy Gullet, a daughter of the late Australian man of letters, Mr. Henry Gullett. Dr. Lucy proposes to take up her profession In one of the hospitals of either Egypt or Malta. Whilst working in Australia she was on the staff of the Children's Hospital In Brisbane, and practised privately both in Bathurst and in the northern suburbs of Sydney. She belongs to a very brainy family, her late parents being both noted Australian journalists. Her mother was one of the first women editors of Victoria, and was the first lady to conduct the Woman's Pages of the 'Australasian.' Dr. Lucy Gullett is accompanied by Miss Constance Carson on her tour, the latter being also determined 'to help in hospital work in the busy East'. Through the Eye of a Woman. (1915, November 20). The Mirror of Australia (Sydney, NSW : 1915 - 1917), p. 20. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article104643856
An account of her experience indicates she was what is termed today a 'lifelong learner':
FRENCH HOSPITALS.
DR. LUCY GULLETT'S IMPRESSIONS.
"Perfectly marvellous surgery, combined with an automatic system of organisation," is in brief the impression which her work as one of the medical staff in a voluntary hospital for wounded, at Lyons, in the south of France, has left upon the mind of Dr. Lucy Gullett.
Dr. Gullett, who was seen at her home at Wahroonga, returned yesterday by the Mongolia, after a passage containing no more perilous adventures than the beholding of a submarine a very long way off.
"My work at the hospital in Lyons was entirely among French wounded," she said. "The hospital is the Ulster Volunteer Hospital, financed to a great extent by the Ulster league. Although under the Red Cross of France, the institution is supported partly by the French Government. The French Red Cross is a poor society, and would be absolutely unable to finance any of its undertakings without Government assistance. But the Government pays so much per capita to each hospital, and donations supplement the necessarily small sum. Nursing was done at first chiefly by the religious orders. There is no organised system of trained nursing, as with us, and of course, the religious help had to be rein-forced by other women, who were untrained to start with, but now they have had all the practical and very tragic experience of the past two years, and the nursing in the hospitals throughout France is very good. In my hospital there were probationers and V.A.D.'s, and everything was thoroughly done.
"Wounded! France is full of maimed and broken men. The number of armless or of legless men one sees would be appalling were it not that the fact of there being so many of them in that state speaks volumes for the magnificent genius of French surgery. In the Lyons arrondissement alone there was accommodation for 57,000 wounded. In the first days of Verdun, when the wounded poured in to our hospital, as they did into all the others, I used to be lost in admiration of the fine state of the wounds, and the dressings which had been done at the field dressing stations, and then the men would be entrained as quickly as possible to us. It took 36 hours to get them to Lyons from Verdun at quickest, sometimes longer, but here, lest I forgot, I should like to tell you how wonderfully accurate the French rail-way time tables are kept. No matter what pressure is put upon the traffic by the passing of extra troop trains or wounded traffic, the ordinary trains are never delayed, and every-thing goes on like clock work. The British and Australian wounded are got off to Eng-land, and the French wounded are distributed throughout the country, and absolutely no time is lost once the men have been taken off the field.
"Some of those poor fellows were carried in, and when I went to them I found them just quivering masses of agony. Strange you will think it, that most of the wounds are in the back. In trench warfare the men are lying down or protecting their faces as much as they can. Abdominal wounds are comparatively rare. There are in Lyons establishments for each kind of wound, one hospital for the mutilated, another for face wounds—the face wounds are the worst of all! —another for head wounds, another for nervous cases. Head wounds are much more numerous than they were before the steel helmets were invented. The reason is that, without the helmets, the head wound was nearly invariably fatal. I have seen helmets bent and twisted like a sardine tin that has been opened with a fork. But the head inside it would be but slightly hurt.
"We never heard the number of the wounded. There are no casualty lists published in France. We know nothing, except what the communiques told us day by day. No-body except the high officials of the War Office know what the French casualty list is. The only thing the wounded know was this: that Verdun would never be taken. They all told us that. No matter how great the slaughter had been, these wounded sons of France had always the same story, told with cheerful faith and invincible courage: 'Verdun is impregnable.' No matter how terrible their own wounds, their spirit was as bright as ever, their love for and devotion to their own country quite unquenchable. The convalescents soon learned to make things. They made beautiful toys, and did raffia work and light woodwork, also silver rings and other little trinkets. They are so adaptable, and have quick fingers. I was among those who saw the returned prisoners come from Germany via Switzerland. The hospital train was arrayed with flowers and flags, and bands were playing on the station. These were 'Poitrinaires,' chest and lung cases. They looked deathly ill, and had gone grey and old looking, and were much emaciated, but that might have been the result of their ill-ness, and not necessarily of starvation. But that hospital train was a dreadful sight.
"At the Paris Gare, on my way to London, I found everybody had to get his or her own luggage and push his own trolly. There were no porters. Women were the tram and omnibus conductors, and all the cabmen were old. Women and old men brought in the last harvest, which was a very bountiful one. The women in France have been working splendidly and so have the priests. In the Lyons Hospital the work of orderlies was done by young priests. They would celebrate Mass in the morning and then doff their robes, put on overalls, take broom and bucket and get to work to clean and scour. In London I met Miss Carson, of Sydney, who had been with me in Egypt. She is now checking casualty lists at the War Office branch in the Tate Gallery." FRENCH HOSPITALS. (1916, November 3). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15701340
All the while Lucy worked to elevate the status of women whether they were poor and struggled as single mothers to look after children or were professionals denied a place in their fields until things were 'shifted' through law.
By 1921, perhaps an added reason for giving up the property, Dr Gullett, inspired by a visit to a conference at the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital in Melbourne, managed and run by women, one of only three such in the world when it was opened in 1892, returned to Sydney determined to set up a similar facility, also to be managed and run by women.
Records state Lucy trudged around and round the streets of Surry Hills and adjacent suburbs looking for something that could work.
This action and its main objective attracted the wrong kind of attention or seemed to make her a target of sorts - with her life littered by incidences of others seeking to stop her from standing up for others. One such incident that made it into the records, and was viewed as ridiculous by one required to 'judge her', is:
DR. LUCY GULLETT CHARGED.
Dr. Lucy Gullett was before the Summons Court today on an information alleging that she had not paid her tram fare. The defendant said she had no intention of evading payment, and had the money in her hand the whole time, but the conductor did not come round.
The Magistrate, in dismissing the information, said: "Surely you cannot expect a lady to run after a moving tram to pay her fare. To say the least of it, it would have been undignified. Here is a passenger with the money in her hand ready to pay her fare, but the guard does not come near her. She offered the money to the inspectors who stopped her, and they say they have no authority to accept a fare. Well, well!" DR. LUCY GULLETT CHARGED. (1921, November 18). Daily Examiner (Grafton, NSW : 1915 - 1954), p. 5. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article195344405
On 3 January 1922, Dr's Biffin's and Gullett’s plans for a women’s hospital materialised. Together, with Biffin’s mother Eliza and other women doctors and their relatives, they funded the purchase of a small two-storey abandoned terrace house for £1000 at 11 Lansdowne Street Surry Hills for a charitable outpatient dispensary for women and children.
The New Hospital for Women and Children, 11 Lansdowne Street, Surry Hills c1922, courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales [MSS 2458 ] (Mitchell Library)
With Harriet Biffin, who had a holiday cottage at Clareville, she founded the NSW Association of Registered Women Doctors and went on to repair the terrace and named its primitive dispensary The New Hospital for Women and Children, with Dr. Biffin serving as honorary treasurer from its outset. It provided two medical clinics each day: a venereal disease clinic, and an eye clinic, and was open three evenings each week for women workers. Doctors made house calls where situations were urgent.
The New Hospital for Women and Children was founded by Biffin and Gullett with a twofold aim: to serve poor women and children with general illness (excluding maternity issues), and to provide Sydney women medical students, graduates and specialists with the necessary professional clinical experience in medicine and surgery.
Biffin and her mother Eliza remained life governors of the hospital.
The New Hospital for Women and Children became so popular with Sydney women that it soon needed a larger site. Again Gullett and Biffin encouraged the raising of necessary funds and ‘was able to rally round them, from among their patients, a tremendous force of willing helpers and contributors'. Gullett and Biffin and their mainly middle-class women philanthropists raised enough money to purchase a two-storey house with thirteen rooms for £3500 at 195 George Street Street Redfern (now Clyde House) in 1924, which served as a small inpatients hospital with a single public ward. A year later it was renamed the Rachel Forster Hospital for Women and Children.
New premises — with room to grow 1924, courtesy From the collections of the State Library of New South Wales [MSS 2458] (Mitchell Library)
The Rachel Forster Hospital offered the first generation of Sydney women medical students and physicians a workplace where they could receive hospital experience. At ‘The Rachel’ their university medical training was valued and rewarded, and they could access specialist knowledge, work in honorary positions and be appointed to senior roles critical to their career development. These were difficult for women doctors to obtain and routinely denied them particularly after World War I when medical servicemen returned from the war.
Gullett's and Biffin’s own experiences as medical students informed their treatment of new women medical practitioners, and she ensured work was given to young women starting their careers. Dr. Biffin insisted on having a female anaesthetist when undertaking surgical work, and claimed in 1923: ‘This hospital was started to afford an opportunity for experience and further training of women doctors - no other hospital affords this.’
The Rachel Forster Hospital developed an outstanding and far-reaching reputation, especially in the areas of gynaecology and paediatrics. It served generations of Sydney women and children, and patients travelled from all parts of Sydney, including wealthier suburbs, to access its unique services. During Dr. Gullett and Dr. Biffin’s lifetime it remained a hospital founded, staffed and run by women for women, the long-time dream of Gullett, Biffin and many other pioneer Sydney women doctors.
Dr.s Gullett and Biffin were actively involved in repeated attempts during the 1920s to have the hospital officially recognised by the New South Wales Hospitals’ Advisory Board. Lucy retained her belief it should remain administered by women and fully reliant on philanthropic subscriptions, and was opposed to state financial assistance, which she feared would enable male involvement in the hospital’s governance.
By 1930 the Rachel Forster Hospital was gazetted as a second schedule hospital under the Public Hospitals Act of 1929 after an eight-year struggle. It urgently needed to expand its facilities and land was purchased at 134-150 Pitt Street Redfern. Although she was involved in plans for its development, Dr. Biffin did not live to see the large 124-bed modern hospital that opened in December 1941.
Women Work for Women:
I AM surprised to hear that the committee of the Rachel Forster Hospital for Women and Children have not found a woman architect to design their new hospital for a hundred beds. They are such sticklers for their own sex with twenty-eight visiting women doctors and only three men consultants. Mrs. F. J. Davy ls the president of the committee which is arranging a ball at the Trocadero on June 16 to help finance the new building. Dame Constance D'Arcy and Dr. Lucy Gullett are the medical representatives helping with the arrangements. Intimate Jottings. (1938, May 7). The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), p. 23. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5224849
Rachel Forster Hospital, George Street, Redfern 15 June 1938, courtesy By Alec Iverson From the collections of the State Library of New South Wales [ACP Magazines Photographic Archive ON 388/Box 033/Item 082, 3] (Mitchell Library)
From 1918 to 1932 Lucy was an honorary outpatients physician with the Renwick Hospital for Infants, and a councillor of the Sydney District Nursing Association from 1934 to 1949.
Dr. Gullett was also among the first women to stand for a state seat in the NSW Parliament, and stood as an Independent. Although unsuccessful in her bid, her reasons for doing so are still relevant today, perhaps even more so given the recent collusion between the major to political parties to reduce the capacity for others to provide a voice for their communities.
See: Federal Electoral Reform Bill passed by the Labor-Liberal Alliance
The papers of then ran:
DR. LUCY GULLETT.
Candidate for North Sydney.
Dr. Lucy Gullett, who has announced her intention of standing as an independent can-didate for the North Sydney State electorate at the next general election, addressed a meeting of the Cammeray committee of the United Associations at Kirribilli last night.
There might be an election at any time, said Dr. Gullett, though that was unlikely at present. Women, she proceeded, had been enfranchised for years, yet women had singularly failed to take their place in Australian politics as com-pared with what they had done in Britain, in the United States, and in various Continental countries.
Looking at things from the feminist point of view, there could be no doubt that as legislators for those of their own sex and for children they could fill a useful place. Married women should have full economic freedom, and there were other ways in which women parliamentarians could render valuable assistance.
She was standing as an independent candidate because party government had signally failed, and was of no use to Australia. It had been spoken of as a necessary evil. An evil it certainly was, but it was by no means necessary. It had now developed into a war of capital versus labour, and whichever side might win the consequences could be nothing but disastrous. DR. LUCY GULLETT. (1931, September 18). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 10. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16821092
Dr Lucy Edith Gullett circa 1932 - from: SOME OF THE CANDIDATES WHO ARE CONTESTING SEATS AT THE APPROACHING STATE ELECTIONS. (1932, June 6). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 10. Retrieved February 28, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16915175
Lucy's championing of women’s rights and issues, her kindness to stray animals, her attendance to small details are recorded as, “often bring parcels of groceries to her poorer patients, and it was she who insisted that their hospital Outpatients’ Department should be open at night once a week so that working women should not lose a day’s pay for attending hospital. She was also a great dog lover and fed stray dogs from all over Kirribilli, where she and her sister lived.” (Cohen, L. 1972).
In 1922-33 the Gullett sisters lived in a waterfront house built for them at Kirribilli. Their last home was in Wyagdon Street, North Sydney.
In 1943, her sister Minnie passed away. Lucy then lived with the cellist June Holland.
MISS MINNIE GULLETT DEAD
Miss Minnie Gullett, second daughter of the late Mr. Henry Gullett, a former associate editor of "The Sydney Morning Herald," and later editor of the "Dally Telegraph," died yesterday morning at her home at North Sydney. Her surviving sisters are Dr Lucy Gullett, of North Svdney, Mis Ivor Etherington, and Mrs T W Heney, of Leura, whose husband, the late Mr T W Heney was editor of the "Herald" from 1903 to 1918, and later editor of the "Daily Telegraph."
Miss Gullett was a cousin of the late Sir Henry Gullett, MP, who was also once a member of the "Herald" staff. During her life she gave devoted service to humanitarian and charitable work. MISS MINNIE GULLETT DEAD (1943, December 30). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17870129
In 1946 a convalescent home named after her was opened:
LUCY GULLETT HOME.
Dr. Lucy. Gullett, after whom the new convalescent home for the Rachel Forster Hospital has been named, said last night that the opening of the home "would empty hospital beds about a fortnight earlier than at present.
"Many of the patients would re-turn to poor homes, so we have kept them in hospital until they are quite strong," she said. "The convalescent home al Bexley will be a wonderful help to the hospital."
Dr. Gullett, one of the founders of the hospital in 1922, has been a vice president for many years, and takes an active interest in the work which she helped to establish.
Approximately £600 is already in hand for the Ascham Diamond Jubi-lee Building and Development Fund from the Ascham Jubilee Ball' held at the Trocadero. The president of the Old Girls' Union, Mrs. John D. Nisbett. entertained thc official party at the dance, including the former headmistress, Miss M. A. Bailey, the present headmistress, Dr. Hilda Ray ward, and several, members of thc Council of Governors. LUCY GULLETT HOME. (1946, August 8). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 7. Retrieved , from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article29764703
LUCY GULLETT HOME OPENED
The Lucy Gullett Convalescent Home, which will be used in association with the Rachael Forster Hospital, was opened by the chairman of the honorary medical staff of the hospital, Dr. Kathleen Cunningham, at Bexley on Saturday afternoon.
The convalescent home has been named after Dr. Gullett in appreciation of her work and interest. With the late Dr. Harriett Biffin she was one of the founders of the Rachael Forster Hospital. The home was formerly Wansleaf, the hostel of the Women's Australian National Services which operated during the war years. LUCY GULLETT HOME OPENED (1946, November 11). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 7. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18002030
A long-time sufferer from nephritis, Lucy died on November 12, 1949, some months after suffering a stroke. The Sydney Morning Herald ran:
DR. GULLETT DEAD
Notable Career
One of Australia's first woman doctors, Dr. Lucy Gullett, 73, of Wyagdon Street, North Sydney, died at the Rachel Forster Hospital for Women on Saturday.
Dr. Gullett was the third daughter of Mr. Henry Gullett, M.L.C., and a cousin of the late Sir Henry Gullett. Sir Henry, who was formerly Vice-President of the Executive Council, was killed in a plane crash in 1940.
Dr. Gullett was also a cousin of the Sydney Journalist, Isabell Gullett, and sister-in-law of the former Editor of "The Sydney Morning Herald" and the "Daily Telegraph," the late Mr. T. W. Heney.
The Lucy Gullett Convalescent Home at Bexley was named after her. She was a co-founder of the Rachel Forster Hospital, and remained on the hospital board until her last illness six months ago.
She was educated at Sydney High School and Sydney University. She obtained her degree in 1902. In the First World War she served as a medical officer in a French military hospital at Lyons.
After the war she joined the honorary staff of the Renwick Hospital for Infants, and later the Government Baby Health Centre. She was also on the board of the District Nurses' Association.
There will be a private funeral to-day. DR. GULLETT DEAD (1949, November 14). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 5. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18129178
One of the women she worked with stated in a letter to the same newspaper:
Dr. Lucy Gullett
Sir,—As one who had the privilege of working for many years with the late Dr Lucy Gullett, I should like to amplify the obituary notice which appeared in your columns on November 14.
In political aspects of medicine, which are transient, we are apt to lose sight of the steadfast and self-less humanitarianism which is the essential characteristic of the good doctor.
Dr. Gullett in her nature and in her long service to her patients and to the community exemplified the true spirit of medicine. For many years, as honorary physician to the Rachel Forster Hospital she cared for the women and children of one of Sydney's poorest districts; she conducted an evening clinic for mothers who could not spare time during the day to attend to their own health; especially during the bleak days of the depression they drew comfort and courage from her, they loved lo talk with her for she seemed always to have time to listen and to give them something of herself, her wisdom, and her unfailing cheerfulness.
Dr. Gullett doggedly refused to be daunted by the endless difficulties and dangers which beset the infancy and childhood of the hospital which she helped to found. In the early days she plodded round South Sydney till she found a site for a building, she regarded debit balances as an asset and intransigent officialdom as a joke. For twenty-five years she used her wit, her gift of words, her kindness and her unreasonable optimism to touch the hearts of women in every walk of life and in every part of Sydney, so that they became permanent and ardent sup-porters of the hospital.
It is characteristic of her that in her speech at the opening of the fine new building of which she had dreamed for so long she said, "and now we want a convalescent home for our patients;" and within a very few years this dream too became the reality which bears her name.
KATHARINE OGILVIE. Edgecliff. Dr. Lucy Gullett (1949, November 18). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18135727
Lucy's will included a bequest of 2,000 books to the Newcastle Public Library, including many reference books.
Dr Gullett clearly knew that healing is not just about skills you learn at University. Healing is something that comes from your heart as much as your hands. Healing is something you experience in your connection with the land as much as kindness from others.
From her Great Uncle, whose blood ran in her veins, words that remind us of her days in Palm Beach breezes;
To one who has been long in city pent,
’Tis very sweet to look into the fair
And open face of heaven,—to breathe a prayer
Full in the smile of the blue firmament.
Who is more happy, when, with hearts content,
Fatigued he sinks into some pleasant lair
Of wavy grass, and reads a debonair
And gentle tale of love and languishment?
Returning home at evening, with an ear
Catching the notes of Philomel,—an eye
Watching the sailing cloudlet’s bright career,
He mourns that day so soon has glided by:
E’en like the passage of an angel’s tear
That falls through the clear ether silently.
John Keats, Sonnet XIV
Further Reading - References
Warringah Shire Council Records: Dr. Harriet E. Biffin, 12/4/22, submitting plan of sub- division of Lots 42/43, Clareville Beach Estate, Pittwater Plan be approved if Engineer so recommends.
- Cohen, L. 1971. Rachel Forster Hospital, the First 50 years, PDF; (left) supplied by the Elizabeth Bass Collection, Matas Library, New Orleans.
- Heritage Impact Statement for Rachel Forster Hospital retrieved from: http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/asp//pdf/07_0029/HIS.pdf
- Supposed poisoning in South Brisbane. (1902, July 5). The Brisbane Courier, QLD (1864-1933), P.7. Retrieved 17th of April, 2011 from; http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19203225
- A distinguished lady doctor by Lisa Murray, 2017 - Dagmar Berne from dictionaryofsydney.org/blog/a_distinguished_lady_doctor
- Witton, Vanessa, Biffin, Harriett Eliza, Dictionary of Sydney, 2018, https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/biffin_harriett_eliza
- Ann M. Mitchell, 'Gullett, Lucy Edith (1876–1949)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gullett-lucy-edith-6505/text11161, published first in hardcopy 1983
- The NSW Women's Legal Status Bill 1918: How The 'Petticoat Interference In Government' Came Of Age - A 100 Years Celebration Of Women Alike Our Own Maybanke Selfe-Wolstenholme-Anderson
- TROVE - National Library of Australia
- The State Library of NSW, the Mitchell Library
- Henry Gullett tried to retire from journalism but in 1901 was induced to edit The Daily Telegraph. By February 1903, when he finally retired, he was the largest shareholder in the Daily Telegraph Newspaper Co. Ltd, and remained a director until he was nominated to the Legislative Council in 1908. He attended regularly but he was nervous of making 'extempore speeches'; his only legislative contribution was the Defamation Amendment Act of 1909. - from G. N. Hawker, 'Gullett, Henry (Harry) (1837–1914)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gullett-henry-harry-6504/text11155, published first in hardcopy 1983,
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