A woman of many firsts in Aviation Medicine
A specialist in aviation medicine, Group Captain Tracy Smart became the first woman appointed Chief Instructor and then Commanding Officer at the RAAF Institute of Aviation Medicine, holding the latter post from 1997-99 and 2003-04. Her special interest in women in aviation is evident in her published articles and papers presented nationally and internationally.
With service on Army medical missions on Bougainville, in Indonesia and in the Solomon Islands as well as inland Australia, Captain Kath Evans advises anyone wanting an adventurous or unusual career ‘if you want to do something, find someone else who likes doing it and ask them for encouragement and motivation – it’s easier than you think!’
Dr Catherine Hamlin (Nicholson) AC (1924- )
Australian obstetrician Dr Catherine Hamlin was born in Sydney on 24 January 1924, one of six children of Elinor and Theodore Nicholson. The family lived in the suburb of Ryde, at ‘The Hermitage’, built by John Blaxland in 1842. Catherine went to school at Frensham in Mittagong NSW, and in 1946 graduated from the University of Sydney Medical School.
Florence Narrelle Hobbes was born at Merriwinga Tilba Tilba, on the south coast of NSW on 21 August 1878. She was never known by her first name, but as Narrelle, after Queen Narrelle, wife of King Merriman, or Umbarra, the local Aboriginal tribal leader. Narrelle was the second youngest child of John T Hobbes, Police Magistrate, and his second wife Margaret Goldie. Her father had five children from a previous marriage, and then a son and seven daughters.
