School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

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    Evolution of a zoo: a history of the Melbourne Zoological Gardens, 1857-1900
    De Courcy, Catherine ( 1990)
    The Melbourne Zoo in the late twentieth century is a popular venue which attracts up to one and a half million visitors per year. It has a large income gathered from entrance fees, Government contribution and private sponsorship. The gardens are most attractive, some of the enclosures are of the latest design, there is an active and innovative education program which reaches large numbers of school children every year, the breeding programs have achieved some measure of success, and the collection of animals is large and diverse. Yet there is something discomfiting about an institution which holds baboons in wire cages with concrete floors and tigers in an enclosure not much bigger than a tennis court. A history of the institution can shed light on why the Zoo now incorporates such features; more importantly it can assist the contemporary administration in planning a Zoo by identifying the historical legacies and evaluating their relevance for a twenty-first century audience.
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    "Gentlemen, the ladies have come to stay!": the entry of women into the medical profession in Victoria and the founding of the Queen Victoria Hospital
    WELLS, MONIKA ( 1987)
    In 1890 Emma Constance stone became the first woman to be registered as a doctor in Australia. Unable to gain admission to an Australian medical school, she obtained her qualifications overseas. While she was away women gained entry to the Melbourne Medical School. Stone, and the Melbourne pioneering medical women, the first of whom graduated in 1891, later went on to perform a wide variety of medical work, but their most outstanding achievement was the foundation of the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital for Women in 1896. The pioneers encountered hostility from the medical profession, especially from the male medical students, and enjoyed widespread support: from women who welcomed a hospital where they would be treated only by qualified female practitioners. American and British medical women had already started their own hospitals in order to provide health care for women after established hospitals had refused to appoint them. In Melbourne, although similar opposition limited the opportunities of women, they were not completely excluded from hospital staffs. Unlike the overseas hospitals on which it was modelled, the Queen Victoria Hospital was not founded only, or even, perhaps, primarily as a result of exclusion. The more positive aim of providing health care for women by women was a powerful motive behind the setting up of a hospital for women officered by qualified female doctors. (From Introduction)