In August 2023, an historical 'first' took place at the Australian War Memorial. A sculpture of Vivian Bullwinkel, one of Australia’s most decorated Army nurses, was installed in the forecourt of the nation’s museum to all things war and military conflict.
It was a landmark moment in its then 82-year history: the first time an Australian nurse and an individual woman in defence service had received such an honour. The sole survivor of a shocking war crime in February 1942 on Bangka Island, 21 of Sister Bullwinkel’s Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) comrades perished, executed by members of the Japanese Imperial Army. They had just escaped the fall of Singapore.
She then survived the brutality and privations of being a prisoner-of-war (POW) for three-and-a-half years, liberated in September 1945 after a dogged search for the nurses in the tropical mountains of Sumatra.
To a shocked nation, Cinesound newsreels reveal the first pictures of the rescued women recovering in Singapore before passage home to relieved families in Australia. Reportedly, army authorities wouldn’t allow them to travel until they had put on weight, such were the fears around allowing the Australian public to see them after their brutal experience.
Excerpt from Cinesound Review 0727. First Pictures: Massacre Survivors, 1945. Courtesy: Cinesound Movietone Productions. NFSA title: 83987
As ‘the one nurse’ who ‘survived a machine gun massacre’, the spotlight is squarely on 29-year-old 'Sister Viv', a position she endured for the rest of her life.
Their ordeal became a ground-breaking radio serial in 1955, the pejoratively-titled White Coolies*, adapted from the eponymous 1954 memoir written by Vivian’s friend, fellow Army nurse and camp survivor, Betty Jeffrey. A mostly female cast features bright talents of the day, including Ruth Cracknell (Mother and Son) and June Salter (The Mavis Bramston Show).
Written and produced by women, 52 episodes of pioneering radio drama gave voice to the horror the nurses endured and friendships that saw them through it. This was decades before Bruce Beresford’s cinematic tilt at the story, Paradise Road (1997).
In the clip that follows, Vivian recalls the harrowing story of the massacre on the beach to her fellow nurses in the POW camp. It is jarring audio, designed to shock and drive home the horrors of war.
Excerpt from radio serial White Coolies, episode 7, 1955. NFSA title: 221463
Warning: this audio clip describes the massacre of soldiers and army nurses in the Second World War and may be distressing for some listeners. It also contains caricatured Japanese voices which listeners may find offensive.
*The NFSA acknowledges that the term 'coolies' is a racist and derogatory term and that the title White Coolies reflects the language and attitudes of the historical period in which it was created.
Following the Second World War, Vivian Bullwinkel became one of Australia’s most beloved nursing figures, spending the rest of her life in the service of others and upholding the memory of her AANS sisters lost so horribly in the world’s biggest war to date.
Her extraordinary life is depicted in the superb 2007 documentary Vivian Bullwinkel: An Australian Heroine, which is held in the NFSA collection. It’s an intimate portrait that reflects her giant spirit, big smile and selfless dedication.
Spanning her action-packed eight decades of life, the 51-minute film chronicles young Vivian growing up in Broken Hill, her enlistment as an Army nurse taking her to the ill-fated war in Singapore, and her medical service post-war.
The DVD features priceless extras, including Super-8 footage of Vivian in the grounds of Melbourne’s Fairfield Hospital where she was matron for 17 years then Director of Nursing, and an oral history interview where she discusses Operation Babylift, an orphan rescue mission she led in 1975 just before the end of the Vietnam War. Marriage and retirement would follow.
Full circle now, the 'mature' actor June Salter proudly introduces the 1977 Anzac Day-eve edition of This Is Your Life, dedicated to ‘Matron Bullwinkel’. It’s another incredible NFSA collection treasure, teleporting us back to the time of hair sets, long evening frocks and 'surprise TV'.
The 1970s wasn’t exactly the era of trauma-informed television interviews. Host Roger Climpson is clearly in awe of his guest, but nonetheless drags Vivian through her harrowing story in front of live cameras, an adoring studio audience, and the myriad of ex-POW friends in tow.
As difficult as it is watching 60-something Vivian relive her trauma, it’s also precious television witnessing these women come together decades after enduring such hardship and precarious tomorrows. There’s not a dry eye in the house.
Excerpt from This is Your Life Ep 3/012. Vivian Bullwinkel, 1977. NFSA title: 28530
Mrs Vivian Statham (née Bullwinkel) made it her life’s work to honour and advocate for her lost comrades. In Every Inch Of the Way, a 1993 educational film made by the Department of Veterans' Affairs, along with male ex-prisoners of the Japanese, she discusses the difficulties the women faced in captivity.
Excerpt from Every Inch of the Way. Film Australia, 1990. NFSA title: 1417873
Deeply moving, it leaves no question around the unique position ex-prisoners-of-war and their families in post-Second World War Australia occupied for decades to come.
This was just seven years before her death aged 84 in her adopted home city, Perth, where she received a state funeral.
It’s no wonder that in September 2024, Western Australia named a shiny new electorate after Lieutenant Colonel Vivian Bullwinkel AO, MBE, ARRC, ED, yet another 'first' in the continuing legacy of this remarkable woman of wartime.
Megan Spencer is a writer, broadcaster and film critic. She also makes award-winning audio podcasts about wartime remembrance for Australia's leading war memorials, including the Australian War Memorial, Shrine of Remembrance and Virtual War Memorial Australia.
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