When Mary de Garis decided to study medicine in 1900, there weren’t many women doing that kind of thing. But she was never one for being held back by convention. When her fiancé died fighting for the Australian Imperial Forces during World War I, the Australian army was only accepting women as nurses, and so she signed up with the Scottish Women’s Hospital Corps. Operating on wounded soldiers in Macedonia and with bombs falling around her, she developed a reputation for being fearless. She became the commanding medical officer and was decorated for her services.

By 1919, she was Geelong’s first and only female doctor, practicing for a time at 98 Moorabool Street. By 1931, she was the first director of the Geelong hospital’s maternity suite, for which she had fiercely lobbied. She delivered 1000 babies without the death of a single mother, a record that British medical professionals didn’t believe. The rate of maternal mortality in those days was 1 in 200. Mary was still delivering babies at the age of 79. During one particularly physical forceps delivery, she fell off the box that she used to stand on to give herself extra height and traction. She promptly got up and dusted herself off. After all, there was a job still to finish.

Text: Maria Takolander.