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18 December 1915 |
Vivian is born in Kapunda, South Australia and, from the age of six, is raised by her maternal grand parents |
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Late 1920s |
Vivian rejoins her family in Broken Hill |
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March 1934 |
Vivian begins her nursing training at the Broken Hill & Districts Hospital |
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1937 |
Vivian finishes her training and moves to Hamilton, Victoria to work at Kiaora Private Hospital |
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1940 |
Vivian moves to Melbourne and nurses at Guildford Private Hospital and the Queen Victoria Hospital (Jessie McPherson wing) |
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May 1941 |
Vivian joins the army and does basic training at Puckapunyal |
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15 September 1941 |
Vivian arrives in Singapore with the 2/13th AGH |
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Late September 1941 |
Vivian is detached to the 2/10th AGH in Malacca |
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5 October 1941 |
Vivian rejoins 2/13th AGH in Singapore |
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November 1941 |
The 2/13th AGH move to Johore Baru, across the Causeway from Singapore |
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8 December 1941 |
The Japanese invade Malaya and bomb Singapore |
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23 January 1942 |
The 2/13th AGH are moved back to Singapore as the Japanese advance |
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9 February 1942 |
The Japanese invade Singapore island |
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10 February 1942 |
30 nurses are evacuated from Singapore aboard the Empire Star. Their ship is attacked and bombed on their way back to Australia but they arrive safely. |
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12 February 1942 |
65 nurses (including Vivian) from the 2/13th AGH, the 2/10th AGH and the 2/4th CSS are evacuated from Singapore aboard the Vyner Brooke |
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14 February 1942 |
The Vyner Brooke is sunk by Japanese planes in the Bangka Strait and 12 nurses are drowned |
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15 February 1942 |
The Japanese massacre the survivors on Radji Beach. 21 Australian Army Nursing Sisters are shot. Vivian Bullwinkel and a British soldier are the only survivors |
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28 February 1942 |
Vivian and Private Kinsley surrender to the Japanese and are taken to a prison camp in Muntok where she is reunited with the surviving nurses. The prisoners are soon moved to Sumatra and during the war they are moved several different camps including Bukit Besar, Palembang, Irenelaan and Lubuklinggau |
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August 1945 |
The Second World War ends |
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11 September 1945 |
The nurses are liberated from their POW camp and flown to Singapore |
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24 October 1945 |
Vivian returns to Melbourne and is re-united with her mother |
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Early 1946 |
Vivian resumes her nursing career at The Heidelberg Military Hospital where she is made a Charge Nurse |
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October 1946 |
Vivian testifies at the War Crimes Tribunal in Tokyo and visits the devastated city of Hiroshima |
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1948 |
Vivian tours around country Victoria twice with Betty Jeffrey to raise money for the Nurses Memorial Centre |
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1949 |
Vivian resigns from the army and continues her career as a civilian nurse at Heidelberg Hospital |
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September 1950 |
Vivian travels to England with Betty Jeffrey and they spend three years working at St Mary's Hospital (Paddington) and traveling about Europe. |
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1955 |
Vivian is appointed Assistant Matron at Heidelberg Hospital |
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1959 |
Vivian is appointed Matron of Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital |
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1966 |
Vivian meets Frank Statham for the first time at a veterans' function |
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1973 |
Vivian becomes the President of the Royal College of Nursing Australia |
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April 1975 |
Vivian leads a team to Saigon to evacuate 80 Vietnamese war orphans |
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24 April 1977 |
Vivian is featured on This is Your Life |
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September 1977 |
Vivian retires from nursing, marries Frank Statham and moves to Perth |
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10 November 1978 |
The Vivian Bullwinkel School of Nursing is opened at Fairfield Hospital |
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2 March 1992 |
Vivian returns to Bangka Island for the official unveiling of a memorial to her fallen colleagues |
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Early 1994 |
Vivian launches the HMAS ANZAC |
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Late 1994 |
Vivian suffers a stroke but remains at home with Frank as her carer |
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3 December 1999 |
Frank Statham passes away after a brief and unexpected illness aged 83 |
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3 July 2000 |
Vivian Bullwinkel passes away in Perth aged 84. She is given a State Funeral in both Melbourne and Perth |