Photo depicts Cordillo Downs Shearing Shed, located 176kms north of Innaminka. Donated by Gwen Cox (Hon. Staff Member). Once the largest sheep station in the world, the shearing shed had 120 stands. The wool clip had to be carted 600km down the track to the rail head at Farina by camel train. In 1883, a complete scouring plant was installed at "Cordillo". The region now (1989) carries cattle.shearing sheds, photographs, cordillo downs

The life of Elizabeth Burchill has produced five books. Her most recent book, 'The paths I've trod' brings together her previous four books, providing a remarkable insight, not only into a lifetime of nursing, but the entire period from the 19020's to the 1970's. When Elisabeth first trained in Melbourne, leeches were still part of accepted medical practice. She volunteered to serve with the Australian Inland Mission at Innaminka in her twenties. When she returned to Melbourne she undertook further specialised training at the Tweddle Baby Hospital, Footscray. After her outback adventure she developed 'itchy feet syndrome' and decided to test the saying that nursing was the best passport to travel. She became a registered nurse in six countries. Elizabeth volunteered for service caring for refugee children in Spain towards the end of the Civil War there. When she returned to Australia she enlisted in the first Victorian contingent if nurses with the second AIF.. She travelled to the Middle East, with her time in Nazareth being especially interesting. After the war she tried her hand at radio announcing before retuning to nursing. In the 1970's Elizabeth became a mature age student, gained her HSC and went on to graduate as a Bachelor of Arts in 1981 at Monash University. Currently she is studying for her Bachelor of Literature at Melbourne University. Donating $10,000 to Monash saw the 'Burchill Room' named. It is a repository for Australiana, including memorbilia from Elizabeth herself.A newspaper clipping of a title, four columns of text and two black and white photos. The large photo is of an older woman holding several books. The smaller photo is of three women wearing nurse's uniforms.'NC7' [blue ink, top right]blackburn, labrador memories, innaminka, new guinea nurse, thursday island nurse, hawthorn, dora elizabeth burchill, south australia, queensland, new south wales, burke and wills, london, west london hospital, wilfred grenfell, usa, indian harbour, queen mary, australian imperial force, middle east, radio 3sr shepparton, sepik district, new guinea, high school certificate, box hill, tafe, maroondah singers, alan marshall, army education, spectrum melbourne

Sister Elizabeth Burchill's latest book on Australian nursing is a revelation of history and anecdotes. 'Australian nurses since Nightingale:1860 -1990' traces the origins of modern nursing to the present time. Sister Burchill, who graduates next year from Monash with a masters degree, was honoured by the university in 1986 with the establishment of the Elizabeth Burchill Room in the Main library at Clayton. Sister Burchill started her caeer in the early 1930's, nursing in outback Australian towns such as Innaminka, served with an ambulance unit during the Spanish civil war in 1937, served in the Second World War in Egypt and Palestine and established the first full-time infant welfare clinic in Darwin since the war. A photocopy of a small newspaper clipping consisting of a title and two columns of text'Monash university / publication / 1992' [ink, photocopied, top right of clipping]wwii, ww2, world war two, world war 2, florence, florence nightingale, the paths i've trod, canada, shepparton, royal flying doctorservice, john flynn memorial address, duchess of york, australian studies centre