A SCULPTURE of nursing legend, Lt-Col. Vivian Bullwinkel, was installed in the grounds of the Australian War Memorial on Wednesday, the first of an individual nurse or woman.  

Bullwinkel famously survived the Bangka Island Massacre during World War II, when the Japanese killed 21 of her fellow nurses on Bangka Island, in the Dutch East Indies during 1942.

A collaborative project with the Australian College of Nursing, the sculpture by Brisbane artist Charles Robb recognises not only Bullwinkel, but all Australian nurses who have lost their lives, survived atrocities or made sacrifices while serving their country.

“I’m inspired by the thought that generations of children to come will see a figure in bronze of a nurse and midwife at the Australian War Memorial,” Australian College of Nursing CEO, Adjunct Professor Kylie Ward, said.

Robb was chosen to create the work through an invitation design submission and says: “I’ve had the joy of spending the last few years spending time with and obviously working on the sculpture but also researching into Vivian’s awe-inspiring life… I wanted… to capture a likeness and a sense of the way she carried herself in the world.”

His sculpture includes 22 inlaid, stainless-steel discs reflecting the 22 women killed in the Bangka Island Massacre, arranged at the base of the sculpture as a reflection of the stars that would have been visible in the night sky on February 16, 1942.

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