Dr. Susan Neuhaus

Topic: “Answering The Call: Australian Women who served in the Great War.”

Dr. Susan Neuhaus is an Australian surgeon, non-executive director and author. She was one of three finalists for the South Australian nomination for Australian of the Year in 2012. She graduated with MB,BS in 1989 from University of Adelaide. She obtained Fellowship from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1993, and completed her PhD in 2000 from the University of Adelaide, in the mechanisms of the spread of cancer. She is a graduate of Australian Command & Staff College(Res) and has served in both the Australian Army and Australian Army Reserve in clinical and combat settings. Her operational experience included postings to Cambodia and Afghanistan. She was the first female doctor to be posted overseas from Australia as regimental medical officer in 1993 when she spent 9 months with The United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia, at the height of the AIDS epidemic. She also served with the Peace Monitoring Group in Bougainville and at a NATO hospital in Afghanistan. She retired from the army in 2011, having achieved the rank of Colonel. The talk today is focused on Australian women who served. When war was declared in 1914, hundreds of women answered the call to serve-but their own military told them there was no place for them. Undeterred, they found other ways, serving with Allied Forces, establishing field hospitals on the Western and Eastern Fronts, and proving that courage and dedication have no gender. This address explores the remarkable stories of Australian women doctors, nurses and volunteers who served during the Great War-from the Scottish Women’s Hospital at Royaumont to the battlefields of Serbia. Their contributions were often overlooked in official histories, but their legacy endures. The stories to be related today include service, sacrifice, and the quiet determination that has always been part of the ANZAC spirit.