The Australian Women's Register

Summary

Selina (also spelt Sulina) Sutherland was the first person in the State of Victoria to be licensed under the 1887 Neglected Children’s Act. The Act sanctioned private licensed individuals to remove children from unfit homes and take them under their own guardianship. The daughter of Baigrie and Janet (née MacDonald) Sutherland, Selina Sutherland was born in Scotland, spent some time in New Zealand before settling in Melbourne, Australia, in 1881. Initially she worked as a nurse and, along with Mrs Maria Armour, founded the Scots’ Church Neglected Children’s Aid Society in 1881. For the next 28 years Sutherland was involved with helping Melbourne’s poor. Following her death on 8 October 1909 a public appeal was held to erected a granite memorial for her grave.

Events

• 1891

  Wrote a paper on slum life in Melbourne for the second Australasian Conference on Charity

• 1897

  Visited the United Kingdom during the Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jublee and presented to Queen Victoria

• 2010

  Inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women

• 1864

  Emigrated to New Zealand on the Eastern Empire

• 1879

  Principal founder of Masterton Hospital

• 1879 - 1880

  Matron of Wellington Hospital

• 1887

  The first person to be appointed in Victoria to receive children under the Neglected Children’s Act, part 8

• 1881

  Established the Presbyterian Neglected Children’s Aid Society

• 1894

  Established the Victorian Neglected Children’s Aid Society

• 1881

  Settled in Melbourne, Victoria

• 1883

  Established the Society in Aid of Maternity Hospital Patients

• 1885

  Founded the Melbourne District Nursing Society

• 1886

  Appointed by the Presbytery of Melbourne the first Lady Missionary to the Presbyterian Churches in Victoria