The Australian Women's Register

Franziska Schlink was the daughter of Albert Joseph and Mabel Ann Schlink. Like her brothers Carl and John, Franziska completed a medical degree and she began work at the Royal Melbourne Hospital before moving to the Ballarat Base Hospital, the Royal Perth Hospital, and finally the Broken Hill and District Hospital in 1936. As one of the town’s first women doctors she had to withstand a hostile reception from resident surgeons Samuel Barnett and Wilhelm Dorsch, but she and Dorsch went on to become firm friends. From 1951, Dr Schlink moved into private practice with Dr Brian Funder and Dr Edmond Thomas Walsh.

Franziska Schlink was president of the Broken Hill branch of the Australian Medical Association. A heavy smoker, she contracted lung cancer and after many years of service in Broken Hill returned to Wodonga, where her father had once owned a general store. She died at the age of 55.