The Australian Women's Register

Summary

Ida Birchall, one of Tasmania’s first female doctors, became the first Tasmanian member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1936. After graduating MB BS from Sydney University in 1933, she worked at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, in 1933 and the Royal Hospital for Women, New South Wales, in 1934. She furthered her medical career with appointments in the United Kingdom at St Mary’s Hospital, Manchester from 1934-1936 and the Women’s Hospital, Nottingham from 1936-1938. She was ultimately honorary consultant to the Launceston General Hospital and to the Queen Victoria Hospital Launceston. A member of both the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Australian Medical Association (AMA), she was chairman of the northern division of the Tasmanian Branch of the AMA in 1964 and had served as honorary secretary of the northern division of the Tasmanian branch of the BMA from 1944-1945. She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to medicine on 1 January 1969. The Ida Burchill Library in Launceston exists to ‘support and encourage spiritual growth’ and is available for the use of ‘Christian Communities and the wider public communities’.