The Australian Women's Register

The work of the Adelaide Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1970s called for a separate women’s health education centre to inform women about basic gynaecology, reproductive health and psychological health. A group called Body Political put out a newsletter on women’s health and presented a program ‘Our Body Ourselves’ on radio 5UV at Adelaide University. The submission for funding was made in 1974. Funding was granted in 1974 and 6 Mary St Hindmarsh was officially open in 1976. Hindmarsh Women’s Community Health Centre was the first women’s health centre in South Australia. With the public funding of the Centre there was a struggle between what the feminist wanted to achieve and the South Australian Health Commission with its limiting rules. The feminists wanted to teach women about their health but because they were not an accredited institution they had to be granted the right to teach. The Centre produced pamphlets on both general and gynaecological health. They did become a teaching centre for women’s health for a time. Because funding was through the state the feminist way of running the centre as a collective with members of the centre and the bureaucracy and its requirements often clashed. This was further complicated by the feminist groups involved in the centre. The conflict with the Health Department eventually led to the withdrawal of funding. With the intervention of the Women’s Adviser to the Premier the need of Women’s Health Centre was argued and the centre was moved to North Adelaide and became Women’s Health Statewide. Hindmarsh Women’s Health Centre continued with the Medicare payments to support other work of the centre. The Centre then became known as the Welling Place, providing alternative health including a vegetable patch for the community. 6 Mary St was demolished in 1989 for the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. The Rape Crisis Centre evolved from the Health Centre. Some of the women involved include Margaret Mc Donald, Mary Nettle, Vicky Papadopolois, Karen Weir, Maria Radoslovich, Sylvia Kinder, Trish Leigh, Helen Bock and Silver Moon.