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In addition, Jaci always treated colleagues as an equal and ensured that teaching facilities were as required. At the
conclusion of each teaching session, Jaci readily provided the lecturer with constructive feedback.
In 1974, Cyclone Tracy demolished Darwin. A period of upheaval followed. Jenny Francis (nee Gordon) was
a third year student nurse at Darwin Hospital when Cyclone Tracy made its presence felt on Christmas Eve 1974.
Jenny recalled that within a week of the cyclone, Gwen Mahaffey, Senior Nurse Educator, Darwin Hospital,
seconded Jaci O’Brien to conduct the finalist block. This action and Jaci’s expertise and ability to encourage
students to learn ensured that all the finalist candidates excelled in the New South Wales Registration Board
Examinations.
In 1976 Jaci attempted to upgrade the Nurses Act. This activity was not to come to fruition until 1984.
Throughout the years, Jaci was active in helping aged and handicapped people. In addition, she was a foundation
member of the Royal College of Nursing (Northern Territory Chapter), worked as a representative of the Australian
Nursing Federation (formerly Royal Australian Nursing Federation) as well as being a representative of the Office
of Women’s Affairs in Canberra.
Jaci was active in upgrading nurse educating qualifications within the tertiary sector. As a member of the
Nurses’ Board of the Nurses’ Board of the Northern Territory, Jaci was proactive in the development of a Diploma
in Applied Science (Community Health Nursing) at the Darwin Community College. Furthermore, in the years
prior to 1987, Jaci was a member of the Advisory Committee involved in the transfer of the general nursing
education program from the then Darwin Hospital to the Darwin Institute of Technology, later the Northern
Territory University.
Jaci O’Brien was a member of the Nurses’ Board of the Northern Territory from 18 March 1976 to
10 March 1990. Until 1988, she was the Board’s representative on the New South Wales Nursing Final Examination
Committee. In this role, she was involved in reviewing and writing questions for state registration examinations
undertaken by general nursing students in New South Wales and the Northern Territory. As a member of the
Board’s Registration Assessment Committee, she was involved in assessing all applications for registration and
enrolment. Based on these assessments she advised the Board on an applicant’s registration and/or enrolment as a
nurse in the Northern Territory. As the Board’s nurse educator, she interviewed overseas applicants and assessed
their education curriculum in relation to registration and enrolment. She was an appointed member of the Nurses’
Board Inquiry Committee that investigated and determined complaints received regarding nurses. From time to
time, she was seconded to be a member of various sub-committees and workshops formed to identify and develop
appropriate strategies for a range of issues and to formulate appropriate policies and guidelines. From March 1990
to April 1995 Jaci was employed under contract by the Nurses Board of the Northern Territory to assess applications
for registration or enrolment and to make recommendations on them to the Board.
The award of the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) to Mrs Jacqueline O’Brien of Howard Springs for ‘services
to nursing especially nursing education’, was announced on Australia Day 1984. Jaci received the insignia of her
Award from the Administrator, Commodore Eric Johnston, at Government House on 25 June 1984.
Her lectures on the history of nursing in the Territory given to students acknowledged the harsh conditions early
matrons and nurses worked under in the Territory. Her article on ‘Looking Back on Nursing’ outlines the primitive
beginnings of nursing in the Northern Territory. These bring to account the hard won achievements in nursing
over the years in which Jacqueline O’Brien herself made a significant contribution to nursing and specifically
nursing education. In a profile, ‘The Lighted Candle’, Val Dixon wrote of Jaci’s award recognition as fitting for the
Territory girl ‘whose commitment to nursing, the Territory and its people is undeniable’.
To a degree the life of Jaci Seale is one which has shown her determination to succeed in her chosen profession
after the death of her mother, a determination which she inherited from her grandmother, May Seale/Brown.
May came to the Territory in the 1880s as a 16 year old and made a success of her Territory ventures.
Over many years, Jaci was very supportive of Territory nurses. Those indebted to her are too numerous to
name. The following lines by Lisa Konigsberg personify the effect Jaci O’Brien had on nurses and her contribution
to nursing in the Northern Territory. ‘To Someone Special—You! You live life with vigour and honesty, and stand
up for what you believe. You meet challenges with eagerness and curiosity, and make the best of every situation.
You have been an inspiration in my life. You have taught me how to find the best in myself... Thank you for being
my friend and showing me that I can achieve my dreams’.
V Dixon, ‘The Lighted Candle’, 1987; J Docker, Registrar, Nurses Board of the Northern Territory, profile data; B James, No Man’s Land,
1989; Northern Perspective, vol 2, No 2; Genealogical Society of the Northern Territory research files; J O’Brien, ‘Looking Back on Nursing’,
1988; personal information from registered nurses, C Goodhand (nee Schoolmeester); J Francis (nee Gordon); S Green; E Lobley (nee Rose);
P Magee; J Schoolmeester (nee Dunkley); L Sullivan (nee Hillman); Women’s Advisory Council, Darwin, correspondence, 1986.
JUNE TOMLINSON and CECILIA BATTERHAM, Vol 3.O’BRIEN, JOHN FRANCIS (1850–1925), Jesuit priest, was born in Adelaide on 4 October 1850, and his
family moved in 1856 to Sevenhill, near Clare, South Australia, where his father became the first postmaster.
Sevenhill was also the first foundation of the Jesuits in Australia and O’Brien attended school at St Aloysius’
College there. On 5 March 1868, he was received as a Jesuit novice at Sevenhill, and until 1878 was engaged in
his noviceship, rhetoric and philosophy studies there (his Master of Novices and Professor of Philosophy being
Father Anton Strele who, in September 1882 was to become the founder of the Jesuit Mission Stations in the
Northern Territory). O’Brien also taught as a Jesuit scholastic at the college at Sevenhill, and in October 1878 left
for Europe to undertake his theological studies at Innsbruck where he was ordained in August 1880. After further
studies, he returned to Sevenhill in 1882 and in September of that year left with Father Strele and two other Jesuits