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BIRKETT, ISABELLA J (?–?), nurse, was the matron of the Burra Hospital in South Australia, during the
time Matron Jane Meissner was in charge of the Palmerston Hospital in 1838. Mrs Meissner, after nine years at
Palmerston, advised that she would give notice to enable her to take leave and the government to find a replacement.
She had private accommodation and decided to sell her furniture locally. This posed particular problems for the
Government Medical Officer, Dr P M Wood, in Darwin, as both a matron and a nurse were required, and also
accommodation. Finally furniture was sent up on the Catturthun, as well as Matron Birkett (at 144 Pounds per
annum) and Nurse Kate Gaffney (at 120 Pounds per annum), who took up their appointments from 1 December
1888.
The Government Medical Officer ‘thanked the Government for erecting a small house for the Matron’ (at Packard
Street in Palmerston). Some 130 patients per year were the numbers admitted at the time of her appointment.
The hospital had its difficulties with no laundry, no operating room and no proper kitchen. The matron had to seek
permission to employ a washerwoman in early 1889 from the Government Resident, J L Parsons.
The second Territory hospital, at Burrundie, had commenced functioning on 1 August 1888 to cater for the mining
area and the railway works to Pine Creek. This event eased the load on the Palmerston Hospital, but Burrundie
hospital eventually closed in January 1891. Matron Isabella Johnston assisted Doctors Henry H Bovill and
P J W Ternau in 1888–1889 at Burrundie.
The routine hospital nursing supervised by Matron Birkett was to have an added burden when a leper patient
was nursed there and became the subject of an inquiry by the Hospital Board, which was apparently not advised
by the Government Medical Officer of the possibly contagious nature of the disease. On 16 September 1889
Miss Birkett and Nurse Gaffney gave evidence to an inquiry into this ‘Marcus Baker case’.
In this case, Dr Wood had diagnosed the patient’s problem as Elephantiasis anaesthetica; the patient eventually
died of a cerebral haemorrhage. Wood left Darwin soon after and Dr L S O’Flaherty took over his post.
The particular significance of Matron Birkett’s period in Palmerston was that, in relation to the nursing of a
leper in the hospital, the medical and nursing professions learned a considerable amount about the diagnosis of the
disease and the treatment of the patient. The Leprosy Ordinance in the Northern Territory arose out of this case as
well as instructions for the nursing of patients with infectious disease problems. After a six-year stay in Palmerston
Matron Freda Reinhardt, who came up from Adelaide on the Airlie in February 1892, replaced Miss Birkett.
SAA: 791/469/1888; 471/1888; 482/1888; 791/508/ 1888; A 11304/1888; 1374/376/1889; 1374/886/ 1889.
JACQUELINE M O’BRIEN, Vol 1.BIRT, GORDON ROBERT (1904– ), clerk and policeman, was born at Quorn, South Australia,
on 21 February 1904, the son of Robert Gibson Birt, a South Australian policeman who rose to the rank of
Superintendent. Gordon was educated at schools in Mount Barker and Port Augusta, where he had his first contact
with Aborigines. When he first left school he had several clerical jobs before he joined the South Australian Police
Force in the mounted division on 1 July 1927, but his appointment was terminated a little over a year later due to
poor eye sight. That problem did not, however, hinder him from joining the Northern Territory Police Force on
3 July 1929. At that time only single men were appointed.
He spent his early policing years in Darwin and in 1931 was commended for his assistance in the suppression
of a demonstration by the unemployed. Early in 1932, as a young Constable, he was suspended and charged over
alleged improper relationships with a part Aboriginal girl. He was found guilty and was to have been dismissed
but an appeal that commenced on 4 May 1932 and lasted three days was sustained in the courts. At that time the
Administrator was Commissioner of Police and in the first instance had been prosecutor, judge and jury, a point not
overlooked by the bench. Birt’s own memoirs leave no doubt that he was guilty as charged.
As a result of this charge the Chief Protector of Aborigines, Dr C E Cook, refused to consent to Birt being
sworn in as a Protector and this meant that he was unable to be posted to a country station ‘in charge’. He had been
posted to Timber Creek late in 1932 but he was returned to Darwin on clerical duties. In February 1934 he again
saw brief service at Timber Creek but only as a junior officer, as the Chief Protector of Aborigines still refused to
appoint him a Protector. During this period he was involved in the recapturing of the famous Nemarluk, who had
escaped from Fannie Bay Gaol. Birt wrote of his admiration of Nemarluk’s dignity, stamina and cheerfulness.
He always gave credit to the Aboriginal trackers with whom he worked. Back in Darwin he was on duty when
the competitors in the 1934 London to Darwin air race arrived. The end of the year saw him serving another few
months at Timber Creek.
In February 1935 he was posted as the junior man to Tennant Creek where for two years, from a tent, he
assisted in the policing of the gold mining town, just then being put on the map. Escorting the gold to Alice Springs
was only one of many tasks. October 1937 saw him back in Darwin, in plain clothes, at a time when the town was
full of men working on defence installations and police duties frequently involved raids on illegal gambling dens.
From 1938 to June 1939 he served as headquarters clerk in Darwin.
He was stationed at Borroloola in 1939 and 1940 when severe floods struck the area. During this time Birt shot
and killed a white man who was resisting arrest on a number of charges, including arson. The inquest by a
magistrate from Darwin found ‘justifiable homicide’ and the matter proceeded no further. By then Birt had been
gazetted Protector of Aborigines as a new Chief Protector had been appointed. The ‘outback’ policeman of the
day was also something of a district ‘nanny’, and in Borroloola could be called on to act as harbourmaster, doctor,
dentist and general factotum.
In August 1940 Birt was returned to Darwin where he was among those involved in the establishment of a
Police Association. He was manpowered when he endeavoured to join the Army though he believed that was the