Women`s MemorialPrint Page

The monument commemorates the women who have served in the various conflicts in which Australia has been involved, and the twenty-two Army Nursing Sisters who were killed in the Bangka Island Massacre during World War Two.

The monument was a 18-month project in conjunction with the Office for Sport and Recreation, and includes a commemorative post for each nurse that was on beach, including the sole survivor, South Australian nurse Vivian Bullwinkel. 

During World War Two, the Vyner Brook was attacked on the 14th of February in the Bangka Strait and sank within half an hour. While all the nurses survived the bombing, many drowned or were killed by the returning Japanese aeroplanes which raked those survivors struggling in the water with deadly machine-gun fire. 

One group of survivors was washed ashore on Bangka Island. It was a motley group, comprising nurses, soldiers and civilian men and women. Finding themselves in a desperate situation, they surrendered to Japanese soldiers on the 16th of February. The men in the group were immediately led to a beach behind a bluff. The Japanese soldiers returned alone, cleaning their rifles and bayonets in front of the horrified women. The nurses were then ordered to walk into the sea, where they were machine-gunned. Only one nurse survived, Sister Vivian Bullwinkel.

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