Groups honour Dame’s humanity

BEECHWORTH'S Friends of the Burke Museum and Beechworth History and Heritage Society commemorated the life and life-saving work of doctor and orthopaedist Jean Macnamara at a presentation attended by 60 people in Beechworth town hall on Saturday. The event – chaired by Friends’ president Daniel Goonan as part of the Ian Jones Memorial Lecture series established by the Friends in recent years – celebrated the contribution of humanitarians and care organisations to Beechworth and the wider world. Annie Jean Macnamara, born in 1899 in Beechworth where her father, John, was clerk of courts, went to Beechworth public school. She completed her secondary education at Presbyterian Ladies College in Melbourne and afterwards studied medicine and surgery at the University of Melbourne. She graduated with honours in 1922 in the company of Kate Campbell, a paediatrician, medical scientist and haematologist Lucy Bryce, ear, nose and throat surgeon Jean Littlejohn and immunologist, virologist and later Nobel Prize recipient Frank Macfarlane Burnet. “She was clever, forthright and simply outstanding, later saving lives and livelihoods in their thousands through her work on the polio virus with Macfarlane Burnet, developing advanced therapies for the treatment of poliomyelitis and advocating – relentlessly – for the trial and release of the myxoma virus to combat Australia’s devastating mid-20th century rabbit plague,” Beechworth History and Heritage chair and presenter Jamie Kronborg told the audience. “With polio and myxomatosis Dame Jean wrestled an essential dilemma at the heart of her vanguard medical and scientific career. “She had to work strategically to contain one virus and its debilitating and deadly impact, particularly for young Australians, and battle head-on persistent opposition to the release of a second to save the country’s farm sector. “She succeeded in both quests but search any publicly available contemporary local listing of significant people associated with Beechworth and you’d be hard-pressed to find her name. “We should work to change that. “As a Rockefeller Foundation fellow in America in 1933 she was asked to the White House to talk about advanced poliomyelitis research and treatment with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the world’s most visible polio survivor. “She was created Dame Commander of Order of the British Empire for her work on polio at just 36, probably one of the youngest people of any period to that time to receive such a high honour. “She was named a Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medallist at 54 and she’s a farmers’ champion still for her dogged determination to force Australia’s mid-20th century governments to release the myxoma virus to combat rabbits then estimated to number one billion and destroying the environment and farming.” Friends’ former president Kate Sutherland set the scene for the Macnamara presentation, speaking about Beechworth humanitarians from the past, including William Nam Shing and Michael Freeman, and organisations that continue to provide daily and other support for people and the community, including the Red Cross, State Emergency Service, Salvation Army, Indigo Atauro Friendship Group and Quercus Beechworth. “The United Nations (UN) defines ‘humanitarianism’ in terms of preventing and alleviating human suffering arising from conflict or calamity,” Dr Sutherland said. “Indeed, the UN believes there is a civilian right to protection and assistance. Moreover, assistance is provided when individuals’ capacity to cope has been exceeded. “In my presentation, I would like to draw from the UN’s conception of humanitarianism and reveal to you the manner in which some expressions of humanitarianism have been revealed in Beechworth in the past 170 years. “Humanitarians existed in Beechworth from the time the town was established and during the Gold Rush, when Beechworth was abuzz with people from Europe and China.” Melbourne designer and artist George Petrou towards the end of the presentation unveiled his recent portrait of Dame Jean Macnamara, which will feature in a forthcoming book titled ‘The Art of Humanity’. Josephine Samuel-King, Dame Jean’s granddaughter, then spoke on behalf of her mother Merran, who also attended – one of the two children of Jean Macnamara and Ivan Connor – and Josephine’s brother Fraser. She said the family was looking to establish a foundation to recognise Dame Jean’s life and work and hoped to do that in concert with Beechworth.

Groups honour Dame’s humanity

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