Sister Viv

By Grantlee Kieza

Published by ABC Books: Dist. by Harper Collins
RRP $ 35.99 in paperback
ISBN 9780733343292

The story of Vivian Bullwinkel is truly an inspiring one. An Australian Army nurse, Vivian Bullwinkel was just twenty-six when Japanese soldiers marched her and her fellow nurses into the shallow waters of a remote beach to be executed. It was 16 February 1942.

(The harrowing story was recounted in the book On Radji Beach by Ian W Shaw (PanMacmillan, 2010.)

Growing up in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Vivian started work at a local hospital and joined the Australian Army Nursing Service in World War II.

When the Japanese attacked Singapore in 1942, she and sixty-four other nurses were ordered to evacuate, but soon their ship was bombed by enemy aircraft. Some of the women drowned, but Viv made it to Radji Beach on Bangka Island, off Sumatra, along with twenty-one of her nursing colleagues, only to be subjected to an unspeakable act of brutality by the Japanese soldiers who bayonetted those who had survived the hail of bullets.

Yet somehow Vivian lived.

For the next three and a half years Viv was a prisoner of war in a series of brutal Japanese camps where she helped other inmates survive the horror. When peace was restored, she went on to become a giant of Australian nursing – and was a key driver of Operation Babylift, the mass rescue of young orphans during the Vietnam War.

She would go on to live an exceptional life of service. She would also be the first woman to be honoured with a statue at the Australian War Memorial for her extraordinary bravery and service – a country girl who became one of the highest ranking women in the Australian army, and who spent her life caring for others.

For her extraordinary efforts, Vivian was awarded numerous honours, but she never forgot her fallen colleagues, whose lives she paid tribute to with her service to nursing.

Grantlee Kieza, an award-winning author, has reconstructed her life story of sacrifice and service. She is undoubtedly an Australian hero who deserves to be remembered. She passed away at the age of 84 in 2000.

VERDICT: A story worth telling and a story worth your time to read. She was a truly outstanding Australian.