Sutherland, Selina Murray Macdonald (1839 - 1909)

Selina (also spelt Sulina) Sutherland was the first person in the State of Victoria to be licensed under the 1887 Neglected Children’s Act. The Act sanctioned private licensed individuals to remove children from unfit homes and take them under their own guardianship. The daughter of Baigrie and Janet (née MacDonald) Sutherland, Selina Sutherland was born in Scotland, spent some time in New Zealand before settling in Melbourne, Australia, in 1881. Initially she worked as a nurse and, along with Mrs Maria Armour, founded the Scots’ Church Neglected Children’s Aid Society in 1881. For the next 28 years Sutherland was involved with helping Melbourne’s poor. Following her death on 8 October 1909 a public appeal was held to erected a granite memorial for her grave.

Events

28 August 1864	Emigrated to New Zealand on the Eastern Empire
1879	Principal founder of Masterton Hospital
1879 - December 1880	Matron of Wellington Hospital
1881	Settled in Melbourne, Victoria
March 1883	Established the Society in Aid of Maternity Hospital Patients
17 February 1885	Founded the Melbourne District Nursing Society
May 1886	Appointed by the Presbytery of Melbourne the first Lady Missionary to the Presbyterian Churches in Victoria
1888	The first person to be appointed in Victoria to receive children under the Neglected Children's Act, part 8
1891	Wrote a paper on slum life in Melbourne for the second Australasian Conference on Charity
1892	Interrupted a meeting of the Melbourne Ladies' Benevolent Society, with a group of poor people whose needs she felt the Society was failing to meet.
1894	Established the Presbyterian Neglected Children's Aid Society
1895	Established the Victorian Neglected Children's Aid Society
1897	Visited the United Kingdom during the Queen Victoria's Diamond Jublee and presented to Queen Victoria

Books

• Hilton, Della, 1931-, Selina's legacy: from VCAS to Oz Child, Oz Child-Children Australia, Oakleigh, Vic., 1993, 184 pp. [ Details... ]
• Jessop, J. C., Selina M. Sutherland : her life story and work, 2 edn, Sutherland Homes for Children, [Elsternwick, Vic.?], 1967, 20 pp. [ Details... ]

Book Sections

• Swain, Shurlee, 'Selina Sutherland: Child Rescuer', in Lake, Marilyn and Kelly, Farley (eds), Double time : women in Victoria - 150 years, Penguin, Ringwood, Vic., 1985, pp. 109-116. [ Details... ]

See also

• Johns, Fred, John's Notable Australians, 1906, George Robertson & Company Proprietary Limited, Adelaide, 1905, 218 pp. [ Details... ]
• Swain, Shurlee, 'The Victorian Charity Network in the 1890s', PhD thesis, University of Melbourne, 1977, 439 pp. [ Details... ]