Born

Purfleet, New South Wales, Australia

Occupation

Aboriginal leader, Justice of the Peace and Aboriginal health worker

Summary

Pat Davis-Hurst emerged as a community leader as she informally provided the services of counsellor, community nurse, social welfare worker and corrective services liaison officer to Aboriginal people from around her district.

In 1975 she was appointed as an Aboriginal health worker by the New South Wales Department of Health. In 1980 she founded Taree’s Gillawarra (now the Biripai) Aboriginal Health Service, and in 1983 established the Wonnai Cooperative in Taree. She was also a director of the Aboriginal Legal Service, a member of the Taree Housing Commission Board and a Justice of the Peace. She moved to the Taree Community Health Centre in 1983, where she remained until her retirement in 1990 due to ill health.

In 1985 Pat Davis-Hurst received the Times-Telecom Advance Australia Award for her contribution to the Purfleet-Taree community.

Sources used to compile this entry: Horton, David (ed.). The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, Vol. 2, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 1994, p. 265.