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Rosemary Opala (née Fielding) (1923–2008) was an Australian artist, writer and nurse, and is regarded for her work as a Queensland environmentalist, historian, social commentator and community activist. Opala's literary and artistic themes reflect her personal experiences and social outlook. Her work is noted for focusing on Queensland wildlife, nursing, womanhood, family life and social history. Opala focused much of her nursing career on Peel Island's Lazaret (Leper colony or Leprosarium) caring for patients with Hansen's Disease (Leprosy). Through both her art and writing, Opala became a significant commentator on the Lazaret's history, its social stigma and the controversial treatment of its patients. ==Background== Born in Bundaberg on 24 January 1923, Opala was raised in Palmwoods on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland〔Muller, Linda. Bayside Bulletin () 4 March 2003. Print.〕〔Opala, Rosemary, Childhood in Palmwoods in the 1930s, Caloundra: Rosemary Opala, 1990. Print〕 Opala lived with her parents Harold Fielding and Ethel Fielding (born Ethel, née Witney) and her younger sister 〔〔Opala, Rosemary, Letter to Fryer Library, UQFL 361, Box 1, Folder 2, Fryer Library, University of Queensland Library.〕 Her mother, Ethel Fielding was a published author of poetry and short stories. Opala attended Palmwoods Primary School, and completed her education at Nambour High School〔〔 Opala moved to Brisbane in the 1940s to complete an art course at George Street Technical College (later Queensland University of Technology).〔___Moreton Bay Adventurer, Southern Bay News (Bay Brisbane ) 16 December 2005. Print.〕 At the commencement of World War II, Opala began nurses training after leaving art school, in order to 'do something more useful than playing with paints'.〔〔〔〔 Also during the 1940s, while training at Brisbane General Hospital, she was a freelance writer, with many short stories and essays published in Australia's most prominent women's magazines. At the same time Opala also took to sketching and drawing, which included patients and staff in the hospital and the Brisbane general hospital building. While nursing in Brisbane, Opala encountered Hansen's Disease (Leprosy) patients from Peel Island, and was convinced to transfer to the Lazaret (Leper colony or Leprosium) on the island in the Queensland Moreton Bay area.〔Opala, Rosemary. Sharing Lost Lives. Box 5, Fryer Library, University of Queensland Library.〕 From the late 1940s until 1959 when the Lazaret was closed, Opala worked on the Island with Hansen's disease patients, with intermittent periods of other work on mainland Queensland.〔 During the 1950s and 1960s Opala continued to write and sketch subjects such as her experiences on the Island and its native flora. In the 1960s after working at Peel Island, Opala and her Polish husband, Marian moved to Redland Bay and later to Coochiemudlo Island where they built a house near Main Beach.〔〔 They had no children. Leaving the island in the late 1960s,〔 Opala continued her career as a nurse, working in placements in Cleveland and Bundaberg, and eventually to Prince Charles hospital in Brisbane. In 1977 Opala received her diploma in Nursing administration,〔'Two Diplomas admitting Opala to College of Nursing' Papers of Rosemary Opala, UQFL361, Box 2, Item 5, Fryer Library, University of Queensland Library〕 and took a position as a supervisor at Prince Charles Hospital Brisbane in 1980. She retired from nursing in 1989 and remained at Victoria Point in Redland Bay.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rosemary Opala」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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