Jean White (physician)
Salome Jean White was the first female flying doctor in Australia and the world when she commenced work with the Australian Inland Mission in May 1937. She was known as the Guardian Angel of the Gulf.Early life and education
Salome Jean White was born in 1905. Her parents were John White, a school teacher, and Salome White of 32 Havelock Road, Hawthorn. The family also owned a farm near Ballarat. She was the elder sister to John George Glyn White CBE and Mary Margaret Freda White, both of whom were also doctors.
White attended Melbourne High School and received a scholarship to attend University of Melbourne, where she graduated in 1929 with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery.Career
She worked at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Adelaide Children's Hospital, Crown Street Women's Hospital and Caulfield Convalescent Hospital before responding to an advertisement for doctors to work in remote areas of Australia.
She undertook four months of training at Cloncurry before being based with one nurse at Normanton. Together, with a pilot flying an aircraft donated by Qantas, they offered a seven-day aerial medical service covering 65,000 square miles of the Gulf Country. From September 1938, White was also supervising a newly opened nursing hospital at Dunbar Station.
