Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/rosemary-opala

Birth Place

Bundaberg, Qld., Australia

Biography

cartoonist, botanical illustrator, painter, journalist and short-story writer, was born in Bundaberg, Queensland, on 24 January 1923, one of the two daughters of Harold Fielding and Ethel, née Witney, a writer who published occasional pieces in the Bulletin but whose abilities were mainly absorbed in family responsibilities. The Fieldings left Bundaberg when Rosemary was two weeks old and moved to Palmwoods on the Sunshine Coast then to Brisbane during WWII. As a teenager training at the Brisbane General Hospital during WWII, Rosemary began drawing cartoons about nursing, having abandoned a commercial art course in order 'to do something useful’. Many were published in Trephine (Brisbane). In September 1999 Opala wrote to Joan Kerr: “TO BEGIN: I left half way through a commercial art course in WW2 to “do something useful”. Having a knack for cartooning, was approached by a med. student [thought to be Bob Miller but unconfirmed] (Ed. of TREPHINE) for some 'drawings’ for the next issue; others ended up getting printed over several issues. “Meantime I’d produced an assortment of hospital-based drawings (some series, some 'other’), which I’d forgotten over the decades till interviewed by Kay Saunders in the 1980s. Showed her the collection of Bris. Gen. Hosp. drawings and she was rather impressed, and took them along to Fryer Memorial Library (UQ), where they remain 'for posterity’. In exchange, I’ve got very good laser copies (better than my originals, done on scrap paper and many in pencil or fountain pen)… in a detached view, they’re probably unique – I certainly couldn’t do this stuff now. And of course, was often reprimanded during my Probationer days for such iconoclastic material. A female resident-doctor even told me, reprovingly, that I had a WARPED MIND! “No doubt my WW2 sketches stemmed from the impact of the major hospital system on an innocent (dumb!) 18 yr old with a keen sense of observation (and a wicked sense of humour?). I seem to have had a particular fascination for elderly gents with urinary problems… “Actually, was very SHY, tho’ one wouldn’t think so to look at the sketches!” In the 1950s Rosemary published short stories in women’s magazines. She married Marian Opala (Polish) in the 1950s; they had no children. From the 1990s she has been writing a natural history column in an environmental quarterly, which is sometimes illustrated with humorous drawings (example of birdwatchers in Joan Kerr Archives). She has had articles published in Australian Folklore Annual , Wildlife Australia and 'other assorted outlets’. In recent decades her art has been mainly confined to painting and illustrating native plants, especially the mangroves and banksias of southeast Queensland (spider mangrove and cotton tree on printed cards in Joan Kerr Archives). Examples of her cartoons include a nurse, her shadow cast across the wall behind her, who has tripped over various bits of medical equipment and sits in a puddle staring ahead. The drawing is accompanied by the following poem: “And slow, as in a dream of bliss, The speechless sufferer turns to kiss [misprinted as 'this’ in Trephine ], Her shadow as it falls Upon the darkening walls.” ( Trephine ) [Opala has amended 'this’ to 'kiss’ on the photocopy provided and recently annotated the drawing: 'Of course you’ll recognise LONGFELLOW’S tribute to Ms Nightingale… R’.] Scenes from the urology ward consists of four vignettes of elderly men: 'Lost’, a patient holding his urinary device, wearing only his pyjama top and looking rather disorientated; 'Shipwrecked’, a patient with a leaking urinary device standing in the puddle forming at his feet with his pyjama-bottoms falling down; 'The oldest patient’, a hunched bespectacled fellow in a nightgown, slippers and hat, his hands cupped round a steaming bowl; and 'Torch flashes at midnight’, a group of three head studies – a patient asleep with his glasses on his forehead, another with his false teeth falling out and a third smoking a cigarette ( Trephine 1944) [annotated: 'Disgusting!!/ R.O. 1999.’]. Students , recently annotated by Opala 'Med./ Students & Consultant’s Round. mid 1940s’, depicts a group looking at an x-ray on a light-box. In the letter accompanying this drawing of 2 November 1999, Opala writes: “note the bored med. student (male) on® and private interchange bet. 2 x persons, far (L). Looking at the whole group, I can even recall a few names; owners no doubt now defunct, Alzeimic (sic), or retired… Obviously the consultant is non-threatening in this case – note the general attitude of relaxation (even the 4th year nurse, though needing to get back to interrupted duties). Grand Rounds were usually FRAUGHT! NB Note also the small % of female med. students at the time – and mature years of both those ladies…” Rules for Pupil Nurses/ (A) Bed-clothes must never be placed on the floor was illustrated in Heather Harper’s article, 'my hands hurt, my feet hurt and my feelings hurt: Civilian nursing in Queensland during World War II’, in Queensland Women in War (ed. Barbara Henson, p.23). The Unrepentant 1942, captioned by Kay Saunders 'a nurse’s view of the patients treated for venereal disease at “Wattlebrae” Brisbane General Hospital’, is illustrated in Kay Saunders & Raymond Evans (eds), Gender Relations in Australia , p.393. Opala made more serious documentary records of events that took place in her ward too. One drawing shows a nurse holding a torch for a doctor who is carrying out a medical procedure on a patient [recently annotated: 'Resident M.O. putting/ in I.V. line (in his pyjamas)/ R.O’]. 2.30 AM has a row of beds crammed together, the central one occupied by a wakeful patient who sits up while those on either side of him sleep. Two nurses, upper left, look drained in the harsh glow of their desk light [recently annotated: 'WW2/ Bed Shortage/ Typical of large open/ wards at B.G. Hosp., with/ wooden bunks crowded between/ beds./ RO’]. Girl with asthma depicts a young woman, her knees pulled in close to her chest, her head stretched back and her eyes closed [recently annotated: '(Before ventolin.)/ NB Patient eventually/ died in an asthma attack’]. The collection of Opala’s WWII cartoons now in the Fryer Library, QU, includes Meat (?), Admission and 'one of a woman sitting by her dying daughter’s bed (patient having terminal septicaemia after a “Backyard” abortion of pre-PILL era)’. In November 1999 Rosemary referred to 'a little sketch of a small dec’d Baby, “laid out” with white flower in hands, drawn during WW2. The first ward I had charge of, after being “registered”, was a smorgasbord of scabies, whooping cough (which I caught & had to work with) and miscellaneous other infectious diseases such as scarlet fever & mumps. All an incubator for cross-infection in those days of course…’ Writers: Kerr, Joan Date written: 1996 Last updated: 2007

Born

b. 1923

Summary

Late 20th century Queensland cartoonist, botanical illustrator, painter, journalist and short-story writer. Opala became a nurse during WW2, wanting to do 'something useful' and many of her drawings from this time reflect her hospital experiences.

Gender

Female

Died

None listed

Age at death

None listed