Dagmar Berne

Dagmar Berne was born in Bega in 1865 and lived with her family in Denmark House (named by her father, Frederic, after the land of his birth) at the lower end of Auckland Street, down from the Bega Primary School.

When Dagmar was about ten years old, her father drowned. He was an auctioneer who was washed from his horse near Frogs Hollow whilst riding back from a land sale at Candelo. Her mother subsequently remarried.

Whilst in her teens, Dagmar's stepfather also died and the family of eight children moved to Sydney. From this point, Dagmar’s links with the South Coast end – but her interesting story does not!

At seventeen she left school to privately study science. Along with her younger sister, Florence, she then prepared to open a private girls' school. However, a few days before the school was to open, Dagmar received notification that she had passed the entrance examination to Sydney University. Florence went ahead and opened the school on her own.

Dagmar entered Sydney University in 1885, studying Arts for a year before transferring to study Medicine. She then became Australia's first female medical student.

At the end of her first year in medicine, Dagmar obtained Honours in Botany, Chemistry, Zoology and Anatomy. However, thereafter she was less successful – possibly because she lacked a strong grounding from her secondary education in science, or perhaps because the Dean of the School of Medicine, Professor Anderson Stuart, did not want women medical graduates.

In 1888 Dagmar met Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson of Britain (the second woman in the world to gain registration to practice as a doctor) who was on a lecture tour of Australia. She invited Dagmar to move to Britain to work in an all-women hospital that she ran.

In 1889 Dagmar joined the Royal Free Hospital, a teaching hospital, and then completed her studies at the University of London. She qualified as a doctor in 1893 then worked for two years at the North Eastern Fever Hospital in Tottenham, London.

On January 9, 1895, Dr Dagmar Bern registered with the Medical Board of New South Wales. She was the second woman to do so. (The first, Dr Constance Stone, also had to study overseas to obtain her degree.)

Dagmar set up a practice in rooms in Macquarie Street, before moving to and practicing in Trundle, NSW.

Dagmar Berne died of tuberculosis in August 1900.

To this day, an award is presented at Sydney University honouring Dr Dagmar Berne. It is presented to the female medical graduate obtaining the highest marks in her final year. No doubt, every year Professor Anderson Stuart turns in his grave!