by Barbara Cameron

A book about struggle against the odds .. and some success.

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This book is the history of a campaign which came to have a life of its own. It is a testimony to what women can do when working as a group .. Melbourne's Queen Victoria Women's Centre is the result.

"In August 1986 a public meeting attended by 150 women was held in Melbourne to protest the sale of a major city hospital for women. This meeting resolved that the hospital must be retained and the buildings preserved. The following year, a group of women staged Saturday sit-ins outside the hospital, distributing leaflets and petitions to protest and stake their claim to the site, on behalf of the women of Victoria.

"So what stirred these women to denounce the Government's plans? How did a group of mild-mannered women come to pass 17 resolutions aimed at claiming the hospital site? And why was so much passion and dedication displayed during the subsequent campaign to save the hospital?

"To understand the concerns of this group and those who came after them it is necessary to look into the history of this hospital and discover the links to the past and the general attachment and affection of Victorian women to a set of old buildings at the heart of Melbourne."