My first day as a travelling school dentist in the 1950s
Denise McEniery tells us about regional dentistry on wheels and lifelong friendships in Queensland's dental community
Denise on her first day as school dentist, pictured at the playground of Majors Creek School, 1954. Credit: Denise McEniery
In 2023, Denise McEniery (nee Quinlan) kindly donated some photos from her family archive, which document the history of public dentistry in Queensland, and in particular, the mid-XX century travelling school dental services.
Her career exemplifies well both the experience of regional and remote dentistry on wheels or rail, and that of the first few women who graduated from the UQ Dental School.
Dr Gary Smith, Brisbane prosthodontist, ADAQ past president and now honorary curator for the MoD, recently interviewed Denise. Gary wanted to find out more about the photos she sent us, and her experience as paediatric dentist in the post-WW2 years.
Denise on her first day as school dentist, pictured at the playground of Majors Creek School, 1954. Credit: Denise McEniery
Denise matriculated in 1947, when returning servicemen were invited to enrol in any course to remedy the severe shortages in the health professions; many would choose medicine or dentistry.
‘I think we had 110 enrol that year, but many dropped out. The Dental Faculty of the University of Queensland had an incredible amount of trouble fitting them in, that’s when they built the extra storey on the dental hospital to fit them in’.
Brisbane Dental Hospital ‘the Palace’, 1950s
Straight out of Catholic boarding school, and hailing from a very protective Irish community, Denise recalls being initially slightly intimidated standing in line with a crowd of over one hundred guys to enrol at uni:
‘ […] So, I wrote back to all my friends back at home and said: I’m going to do physiotherapy if there’s no girls!’ (In 1938, UQ was the first Australian university to offer a 3-year program in physiotherapy).
Nevertheless, Denise went back the next day, and was glad to catch the eye of another girl in the crowd, Erika Dark, who would become one of her life-long friends.
‘There were five of us [girls] in the course and we stayed pretty close all our lives. And do you know, until last year we were all still alive; one has now passed away and sadly the others we are all in nursing homes…’ laments Denise.
Denise graduated from UQ Dental School in 1950 (fourth woman on the right):
Group photo of School of Dentistry 1950 graduates. Courtesy of School of Dentistry, University of Queensland
Denise’s husband was also a dentist: Timothy McEniery. He started out as a law student and then switched to dentistry. ‘He thought he’d have much better chances to ‘court me’ this way’, recalls Denise with a chuckle.
As a couple of newly graduated dentists, Denise and Tim featured in the Courier-Mail in 1954 as they accepted to travel outback Queensland with the Rail Dental Clinic, right after their wedding. See: Married life on wheels. Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 - 1954), Thursday 5 August 1954, page 8.
Many young dentists chose to work in regional areas, staying in the cities was quite uncommon, according to Denise.
‘…We were still pedalling for the [treadle] engines at that stage. I had to pedal the full engine without losing speed’ she recalls. ‘…It took so long for the poor patients!’
Well, this puts our Gary Smith to shame: he would have been hopeless as a dentist in those days (see Gary's attempt to pedal the drill engine here…)
The pedal engine features in the photos of her first day of work as a school dentist, in 1954. Looking immaculate and smiling proudly, Denise is snapped by the photographer as she attends to a schoolboy under the shade of a timber shed at the Majors Creek School grounds, North Queensland.
A simple wooden table lined with white napkins holds her dental accoutrements; the terrified young patient sits uncomfortably on a foldable dental chair. A towel donned over the child helps to keep headlice at bay during treatment.
Denise on her first day as school dentist, pictured at the playground of Majors Creek School, 1954. Credit: Denise McEniery
Facilities and playground equipment, Majors Creek State School, 1977. In the background is the Principal's car in a shed that was built by the P&C voluntary workers and made out of bush timber. The shed was later condemned and dismantled. Credit: Townsville City Council, accessed 05/10/2023, https://stories.townsville.qld.gov.au/nodes/view/11655
‘It was a difficult time to start in dentistry […] We were getting the people from Europe. New Australians, we used to call them. …They came with terrible dental work, and oral hygiene was terrible. …See , we didn’t have fluoride to help at the time […]’
Rail dental clinic – 1950s. Credit: Denise McEniery
Denise and her husband took over the Rail Dental Service from the previous dentist, Keith Brain, for a few years. Denise enjoyed her work with the schools and travelling through North Queensland on the dental train. A helper travelled with them for technical support. He was also tasked with reversing the van out of the carriage and driving around to collect the children from schools to the railway yards where they stationed.
Pictured here Mr Shepherd(?) reversing the van out of the rail carriage. Credit: Denise McEniery
Denise commented, ‘Talking to you brings it all back, good memories. […] They were, you know, happy years.’
Tim McEniery remained a QH public dentist for most of his career. He was involved in the first National Oral Health Survey (1993) and co-wrote some influential Queensland-based epidemiology papers in the 1970s and 1980s.
According to Denise, after his retirement, Tim wanted to write a book on the history of the school dental service in Queensland and had started to collect materials before his untimely death in 2014. The photos and materials donated by Denise are part of what he planned to include.
We’re extremely grateful to Denise, and her family and friends, for graciously helping us record memories and provide an inkling of what it was like to study and practice dentistry seventy years ago.
All ADAQ members and their families can contribute to the Museum of Dentistry project. If you would like to share photographs or recollections, or record an interview with ADAQ, please contact Alex: [email protected].