Doris Regina Booth

Doris Regina Booth (1 October 1895 – 4 November 1970) was an Australian nurse and goldminer. She was the first female member of the Legislative Council of Papua and New Guinea.

Biography Booth was born to Henry Wilde and Minna Gerler in South Brisbane in 1895. Following her school education she started work at Brisbane General Hospital as a trainee nurse. Between 1927 and 1929 Booth returned to live in Australia to recover from Malaria, publishing a book about her experiences under the title Mountain Gold and Cannibals. She then went back to New Guinea and left her husband in 1932; the two divorced in 1934.

After a successful spell running a mine, Booth returned to Brisbane again in 1938 and worked for the Mothercraft Association. She subsequently returned to New Guinea and was appointed to the new Legislative Council of Papua and New Guinea in 1951, serving as its sole female member until 1957.

In 1960 Booth returned to Australia and worked as a volunteer for the Methodist Blue Nursing Service. She died at the St Andrews War Memorial Hospital in 1970.