Our Story

Our purpose is to hold and create space for Victorian women* and gender diverse people to thrive. 

Our vision is that all women and gender diverse people have a place where they feel welcomed, valued, and celebrated and have the power to determine their present and future. 

Our values spring from our motto ‘for women by women’, the same motto used by the founding mothers of the original Queen Victoria Hospital for Women and Children established in 1896, led by Dr Constance Stone, Australia’s first registered woman doctor.

*pictured above: Janet Bromley, Glenda Nicholls, Trina Oogjes-Dalton, Natalie Hutchins MP, Georgia Macguire, Annie Brigdale and Lorraine Brigdale.

At a time when women medical practitioners were seen as an enigma at best and abomination at worst, Dr Constance Stone, assisted by fellow members of the Victorian Women’s Medical Society, established Australia’s first hospital for women and children.

They believed that women and children would get better care if delivered by female medical practitioners – for women by women indeed, and their model continued for nearly a century.

The ‘QV’ has an extensive and rich history. It was one of only three public hospitals in the world founded and staffed by women. 

In 1994 the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre Trust Act (1994) was passed by the Victorian Parliament creating the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre (QVWC), preserving the last remaining tower on the QV site. In creating the Centre, the State Government dedicated the land and the building to services and facilities for women.