The Hobart District Nursing Service is one of Hobart’s oldest and best-loved philanthropic organisations. On 14th December 1896, the wife of the Governor of Tasmania convened a public meeting to consider the question of a district nurse for Hobart. The Hobart District Nurses Association was formed at this meeting. The Association grew out of the Amateur Nursing Band of the Young Women’s Association, formed in 1892 by the wife of the Governor. The Hobart District Nurses Association was founded at a time when there was increasing concern about the public health, when women were becoming more active publicly, and when nursing was beginning to be accepted as a profession.