‘The Nation’s Health Is the Nation’s Wealth’: Portia Geach (1873–1959) and the Good Health Movement in Interwar Australia

Abstract

In the interwar period, the Australian artist and activist Portia Geach was a leading advocate of the ‘good health movement’ in Australia. Geach produced a public campaign promoting nutritious eating and rejuvenation practices, helping to introduce a health consciousness to the Australian public. A ‘female sojourner’, her ideas about diet and health were imported to Australia from across the globe, where she became educated on nutrition science, home economics, natural health, and physical exercise. By foregrounding Geach as a leader of the good health movement, and an active participant in cultural formations, this article highlights an avenue through which Australian women articulated their expanding role in public life during the interwar period, and how women's leadership roles were formed through transnational engagement. Her participation in cultural exchanges helped to create a new national public health discourse led by women.