Joan Croll AO (b. 1928), a breast physician and practising radiologist, is a conservation activist and vigorous writer of letters-to-the-editor. Born in Sydney, she studied medicine at the University of Sydney but did not practise until the age of 47, having been a full-time mother for thirteen years. From 1975 until her retirement in 1997 she was a persistent and effective worker in the field of breast cancer, promoting the introduction of breast ultrasound and mammography. In the early 1970s, Croll’s fight alongside thirteen other women known as ‘Battlers for Kelly’s Bush’ to stymie a housing development on Sydney bushland led to the world’s first Green Ban and the birth of urban environmentalism.
Updated 2018
