Margaret arrived in Alice Springs and became the first nurse employed on full-time basis to work on the quality assurance/quality control programs looking at patient care in Northern Territory hospitals where she designed and introduced to the hospital nursing system a patient questionnaire that produced feedback for improved patient services. She worked as a coordinator behind the practical training component using the hospital resource of the first child care courses offered by the Central Australian Community College. Margaret was involved in the development of the national curriculum and the Northern Territory child care curriculum (now accredited at associate diploma level). Moving into community health she was a member of the steering committee which set up the Alice Springs Drug and Alcohol Services Association (DASA) a volunteer body that developed dynamic and professional programs where no services had existed before. Margaret was appointed regional coordinator of Dependency Resource Services (DRS) to establish a complete range of services for the Alice Springs and Barkly area, from prevention and education through to rehabilitation.,