This second of two special issues of the NSW Public Health Bulletin demonstrates the breadth of women’s health research in NSW. In two articles, Wendy Brown and her colleagues provide an introduction to ‘Women’s Health Australia’. Unrivalled in its scope, Women’s Health Australia will derive new insights into the effect of social and medical events on women’s lives, the influence of protective factors such as personal ‘hardiness’ on health outcomes, patterns of health service utilisation and differences between rural and urban women’s health.