- page -
http://www.cdu.edu.au/cdupress
Go Back >> List of Entries
arrived in January 1924 she was able to walk the three quarters of a mile to the Home to have her baby, the first
patient at the new hospital. She then stayed on for a fortnight resting and being cared for by the two nursing sisters,
Sister King and Sister Grey, despite William visiting every night, asking her to come home to care for the rest of
the family.
In the mid-1920s the Jones family left VRD, returning to Pine Creek briefly, before William found work
at Katherine. This was a dark period in Sally’s life, the family was living under canvas in difficult conditions,
William was drinking heavily and not providing for the family, and Sally’s youngest child, Gwennie, died,
apparently of blood poisoning. In 1930 Sally decided she had enough and left William. Taking the children she
travelled firstly to Pine Creek, where she worked in the hotel for 12 months, and then onto Darwin where she
found work at the Victoria Hotel, a job she held for the next 10 years. Initially Sally lived in at the hotel with son
Bill, while the two girls, Nancy and Grace, boarded at the convent school. By 1932, however, she had managed
to rent a small house in Smith Street, near Searcy Street, and was able to have all the children with her again.
The two girls continued on as day students at the convent school, while Bill attended Darwin School. Taught by
‘Tam’ Tambling, Bill won the Darwin scholarship in his last year at the school.
Sally worked hard during these years, starting work at four in the morning so that she could finish by two o’clock
to get her own housework done before the children returned home from school. At the Vic she was responsible
for the hotel laundry, boiling the clothes in a copper, using flat irons for the ironing and hand starching the linen.
She often found it hard to make ends meet, and appreciated the shops, such as Mook Sangs, which would allow
credit for a week or two. However, even the poorest white woman could afford the five shillings a week to have a
‘blackfellow’ do her own heavy work at home, chopping wood, drawing water and scrubbing floors.
Sally had little time for a life of her own and tended to socialise through her children, going to the football
after work on Saturdays to see her beloved ‘Buffs’ playing, admiring the talent of players such as Don Bonson,
the Ah Matt boys and Walter Lew Fat. She would also go with the children on weekend picnics to Rapid Creek or
Berry Springs, in a party with Joan Armour or Boyne Litchfield.
In about 1941 Sally and Bill, who had returned from studying in Queensland and was now a cadet draftsman,
travelled south to visit Sally’s sister, Annie. When they returned to Darwin Sally spent a few months working at the
new Hotel Darwin before yet again moving to Pine Creek. When the Japanese bombed Darwin in February 1942
Sally was safely in Pine Creek with William (Bill) Feeney, the man she was to marry in 1951. The two of them
watched the Japanese planes fly low over the town on their way to Katherine on 22 March 1942. Bill was to ring
the authorities to warn them of the coming planes but was not believed. After the first raid the couple soon saw the
results of the bombing as floods of refugees passed through the town, travelling by train and motorcar and getting
bogged in the muddy wet season conditions. The rumour mill also travelled fast with Sally being told her son Bill
had been killed during the bombing of the wharves. This was later proved false and Bill went on to join the forces
in Darwin.
In the chaotic times which followed the bombing, Sally was forced to leave Pine Creek, evacuated by train
with other women, children and old men at the end of March 1942. She only went as far as Alice Springs, and in
December of the same year managed to talk the authorities into giving her a pass to return home—on condition she
find her own transport. Sally managed to talk her way onto one of the troop transports going to Birdum, then made
her own way to Pine Creek, the only white woman to return to Pine Creek before the end of the war. Bill Feeney’s
butcher shop had been requisitioned by the army to supply meat to the troops in the Pine Creek area and Sally went
to work with him. She also played a role tending to the troops’ domestic needs, sewing up the baggy khaki shorts
supplied to the local forces. When, later in life, Sally was asked why she hadn’t stayed away at this dangerous
time she said she ‘couldn’t see the sense of it... I was used to that sort of life, I’d been in the bush all my life and
I knew what to do’.
When the war finally ended Bill Feeney, with no prospect of restarting his butchering business, found work
on the railways and was sent to work further up the line at Burrundie. Left at home on her own in Pine Creek,
Sally went to work at the Pine Creek Hotel, again doing laundry. After 12 months Bill was moved back to Pine Creek
with the railways where he worked until he retired at 65. In the mid 1950s Sally and Bill adopted two of Sally’s
grandchildren, Christine (Chris) and William (Bill), the children of Sally’s youngest surviving daughter, Grace.
Sally was to rear the two children until they were adults, as well as another ‘foster’ child, Margaret Callanan.
Bill Feeney died in 1964, leaving Sally on her own again bringing up school age children. Again she decided
Darwin would provide more opportunities and moved with Bill and Chris to a housing commission house in
Graham Street, Stuart Park. In 1972 Sally managed to buy the house, which she lived in until the last few months
of her life.
On her 90th birthday in January 1987 an article about Sally appeared in the Northern Territory News. She was
still sprightly and discussing the pleasure she got from playing bingo and reading westerns, but within a few
months she had broken her hip and her health rapidly deteriorated. On 4 October 1987 Sally Feeney died in
Darwin Hospital and was buried in the Darwin General Cemetery. She was survived by her daughter Nancy,
10 grandchildren including her adopted children Bill and Chris, 31 great-grandchildren and two great great
grandchildren. In the Legislative Assembly later that month the then member for Port Darwin, Tom Harris, paid
tribute to Sally Feeney and her importance as a Territory pioneer.
Administrator’s Report 1933; Australian Archives, Northern Territory, CRS F1 1943/12D; F & H Frith, diary; Northern Territory Archives
Service, NTRS 226 TS 202; Genealogical Society of the Northern Territory, index of deaths mentioned in police day books, Pine Creek;
Northern Territory electoral roll 1940; Northern Territory Parliamentary Record, 29 October 1987; Northern Territory News, 6 October 1987;
7 October 1987; Northern Territory Times and Gazette, 6 July 1918; personal information, B Feeney, junior.
ELIZABETH ROBERTS, Vol 3.