- page -
http://www.cdu.edu.au/cdupress
Go Back >> List of Entries
received representation in parliament. ‘We would prepare roast meals and then take them to the jail and have a
great sing along and entertain the men who were there; most of them put on weight during their stay because the
food was so good’, she later recalled in an interview.
In 1928 Gertrude Styles decided Eileen should train for a profession and financed her to do a nursing course
in Melbourne. She spent four years getting her double certificate in nursing at the Queen Victoria Hospital and
spending much of her spare time with Harold Nelson and his family, who were living in Melbourne during sessions
of the federal parliament. But Eileen missed the Territory and as soon as she had sat for her exams she took the
train to Alice Springs, where she stayed for a while with her sister Lillian, who had married John Lovegrove,
a well-known Territory policeman.
Eileen was soon appointed as nursing sister at the Bungalow, a home for part Aboriginal children. While she
was there a severe trachoma epidemic broke out in Alice Springs and she spent several weeks in isolation treating
people who had contracted the disease. She and her two teenage assistants saw virtually no other people while they
were administering the treatments.
In 1934 the Territory’s chief medical officer, Dr Cecil Cook, transferred Eileen to Pine Creek, where she was
Sister in charge of the hospital. It was during this period that she met Dr Clyde Fenton, the famed Territory flying
doctor, who was stationed at Katherine but visited Pine Creek at least once a week. He was a practical joker as well
as a highly skilled doctor and pilot and Eileen, who often flew with him, experienced many of his stunts first hand.
She remained friends with him throughout his life, having the highest regard for his medical expertise and devotion
to duty and thoroughly enjoying his keen sense of humour and mischievous antidotes.
In 1936 Eileen received the devastating news of the death in Perth of her sister Gertrude, who had married the
surveyor Bill Easton. Eileen was deeply distressed and decided she did not want to be on her own any longer.
Within weeks she married a long time friend, Harry Gribbon, whom she affectionately referred to as her ‘wild
Irishman’. They moved to Darwin for a while before trying their luck on the Wauchope wolfram mining fields near
Tennant Creek in 1939. For about 18 months Eileen was the only European woman on the fields and was often
called on to nurse sick miners.
Following this, Eileen was asked to relieve the nursing sister at the Channel Island Leprosarium for a few
months. She looked after about 120 lepers. It was a very fulfilling time for her and was followed by another job as
Matron at the new Bagot Aboriginal compound in Darwin. A short time later she and Harry bought the Adelaide
River Hotel, and, as the military build up in the Top End increased, they had ‘a very busy period’. But Harry soon
became very ill and was in Darwin Hospital when the decision was made at the end of 1941 to evacuate all women
and children as well as the elderly and infirm.
Eileen and Harry were evacuated from Darwin in December 1941 on USS President Grant, along with about
250 Darwin women and children. Once Harry was settled in Sydney, Eileen sought and received permission
to return to Adelaide River to settle up their business affairs. She was on her way to Port Pirie when she heard
that Darwin had been bombed. She arrived in Alice Springs as the evacuees were just arriving from Darwin.
She eventually got a ride in a private truck with a friend from Alice Springs to Adelaide River, where she was
allowed to stay at nearby Mount Bundy Station. She was the only civilian woman there at the time although there
were several military nurses, some of whom she knew. The Matron in charge, Edith McQuade White, was a
particular friend of hers and Eileen handed over anything from the hotel that could be of use in the hospital. During
Eileen’s four-week stay in the region she heard aeroplanes and sirens almost daily as the Japanese continued their
bombing raids on the Top End.
After a few weeks, Eileen returned to Sydney where she remained with her husband until he died in 1943.
Shortly after his death, she got a telegram from a close Territory friend whose husband owned Tipperary Station
and was being treated in Sydney Hospital for a serious illness. He had been told he could return to Tipperary if he
had a trained nurse to accompany him, so Eileen was offered the job, which she accepted without hesitation, being
anxious to return to the Territory.
Tipperary was very much in the military zone and often visited by soldiers. It was while she was there that
Eileen renewed her friendship with one of the Territory’s most famous policemen, Tas Fitzer, then officer in
charge of the Daly River Police Station. The station had been taken over by the military and it was Tas’s job to look
for lost airmen by horse patrol and black trackers and to help train military personnel how to survive in the bush.
The circumstances under which Tas and Eileen renewed their acquaintance were potentially tragic. Tas had
been badly injured when a wild colt kicked him and had remained in agony on his verandah for 17 days. As it was
the middle of the Wet, Tas knew a flying doctor could not land but also knew he was becoming semi delirious.
He scribbled a note that he gave to a faithful black tracker, instructing him to take it to ‘Sister Eileen’ at Tipperary.
The tracker travelled by foot over 48 kilometres to reach her and returned three days later with a note from Eileen
explaining that with the help of 14 Aborigines she had penetrated bogs and creeks to get within 18 kilometres of
the police station. She sent instructions for the trackers to improvise a stretcher and carry Tas back to her, a feat
they eventually accomplished after many gruelling hours. After giving Tas morphine, Eileen organised for him to
be treated at a nearby Army hospital.
A romance blossomed and in April 1945 Tas and Eileen were married at Tipperary Station in a ‘beautiful
ceremony’ that lasted for three days. Following the wedding, the couple moved to their home on the Daly River,
where Tas was stationed. It was while there in 1946 that Eileen had a close call with death and, with the help and
skill of Aboriginal trackers, had to be evacuated through flooded Daly River country to Darwin, where her life was
saved and her ordeal made headlines throughout the country. Within a few weeks she was well again and able to
resume her life at the Daly, where she soon became known as the ‘White Queen of the Daly River’.