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Children’s Court work was also involved when children had to be brought before the Court because they were
being neglected or were breaking the law. Her empathy and rapport with the community is legendary and continued
after her ‘retirement’ when she returned to St Mary’s as a child and family services social worker until 1976.
Sister Eileen was also a foundation member and Secretary of the Prisoners Aid and Rehabilitation Association
which originated in 1961 and continues today offering fellowship, guidance and assistance to prison inmates and
their dependents both before and after release. ‘We would visit the jail every week and interview any of them
who wished to see us. Any requests they made were brought back to me and as far as I could I fulfilled their
requests—such as shopping, getting in touch with relatives, picking up property in various places and checking on
wages that were due to them’. Sister Eileen also encouraged prisoners to take up arts and crafts and she found a
ready market for prison art. She was also a member of the Northern Territory Parole Board from 1976 until 1988,
as she was long concerned that prisoners should be assisted in whatever way possible when attempting to resume
life in the community.
In addition to the quiet dignity and considerable empathy she extended to fellow citizens in need, Sister Eileen
gave 21 years service to the local Girl Guides Association. Retiring in 1970, Sister Eileen was awarded an ‘Order
of Merit’ in recognition of the long contribution she had made to the local guiding movement. She was the first
leader of the Alice Springs Brownie Pack that she established in 1947, co-founder of the Ida Standley Pack in the
late 1950s and founder-leader of the Amoonguna Brownie Pack for Aboriginal children that she began in 1961.
She was also involved in the Alice Springs Youth Centre.
Sister Eileen, during her 46 years in Central Australia, witnessed and contributed to Alice Springs’ transition
from a primitive, isolated and poorly serviced town into a modern one offering advanced amenities and community
services. Slim, with curly grey hair and a bubbly laugh, Sister Eileen was an instigator of Jumble or Lawn sales for
the Anglican Church, confounding many with her ability to obtain so much to sell on each occasion. She made her
office at the Anglican Church, which enabled her to preside as Deaconess at Baptisms and Funeral Services, play
the organ for these and church services, teach Sunday School, and take an active part in the Ladies Fellowship.
In 1968 Sister Eileen Heath was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). On 7 November
1982 she was made an Honorary Canon of Christ Church, Darwin, and in the Bicentennial year of 1988 her name
was included on one of the tiles featuring 200 famous Territorians laid in Darwin’s Esplanade Park. In 1992,
Sister Eileen shared the honour of Centralian of the Year with Sue Ryde before she left Central Australia to settle
in Western Australia.
Interviews with Sister E Heath, 28 July 1994, S Hewitt, 1994.
SHIRLEY BROWN, Vol 3.HEATHCOCK, RUTH SABINA nee RAYNEY (1901– ), nurse, was born on 11 January 1901 at Murray Bridge,
South Australia, the daughter of Frederick John Rayney, a railway engineer, and his wife Emily Melissa, nee Soar.
She was one of a family of seven children.
As a child Ruth was self-assured with an inclination to mysticism and adventure. She early became friendly
with the Aborigines of the area where she lived. These had their centre at the Point McLeay Mission on the shore
of Lake Alexandrina. It was in this period that she became interested in Aboriginal lore and under the influence of
Louisa Karpenny, who related the stories of the ‘dreamtime’.
From the age of seven until 14 she attended the primary school at the small township of Wellington on the
Murray River opposite Tailem Bend. She had no formal secondary education but at the age of 16 she sat for and
passed the nurses’ entrance examination, which required the payment of a fee of 20 Pounds. She trained in general
nursing at the Adelaide General Hospital, but during this period she contracted an illness, which left her with only
one lung. This necessitated a year’s break in her training. She completed the course in general nursing and then
trained in midwifery at the Lameroo Hospital, and sat for the examination in Adelaide, supervised by Dr Home.
With the completion of her training she was appointed to the Point McLeay Mission as a nurse.
Ruth had always wanted to be a missionary. As a child she attended the Church of England and during the
period of her training in Adelaide was confirmed at the Cathedral. She was not at all orthodox in her religious
beliefs; rather she was critical of some of the church activities. However, she had a strong faith and asserted that
her healing activities were God’s ‘gifts of grace’. The Aborigines loved her as she had, for them, a special healing
ability. They said that she had ‘golden hands’. She herself believed, as part of her mysticism, that in emergencies
she had supernatural assistance.
While on holiday she met Rosetta Flynn, the sister of the Reverend John Flynn of the Australian Inland
Mission (AIM). The result of her conversation with Rosetta Flynn was that she offered her services to the AIM and,
with another Sister, in 1930 was appointed to Maranboy, then a small tin mining centre in the Northern Territory,
and she served in that capacity for almost two years.
It was while at Maranboy that she met Mounted Constable Ted Heathcock, who was stationed at Mataranka.
The Reverend Father Doherty married them at the Mataranka Hotel on 5 November 1931. Heathcock, an
Englishman, was born in 1885 and had served with the British forces during the First World War. He had been
discharged from the army in 1916 as medically unfit and after the war had migrated to Australia. He was thus
16 years’ Ruth’s senior.
The couple were first settled at the very isolated police station at Roper Bar where Ted Heathcock had the task
of policing a huge area. Ruth continued to employ her nursing skills, especially by providing care and healing for
Aborigines. It was in these early years in the Territory that she became aware of the numbers of Aborigines who
had contracted leprosy. If officially detected the law required that they be taken away from their own people and