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occasion, Peter’s ship was delayed by a strike and Billie offered to show him the sights of Darwin. By the end
of the week, they had decided to marry. Billie found her husband a job as a cook in a hospital, where he worked
for 16 years in positions of increasing responsibility. Peter insisted that Billie give up her catering business on
marriage, but she continued her charitable work. They moved to Howard Springs, taking up a 0.2 hectare block.
Peter died suddenly of a heart attack in March 1977. Feeling her loss deeply, Billie decided to accept the
advice of friends to move from Howard Springs into town where she would be nearer the people she knew
and could become more involved in community work again. In 1981, Billie moved into a new flat off Parap
Road. The Housing Commission built the block, which was named Pitcheneder Court in recognition of Billie’s
contribution to the community.
For her work, Billie Pitcheneder received many honours and acknowledgements. Popular recognition of her
efforts was shown in 1961, for instance, when large crowds attended her wedding. Jim Bowditch, Editor of the
Northern Territory News commented: ‘They came because Billie has becom[e] a legend in her own life through
unfailing kindness to others. They came to wish well a person who has never wished anything but good for all
others. So many people have been touched by the untiring kindness of this woman; the blind, the poor, the ill
and the weak. Her ample generosity [w]as given freely to all.’ Official recognition came in 1977 with a British
Empire Medal (BEM) and a Queen’s Jubilee Medal. In acknowledgement of her long membership and energetic
contribution to raising funds, she also received Life Memberships of the Braille Society, the Country Women’s
Association, the Legion of Ex Servicemen and Women, the German Club, the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association
and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In 1980, the Darwin Australia Day Committee
named her Citizen of the Year. In the following year, she received a Citizen Award. In 1990, she received the Prize
for Outstanding Voluntary Community Service from the Casuarina Community Foundation.
While her health was good, Billie kept up with an exhausting round of community activities, in spite of an
increasing weight problem. However, in 1988 she fell in her flat and badly damaged her leg, necessitating several
operations and long stays in hospital. This of course restricted her activities, but even within this much-reduced
ambit, she continued to work, from home, for charity.
Northern Territory News, 10 October 1961, 13 June 1977, 29 January 1983; interviews with B Pitcheneder, 16 June 1990, 12 February 1992.
CHRISTINE DORAN, Vol 2.
PLAYFORD, (EDWARD) COPLEY (COP) (1864–1950), surveyor, Special Magistrate, public servant,
and acting Administrator of the Northern Territory was born on 22 March 1864 in Adelaide, South Australia.
The second son of Thomas and Mary Jane Playford, his father (1837–1915) served twice as Premier of South
Australia (1887–1889 and 1890–1892) and was a Senator in the first federal parliament (1901–1907) and Minister
for Defence in the second Deakin ministry (1905–1907). Thomas Playford’s grandson, Sir Thomas Playford,
was Premier of South Australia for a record term (1938–1965).
Playford (known throughout his life as ‘Copley’ or ‘Cop’ to his many friends) was educated at Prince Alfred’s
College. After completing his training as a surveyor, he was employed as a government surveyor by the South
Australian Department of Lands and surveyed the towns of Copley (Leigh Creek) and Ediacara in northern South
Australia in 1891, before transferring to the Northern Territory branch of the Surveyor-General’s office.
On 4 July 1888, he married a distant cousin, Emily Sarah Tomlinson Welbourn. There were three daughters,
Daisy, Ruby and Marjory, each of whom married and had large families.
Playford was very tall and thin, big-boned, angular, tousle-headed, moustached with a long bushy beard and a
wild unkempt appearance. He was unconventional, enjoyed male company and consuming copious quantities of
alcohol, and cared little for appearances and conventions. He was a fine horseman, and a man with a reputation
for being scrupulously fair and honest. An intrepid bushman, he was reputed to have been able to find his way in
any part of the Territory, and to have personally travelled over its whole length and breadth. He was a renowned
raconteur and bon vivant, and was possessed of a sardonic sense of humour.
On 22 July 1896, he was appointed Chief Warden of the Goldfields and surveyor at Burrundie, Northern
Territory. On 27 July 1898, he was appointed a Special Magistrate, having earlier been appointed a Justice of the
Peace. On 20 September 1898, he was appointed Inspector for the Central Board of Health. On 8 September 1909,
he was appointed Chief Warden in and for the Northern Territory. He maintained each of these positions after
South Australia handed over the Northern Territory to the Commonwealth on I January 1911. Thereafter he held
a number of other positions including Director of Lands and Mines (1921–1925), Director of Mines (1927–1930)
Deputy Administrator (1925) and Acting Administrator for the Northern Territory (1926–1927). At the time of his
retirement (1 October 1930) he still held the positions of Director of Mines, Chief Warden of the Goldfields and
Special Magistrate, and was described by the Government Resident, Lieutenant Colonel R H Weddell, as having
‘displayed conspicuous ability, and integrity and tact,’ and to ‘have set a standard of wisdom, honesty and courtesy
in (his) dealings which is an inspiration to all’.
In 1907, Playford travelled to China, Japan, and Hong Kong with his parents. In 1913, he travelled to Toronto,
Canada, where he presented a paper on the geology of the Northern Territory of Australia to the International
Geological Congress that he had prepared jointly with Dr H I Jensen, the Territory’s Chief Geologist and later
Director of Mines.
Playford was not only a popular man, he was a great survivor. He avoided being embroiled in the problems of
the Gilruth administration and was the only judicial officer to receive a favourable comment by Justice Norman
Ewing in the 1920 Royal Commission into Northern Territory Administration. His reputation for fairness was such
that in 1918 he was appointed by the Director of Mines, TG Oliver, to chair an enquiry into complaints concerning