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Fannie was, at this time, a very short, but very broad, lady with long silver grey hair, toothless and with a florid
complexion. With her dresses of floor-length brocaded silk she was like someone from another era. Her sister
kindly arranged for dentures, spectacles and some more modern clothing.
Fannie had many stories to tell—one possibly related to her journey across the north from Croydon to Wandi.
She told how wild Aborigines had crossed their path and she had let her hair down and behaved like a crazy
woman, prompting the Aborigines to run off. She always enjoyed a joke and had no time for anyone putting on
airs—she could take the ‘mickey’ out of them very smartly. One incident we recall was when she asked a visitor,
who was inclined to be self-important, if he would like to have his fortune told. He eagerly agreed, so Fannie
asked him to sit up in the centre of a large round table with his legs crossed. She then took a pack of cards and
laid them face up in a circle around him. She then proceeded to say, ‘Your past is—you WERE in the ring; your
present is—you ARE in the ring; and your future is—you’ll get out of it as quick as you can!’ This tickled her
fancy and amused those present, much to the embarrassment of the victim. This little episode showed that she had a
wicked sense of humour. However, she also had her pensive moments, obviously thinking of her beloved Northern
Territory and of the husband who had returned there to care for the property. She was extremely bitter about being
made to leave her home in the north and often declared that our own troops pillaged and looted and did far more
damage than the enemy.
Another Territorian, Jessie Litchfield, a journalist and author, used to visit Fannie quite regularly and they
would sit and talk of old times, yearning for the opportunity to return home. However, this was not to be for Fannie,
as her death preceded the opportunity. She died in Sydney on 5 February 1945. Her remains were cremated and her
husband Harry, who arrived in Sydney soon after her death, took the ashes back to the Territory. As Ernestine Hill
wrote in The Territory ‘Fanny WAS Brock’s Creek’, so it is to be hoped that her ashes were interred there.
Harry Haynes was a one-legged old bushman and is remembered as a kindly man. He died on 23 May 1947 at
Darwin after complications following a fall from his horse. Having no children, Fannie’s property then passed to
her sister Emily.
E Hill, The Territory, 1951; Family information.
HOPE DELAHUNTY and AVIS DAVIS, Vol 1.
HEATH, EILEEN (1905– ), Anglican deaconess, was born on 29 November 1905 in Fremantle, Western
Australia, to John Henry Heath and Susan Ann Heath, nee Annear. A fourth generation Australian, she was the
eldest of six children.
Educated at East Fremantle Primary, Princess May Girls’ High School, Fremantle Technical College (Business
Training) and Deaconess House, Perth, Eileen in 1935 was appointed a missionary and welfare worker by the
Australian Board of Missions to work at the Moore River Native Settlement at Mogumber, Western Australia.
She was at Mogumber for nine years and during this time, on 26 February 1938, was ordained Deaconess by the
Archbishop in St George’s Cathedral Perth.
In 1946 Sister Eileen came to Alice Springs, a move prompted by a request from the Diocese of Carpentaria
and the Australian Board of Missions to establish a hostel for the benefit of outback Aboriginal children, mainly
from pastoral properties, so that they could attend school.
Obtaining a Bishop’s Licence to work in the Northern Territory, Sister Eileen named, established and became
Superintendent of St Mary’s Church of England Hostel situated at Mt Blatherskite, a short distance from the town.
Originally the Lady Gowrie Rest Home for Servicewomen during the Second World War, the home was handed
over to the Australian Board of Missions just as it was with army beds, Red Cross sheets, grey blankets, lots of
sporting equipment and first aid gear. There was a tennis court but no laundry facilities, and the only finance Sister
Eileen had to work with was a very small grant provided by the Anglican Church.
The first children to arrive at St Mary’s were from Newcastle Waters. Then Father Leslie, Rector of Alice Springs
Parish at the time asked Sister Eileen if she could take the children of a number of Aboriginal families he came
into contact with during his pastoral work, such as Beetaloo and the Overland Telegraph Stations. These children
had no opportunity of education but their families showed interest in placing them in a hostel in Alice Springs
where they could go to school. They were to be supported at the rate of 15 Shillings each child through the Station
Trustees, and so 12 children came into residence and returned to their parents each school holiday.
As St Mary’s became too small for the numbers waiting to come in, several army buildings being disposed
of were bought at a low cost. One large building had been a doctors’ mess attached to what was during the war
the army hospital. This hut, with several small ones, was dismantled and re-erected for a dining room, chapel and
sleeping quarters.
Sister Eileen had no vehicle to transport the children to school in Alice Springs until Father Leslie managed to
find her an old army Chevrolet utility. Camouflaged and well worn, it nevertheless did the job until the number of
children outgrew the vehicle and the Education Department provided a bus.
At a time when Aboriginal children across Australia were being institutionalised Sister Eileen devoted 10 years
to ensuring that the St Mary’s Children’s Village was a friendly and caring place of learning. She opened St Mary’s
with three girls in her charge and when she resigned in 1955, 71 children were in residence. Many of the children
who passed through her hands were later leaders in various Aboriginal development projects.
In January 1956 after leaving St Mary’s, Sister Eileen opened a Receiving Home in Darwin on behalf of the
Northern Territory Welfare Branch and at the end of that year she returned to Alice Springs to work as a Field
Welfare Officer among Aboriginal people. Her work with Welfare was mostly with Aboriginal people of mixed
descent and covered a wide range of needs: home counselling, assessments for better accommodation, getting
children regularised for school and mothers to hospital for post-natal and ante-natal care. A certain amount of