May Brown

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May Brown (24 May 1875 - c.1939) was a flamboyant Northern Territory miner, publican and pioneer, who became well known her role in developing the wolfram (tungsten) mining industry in Australia. She was known as "The Wolfram Queen". [1]

Northern Territory federal territory of Australia

The Northern Territory is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. It shares borders with Western Australia to the west, South Australia to the south, and Queensland to the east. To the north, the territory looks out to the Timor Sea, the Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria, including Western New Guinea and other Indonesian islands. The NT covers 1,349,129 square kilometres (520,902 sq mi), making it the third-largest Australian federal division, and the 11th-largest country subdivision in the world. It is sparsely populated, with a population of only 246,700, making it the least-populous of Australia's eight states and major territories, with fewer than half as many people as Tasmania.

Tungsten Chemical element with atomic number 74

Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with symbol W and atomic number 74. The name tungsten comes from the former Swedish name for the tungstate mineral scheelite, tung sten or "heavy stone". Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively combined with other elements in chemical compounds rather than alone. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isolated as a metal in 1783. Its important ores include wolframite and scheelite.

Australia Country in Oceania

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the largest country in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country by total area. The neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north; the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east. The population of 25 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Australia's capital is Canberra, and its largest city is Sydney. The country's other major metropolitan areas are Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

Contents

Early life

Brown was born in Sydney on 24 May 1875, the sixth of seven children. She was the daughter of Charles James Weedon (aka Wheedon) (1835 - 1892) and his wife, Mary (née Maria Santa Fortunata Chiodetti) (1842 - 1932), daughter of composer and music professor Vincenzo Rafael Eustachio Chiodetti (1788 - 1858), a native of Rome, Italy and bandmaster to Her Majesty's 28th Regiment, who had emigrated to Australia in 1836. [2] Among her siblings were brothers Sydney and Percy, and a sister, Florence Alice Weedon Budgen Davies (1868 - 1960), who had been launched into the hotel business and became a publican, with her first husband, Sydney Budgen, before she was even 18.

Sydney City in New South Wales, Australia

Sydney is the state capital of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Port Jackson and extends about 70 km (43.5 mi) on its periphery towards the Blue Mountains to the west, Hawkesbury to the north, the Royal National Park to the south and Macarthur to the south-west. Sydney is made up of 658 suburbs, 40 local government areas and 15 contiguous regions. Residents of the city are known as "Sydneysiders". As of June 2017, Sydney's estimated metropolitan population was 5,230,330 and is home to approximately 65% of the state's population.

In antiquity, publicans were public contractors, in which they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed the collection of port duties, and oversaw public building projects. In addition, they served as tax collectors for the Republic, bidding on contracts for the collection of various types of taxes. Importantly, this role as tax collectors was not emphasized until late into the history of the Republic. The publicans were usually of the class of equites.

Brown married rower, cricketer, footballer, and New South Wales amateur boxing champion George Seale whose brothers, Joe and Ted, were also professional cricket players. [3]

New South Wales State of Australia

New South Wales is a state on the east coast of Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south, and South Australia to the west. Its coast borders the Tasman Sea to the east. The Australian Capital Territory is an enclave within the state. New South Wales' state capital is Sydney, which is also Australia's most populous city. In September 2018, the population of New South Wales was over 8 million, making it Australia's most populous state. Just under two-thirds of the state's population, 5.1 million, live in the Greater Sydney area. Inhabitants of New South Wales are referred to as New South Welshmen.

Boxing combat sport

Boxing is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves, throw punches at each other for a predetermined amount of time in a boxing ring.

Edward "Ted" Seale was an Australian cricketer. He played two first-class matches for New South Wales between 1877/78 and 1878/79.

George Seale was lauded as "the best all-round amateur athlete in Australia," and as one of the best amateur boxers in the world, as well as for successfully running the Sydney Gymnastics Club on Castlereagh Street in Sydney, until his death in March 1906. [4]

Six months after Seale's death, Brown married Northern Territory wolfram miner James Burns and moved with him to the Northern Territory. They had one son George Seal Junior. [1] [5] George Junior's daughter, born 10 May 1926, became renowned nurse, educator and writer Jacqueline "Jaci" Moya Seale O'Brien, AC, who was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1984 for her decades of service to nursing. [6]

Order of Australia series of Australian national honours

The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, to recognise Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or meritorious service. Before the establishment of the order, Australian citizens received British honours.

Nursing Activity within the health care sector

Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health care providers by their approach to patient care, training, and scope of practice. Nurses practice in many specialties with differing levels of prescription authority. Many nurses provide care within the ordering scope of physicians, and this traditional role has shaped the public image of nurses as care providers. However, nurse practitioners are permitted by most jurisdictions to practice independently in a variety of settings. Since the postwar period, nurse education has undergone a process of diversification towards advanced and specialized credentials, and many of the traditional regulations and provider roles are changing.

Life in the Northern Territory

Brown settled with her new husband in Pine Creek, near his mine, The Crest of the Wave. Burns also owned another nearby mine, Wolfram Creek. She was soon deeply involved in working the mines herself, alongside local Chinese miners. A skilled miner, a newspaper report described that she had "shown unbounded faith in the mine since first becoming interested in it." In 1909, malaria hit the area and Brown nursed the miners, later contracting malaria herself. James Burns died in 1912 and the mine was put into administration while the estate was administered. Operations restarted after title was transferred to Brown and her third husband Charles Albert (Bert) Brown, to whom she was married in 1913. [7]

Pine Creek, Northern Territory Town in the Northern Territory, Australia

Pine Creek is a small town in the Katherine region of the Northern Territory, Australia. As at the 2016 Census there were 328 residents of Pine Creek, which is the fourth largest town between Darwin and Alice Springs.

Malaria Mosquito-borne infectious disease

Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases it can cause yellow skin, seizures, coma, or death. Symptoms usually begin ten to fifteen days after being bitten by an infected mosquito. If not properly treated, people may have recurrences of the disease months later. In those who have recently survived an infection, reinfection usually causes milder symptoms. This partial resistance disappears over months to years if the person has no continuing exposure to malaria.

Victoria Hotel in Darwin Victoria Hotel in Darwin.jpeg
Victoria Hotel in Darwin

When the wolfram price plummeted at the end of World War I, Brown moved to diversify her business by investing the hotel business. She became the first publican win the lease on Darwin’s Victoria Hotel in 1921 when the era of state control of Top End hotels came to an end. [8] As a publican she built a reputation for clearing the pub of problem drinkers by using the boxing skills taught to her by her first husband, boxing champion and self-defense enthusiast George Seale.

Her hotel business was very successful. After her third husband, Charles Albert, died from malaria while droving cattle along the Birdsville Track in 1926, [9] [10] she bought the Pine Creek Hotel and managed it from 1928 to 1930.

Brown became one of the Northern Territory’s richest people who "spent her money recklessly and gave it away liberally." Brown was a popular figure who became even more popular for occasionally throwing gold sovereigns and banknotes into the air as she walked down Darwin’s streets, shouting “Let catch as catch can!” [11] Brown's lifestyle took its toll, however, and she began experiencing financial trouble, eventually forfeiting both her Wolfram Hill and Crest of the Wave mines in 1934. [1] But her spirited nature was still in evidence when she was reported to be in a scuffle with another woman at Darwin's Star Theatre. [12]

Brown retired to Sydney and died there on 23 July 1939, "a virtual pauper." She is buried with her first husband at Rookwood cemetery in Sydney. [1]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 James, Barbara. Northern Territory Dictionary of Biography. Casuarina, Darwin: Charles Darwin University Press. ISBN   9780980457810 . Retrieved 10 March 2017.
  2. ↑ Trove The Hunter River Gazette and Journal of Agriculture, Commerce, Politics, and News, West Maitland, NSW, June 18, 1842.
  3. ↑ Trove The Sydney Morning Herald March 26, 1906, page 4. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  4. ↑ Trove The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser March 28, 1906, page 842. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  5. ↑ "Wedding Bells". Northern Territory Times And Gazette . Northern Territory, Australia. 11 April 1924. p. 9. Retrieved 25 May 2017– via National Library of Australia.
  6. ↑ Trove The Canberra Times, January 26, 1984, page 10. Retrieved January 3, 2017
  7. ↑ "Australian Prospectors and Miners Hall of Fame Historical Profile – May Brown (1875-1939)". Republic of Mining. Australia/New Caledonia/Papua New Guinea Mining. 26 June 2008. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
  8. ↑ "TERRITORY HOTELS". Northern Standard (78). Northern Territory, Australia. 3 September 1921. p. 3. Retrieved 8 March 2017– via National Library of Australia.
  9. ↑ "DEATH OF MR BERT BROWN". Northern Standard (73). Northern Territory, Australia. 15 October 1926. p. 2. Retrieved 25 May 2017– via National Library of Australia.
  10. ↑ "Family Notices". Northern Territory Times And Gazette . Northern Territory, Australia. 15 October 1926. p. 7. Retrieved 10 March 2017– via National Library of Australia.
  11. ↑ James, Barbara (1989). No Man's Land: Women of the Northern Territory. Sydney: Collins Publishers Australia. ISBN   9780732224738.
  12. ↑ "TUSSLE AT STAR THEATRE". Northern Standard (40). Northern Territory, Australia. 24 May 1935. p. 3. Retrieved 10 March 2017– via National Library of Australia.

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