KATHLEEN Mary Amey sure was popular on her 102nd birthday.
Kath received a visit from the Briagolong Bush Band, Federal Member for Gippsland, Darren Chester, and her god daughter, among many others.
Kath was born at St David’s Hospital, Maffra, on Wednesday, March 8, 1922, as the sixth of eight children from Boisdale residents Jessie and Will Amey.
She started at Boisdale Estate School at Nuntin in 1927, then transferred to Maffra High School until Year 10, and rode her bike around 11 kilometres to school every day.
“I always hated an east wind because I had a headwind on the way home, and I was in an easterly direction, and my brothers were pretty quick, and I had to catch up with them,” she recalled.
Kath wasn’t academic; that family space was saved for her older sister, Bet, who, according to Bet’s 1935 MHS teacher’s report, was “a most keen and conscientious student.”
Kath left school at 15 and worked on the family farm until 1945, when she was accepted into nursing at Epworth Hospital in Richmond. She said while her father didn’t want her to leave, her mother accepted it, but when the two visited Melbourne by train, her mother cried nearly all the way.
Kath said she chose Epworth Hospital because it was Methodist church-based, led by Matron Monkhouse, who was stoic and upright.
“I was a little bit frightened of her, but I know she was (doing a) good job.”
She lived in the nurse’s home and enjoyed her training years with eight other nurses from around Victoria, with whom she celebrated the end of World War 2 in Melbourne.
Kath said the whole country was excited about the celebration, and she went into the city and joined the festivities, even though this was against the rules of the hospital, who were worried for the nurses’ safety as many military sailors had a poor reputation.
“You weren’t supposed to go to town because they (Epworth leadership) feared for our safety because there were some pretty bad people there, so they were trying to keep us in the hospital while those celebrations were on, but it was an exciting time,” she said.
Kath and the other nurses had three months of initial training, which consisted of working shifts on the wards. She wore a blue buttoned dress, white apron, stiff white belt and a white cap. She earned about two pounds a week and recalled doing three months on night duty visiting Bet and occasionally sleeping in her bed. Bet was a Cottage Mother at the Cheltenham Children’s Home.
Kath undertook her post-graduation year at Epworth and attained a nursing position at Warragul Hospital until she returned to Epworth and undertook her midwifery training.
In 1950, Kath and Paddy, one of the nurses she trained with, travelled to England by ship and registered with a private nursing agency, forcing her to leave the Epworth job. However, she kept in touch with these nurses and is even a godmother to the daughter of a former colleague. A small group of them met annually until about seven years ago. Kath thinks she may be the last one in that group to be alive.
In England, she and Paddy worked in homes and hospitals around London.
Kath recalls working night duty in pea-soup fog in London and some interesting live-in positions she undertook. She lived in Baker Street in London, close to the residence of the fictitious Sherlock Holmes.
The pair did walking tours in England and Scotland and visited the Isle of Skye, where Kath’s mother’s family, the McCraes, originated. They hitchhiked across Germany, Norway, Sweden and France before sailing back to Australia in 1953.
On returning to Australia, Kath, wanting to be closer to home, got a nursing job at the Maffra District Hospital (MDH).
She worked there for seven years and was promoted to Matron after the former, Matron McCulloch married and wanted a family. Kath would be in that position for five years when the hospital had 17 beds and around 90 annual midwifery deliveries.
For the next two years, Kath worked as an Infant Welfare Nurse in many centres across Victoria, then finally accepted an Infant Welfare post at Sale in 1962.
She was employed by the Sale City Council and lived in a unit at the McAlister Street Infant Welfare Centre. She worked with babies and young families and did many post-delivery home visits until she retired in 1985 after 23 years of caring for local babies and mothers. She has been retired for 41 years.
Following retirement, Kath and her sister Bet lived on the family farm at Boisdale. She bought a ute, maintained a country garden, became involved with church and community activities and supported brothers Chris with homemade cooking and household chores and Jim with farming assistance.
Their neighbour would put his cows about to calve in the paddock next to the house and tell Kath it was the maternity ward and that she had to look after them.
Kath and Bet moved to Maffra in 1990, the year of the Boisdale floods, and then undertook a two-month trip to Canada to stay with their niece, then returned to Australia and found a passion for gardening after undertaking a landscape gardening course.
Kath continued to involve herself in church and community activities. Kath is very appreciative of her family, especially her nieces and nephews, for the support they have given over many years. In retirement, Kath enjoys gardening, cooking, quizzes and daily walks.
She proves the strength of country living, activity and good genes. Her family have lived long lives – Bet died in 2017 at 98 years, older sister Madge, died in 2012 age 100, and first cousin Flo Pearce died in 2020 aged 101.
Most of this article’s research was done by Boisdale & District History Group Secretary, Helen Montague, who called Kath “an inspiration to us all.”
Kath Amey at Boisdale Estate School. Photo: Contributed
Kath Amey during her younger years in Scotland. Photo: Contributed
