People Australia

Dot Farrall, with her husband, 1973

Australian Women's Weekly, 3 October 1973, p 5

Dorothy Louise Farrall née Palmer, previously Byrnes, late Watts (1891-1979) domestic servant and trade union member 

Birth: October 1891 at Bromley, Kent, England, daughter of Henry Albert George Palmer (1860-before 1922), printer, and Louisa, née Joyce (1867-1947). Marriage: (1) 10 May 1916 at Barraba, New South Wales, to native-born William Patrick Byrnes (1883-1952). They had a son a daughter before they divorced in 1921. (2) 2 December 1922 in St Peter’s Anglican Church, Waterloo, Sydney, to native-born George Francis Frederick Watts (1890-1956), a widowed fireman. They had a son, and were divorced in December 1938. (3) 1937 in Melbourne, Victoria to divorcee Frederick Theodore Farrall. Death: 7 July 1979 at Prahran, Victoria. 

• Was a shop assistant in England.
• Arrived in Australia as an assisted immigrant in 1913 with a group of eighty girls. In return for the passage she was required to work as a domestic servant for six months. She was sent to work in Canterbury, Melbourne.
• After six months she worked in a boarding-house, then moved on to a fruit shop at Willoughby, in Sydney. After she married Fred she worked as a presser.
• Was an active member of the Clothing Trades Union, and on the executive of its NSW branch before moving to Melbourne.
• Joined the Communist Party of Australia during World War II, when she was also an air-raid warden.
• As mayoress of Prahran in 1973 she assisted local pensioners, though she was in poor health.