People Australia

Myra Huntress, 1935

Labor Daily (Sydney), 30 April 1935, p 1

Myra Agnes Boevie Huntress, née Wilson (c.1891-1984) political activist

Birth: about 1891 at Ballarat East, Victoria, daughter of Charles Bernard Wilson, miner and Sarah Evelyn, née Mullins (1864-1934). Marriage: 1915 at Redfern, Sydney, New South Wales, to David Eugene Huntress (1889-1974), a metal polisher, born in Queensland. They had a daughter and two sons. The marriage ended in divorce about 1924. Death: 1 March 1984 in hospital at Penrith, NSW; usual residence Cavendish Street, Stanmore. Religion: Catholic.

• Myra lived with her mother at Birchip, Victoria, in 1914.
• She was active in organising relief for the timber workers and their families in the 1929 strike. For two years she was secretary of the Darlington branch of the Australian Labor Party, and at the same time was assistant secretary of the Cook Federal Council, the Annandale State Council and the Redfern municipal Assembly of the ALP. She was also prominent in organising for ALP and charity activities.
• She was commissioned justice of the peace in March 1930.
• In 1931 she was a founder and was secretary of the United Blind Workers' Union.
• In November 1931, at a time when pensions were cut, she called the first public meeting of pensioners in Australia at Darlington Town Hall, which founded the first branch of the Old Age and Invalid Pensioners’ Association. She was honorary general secretary of the Old-Age and Invalid Pensioners’ Funeral Lodge in 1938.
• In April 1934, with Eileen Powell and Valerie Budd, she stated the case for women workers seeking a higher basic wage for female wage-earners before the Industrial Commission.
• In electoral rolls in the 1950s she was described as secretary. In 1963 she was described as State secretary of the Civilian Age and Invalid Pensioners Association. She was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1976.
• On a deputation to see Prime Minister Joseph Lyons, when she was warned that she might be “gobbled up” she replied, “Being a huntress, I think I can manage even lions”.
• Cause of death: hypostatic pneumonia (1 week), pulmonary fibrosis (5 years), generalised osteoporosis (20 years) and congestive cardiac failure (10 years).