Centenary of Federation Peoplescape figure. Betty Louise Harden (1926-1999).

This was a photo-collage (there were lots of those in the exhibition) of images in life sequence starting from Tasmania where she was born, caravan life with her shearing contractor father Ern Davis, dressups and dancing girls, Army life, her wedding to Herbert (Fred) Harden, raising a family at Walwa on the Murray River, community life- Scouts, cubs and Guides the mining company secretary years and fast cars, learning to fly and women pilot's races and events, amateur theatre director, and grandmother. My sister Jill Branagan (it was her entry) scanned a lot of the old images and I helped assemble them into layers like the ones below. My contribution was a figure of my father, and much simpler.

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Mum and her sister Dot (Dorothy) travelled with her parents in a series of caravans, built by her father Ern Davis who was (then) a shearing contractor. Each year in shearing season, they'd travel from Northern NSW through Victoria to South Australia. School was by correspondence and an occasional week at a real school. Her older sister Jean stayed with friends and went to school in Cobar NSW. The news clipping raves about the 'best caravan we've seen around here' in Padthaway and how Ern builds two caravans a year during the 'off-season'..

Mum put her age up a year and joined the Army at the start of the war, gaining endorsement on articulated transport vehicles, ambulances and search-light trucks. She also worked as a staff driver for senior officers. In the single photo (from a group shot) she doesn't look all that happy but like many of the people whose lives were changed by those years, she remembered them as 'good times' with friendships that lasted. She also relished the freedom of doing so many different things.