In my capacity as the Secretary of the Australian Centurion Walkers, I was recently researching some long distance racewalks from the 1930s in Sydney and, in particular, the performances of women Dorothy English and Mary Stoddart. I found lots of information, especially on Dorothy English, and wrote it all up in http://www.vrwc.org.au/tim-archive/articles/wa-dorothy%20english%20and%20mary%20stoddart.pdf.
I found that Dorothy English (married name Dorothy Butler) went on to have a wonderful life, eventually passing in March 2008, aged 96. I found her story so intriguing that I sourced and purchased her autobiography, The Barefoot Bush Walker, published in 1991, her 80th year.
Near the end of the book, she discusses her recent (at that time) activities helping to build houses for her children Wade and Rona. To quote
So what with Wade's place and Rona's there is always plenty of work to fill my spare time. I could never imagin myself sitting with nothing to do, in an Old People's Home. I have a motto: "Energy begets energy'. The more energy you put out, the more you get back. Certainly there is no time to think of growing old.
Her life had more than its fair share of anguish. Her daughter Wendy drowned in an accident on the Kowmung River in November 1966. She lost her husband Ira to a heart attack in 1972 at their home in Wahroonga. A year later, her son Norman died, after being bitten by a Taipan near Nimbin. Her other son Wade was on a six-day solo expedition in the area around Precipitous Bluff, Tasmania, when he disappeared in November 1995. Thus only her daughter Rona survived her.
The autobiography comes in at 292 pages of riveting reading, starting with her adventurous and non-confirmist childhood, that set the scene for her outdoors life. The later part of the book discusses her many major climbing walking and cycling trips around the world - throughout Australia and then further afield to New Zealand, New Guinea, Europe, Nepal, Cambodia, America and Canada.
Her recall of her childhood days is astonishing. The discussion of her many trips and adventures is easier to understand, given her diary keeping and the many articles she wrote for organisations like the Sydney Bush Walkers and others.
The read is inspirational and definitely the full 5 stars. I read it in 3 days and found myself feeling humbled by comparison. Having been restricted to the homefront for the last 18 months, as Covid-19 ravaged the world, I wondered what Dot would have thought of it all and how she would have managed to break the shackles! The read made me appreciate that, at 70 years of age and in good health, there is still much for me to do in the outdoors, whether bushwalking or cycling (but I'll bypass the climbing).
A wonderful and inspirational life and my book of the year. Find it with a search of the second hand book sites and buy it. You will not be disappointed.
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