“It’s a big country and it teaches you to live a big life”
Melva Stone

“In the 1970s when there were about 2000 single men in Newman the atmosphere in the town grew tense about week 5. In week 6 the troupe of “girls” came to town and stayed for about 5 days at the local hotel. It was like the stopper on the pressure cooker had been released and the town settled down until just before the next visit. The “girls” visited 6 towns on a six week circuit. The police would move them on but I was always pleased to see them return.”
Erica Smyth

I certainly acquired a lot of from the Pilbara? I discovered lots of things about myself as a person. I grew up really, found out what life really means. I experienced the toughness of it, you know, the life and death on the mine site and struggling through cyclones and women having family traumas. It was concentrated because lots of the population were adults between 20 and 40 - a band of young adults in a remote environment. It was frontier life and everything seemed to be magnified.…
Jill Randall

“If people had a family crisis everybody knew and to solve it you had to fly somewhere else. If you had a health crisis, to solve it you had to fly somewhere. Life’s like that still for a lot of places like Leinster, Teutonic Bore and some of those more remote mining sites. Now days people are much more tolerant, there are woman truck drivers and men operating computers and keyboards - that was never done in my time.”
Jill Randall

“One of my proudest moments was sitting in a Yaandina services meeting with my eldest daughter on my left as leader of her service and my granddaughter on my right representing her service.”
May Lockyer

“You say this story is about inspirational women, apart from Mum, the inspirational women belong to the Women’s Group…
there’s always those who have suffered but they continue to work, they continue not to give up.”
Deanna McGowan

“You know what it would have been like for the pioneer women, because that’s who you are.”
Gillian Herbert

“To sleep under the stars in the Pilbara is just wonderful…occasionally a snake might get interested in you but it’s a very safe environment - It is a country where you can see for a long way with a great sense of space and wonder.”
Erica Smyth