Additional Information
Special Achievements
Beryl Ivy Beale was known as ‘Cloudy’ because she was a heavy smoker.
‘......an artistic, sensitive, music-loving woman with the down-to-earth determination, fortitude and hard physical endeavour which was demanded of her in earlier times in a ruthless and often unforgiving country. Whether she lived in a bough shed or a modern home, she cultivated good books, good music and an appreciation of cleanliness and ordered living.’ (The Alice Springs Star, 1979).
The family lived in a tent during the 1930s and worked Taylor Well, watering droving stock. In her early bush homes the furniture was made from packing cases and covered with her own embroidered linen and lace-work. Cloudy also ran the post office at Glen Maggie (Ryan’s Well) during the Granites Gold Rush when hundreds of men came looking to make their fortune during the depression years. Cloudy set up a restuarant to provide these travellers with a cup of tea and something to eat. She made scones and boiled water for tea in kerosene drums.
She had run miners’ messes in Central Australia including Barrow Creek and Tennant Creek. Her husband Hughie suffered shell shock after serving in World War I. After the Heffernans bought Woolla Downs from Mrs Price (Pearl Powell’s mother), they allowed Cloudy to live in the homestead. She later ran a boarding house in Alice Springs and taught violin and piano. She was active in the Alice Springs Theatre Group, the RSL Women’s Auxiliary and the CWA.
‘Being and doing is much more important than looking and talking.’
Resources
Image - Beryl 'Cloudy' Beale
Image taken by Diana Calder and donated to the NPWHF by Daphne Calder
Link - Memsahib Gold Mine (Mem Sahib), Tennant Creek, Barkly Region, Northern Territory, Australia
Mindat.org
Link - Aileron Attractions: Ryans Well Historical Reserve
AusEmade
Link - SEEN AT THE CLUB
Territory Stories
Link - THIS I HAD TO LIKE
Centralian Advocate (Alice Springs, NT: 1947 - 1954), Friday 17 December 1954, page 12
Link - Old 8HA interview by Bill Barnes of Cloudy Beale for "Growing up in Alice Springs"
YouTube
Link - 'Cloudy' Beale portrait
Twocan
Link - RYAN WELL HISTORIC RESERVE AND GLEN MAGGIE HOMESTEAD 3.3
The Australian Heritage Council
V iew link
References
Nugent, Maria. (2002). Women’s Employment and Professionalism in Australia: Histories, Themes and Places. Canberra, ACT: Australia Heritage Commission, p. 67.
RYAN WELL HISTORIC RESERVE AND GLEN MAGGIE HOMESTEAD
“Glen Maggie Homestead was established 500 metres from Ryan Well to take advantage of the wells and Overland Telegraph Line. Sam Nicker and his family established ‘Glen Maggie’ in 1914 as a sheep and cattle station. From 1921, the homestead served as a small telegraph station and local store. Glen Maggie Station was incorporated into the Aileron Cattle Station. However, Mrs ‘Cloudy’ Beale operated the telegraph station and store until the services were abandoned in 1935.”
