Australian Dictionary of Biography

May Yarrowick (1876–1949), midwife, was born on 20 February 1876 at Stoney Creek station, Bundarra, New South Wales, only child of Peggy, an Aboriginal servant who had grown up on the station, and one of the station owner’s sons. The station was owned by Catherine Kelly, widow of Martin Kelly and mother of four sons. May’s birth was unregistered, but it was recorded in the Kelly family bible. She was named by a travelling priest: May because it was ‘a nice time of year’ (Hardie 2003), and Yarrowick after the town of Yarrowyck because her mother’s people were believed to come from that area. This suggests that May’s Aboriginal family were probably Anaiwan speakers, either Southern or Northern.

The story of May’s birth was shared within the Kelly family, passed down through the generations, but not spoken about publicly until 2003, when May’s first cousin once removed, Mario Hardie (née Broun), relayed it in an interview for the Australians at War Film Archive Project. According to family legend, upon seeing May as a newborn, Catherine Kelly had exclaimed: ‘My god, it’s a Kelly’ (Hardie 2003). Through a process of elimination, she had worked out that the father was most likely her twenty-year-old son James Martin Kelly. Sixteen-year-old Peggy was not able to confirm or deny this. The last six months of her pregnancy had been marred by oedema and ‘she died giving birth’ (Hardie 2003). May was raised by Catherine and her daughters—May’s aunts—and while James never admitted to being her father he did support her in later life. Initially educated at the station by Catherine, May later attended classes with her cousins, the children of her aunt Margaret Broun (née Kelly).

In 1895 Yarrowick’s aunt Honoria Kelly tried to help her acquire land at Inverell. They both applied for the same section and Honoria was successful, but the Land Board disallowed her application ‘on the ground that May Yarrowick and [she] were … applying in the same interest’ (Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate 1896, 3). Appealing this decision, Honoria claimed that Yarrowick was her adopted daughter. The court accepted this claim, but Honoria was still denied the land, because she stood ‘in loco parentis to May Yarrowick’ and the land was clearly ‘intended for May Yarrowick’s benefit’ (Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate 1896, 3). The Crown Lands Amendment Act 1891 stipulated that when different applicants applied on behalf of one person, all such applications were void.

Ten years later, in 1905, James Kelly arranged for Yarrowick to be trained as a midwife at Crown Street Women’s Hospital, Sydney. A charitable institution, the hospital treated marginalised women from Sydney’s slums. It had thirty beds for obstetrics patients and its staff also undertook district nursing, visiting expectant mothers in their homes. The hospital did not charge patients for their care, instead asking them to ‘contribute according to their means’ (Australian Star 1907, 5). More than half of the hospital’s running costs were raised through student fees. Upon receiving Yarrowick’s application, Matron Hannah McLeod, unsure how to proceed due to Yarrowick’s Aboriginality, took it to the hospital board. The board decided that being Aboriginal was ‘not a valid’ reason for ‘refusing to train her as a nurse’ (SARNSW NUA 305-1), but that separate accommodation would have to be provided for her. James Kelly paid for Yarrowick’s tuition: 30 guineas.

As a probationary midwife, Yarrowick assisted with fifty births over twelve months, passing her final examination in 1907. Once certified she registered with the Australasian Trained Nurses’ Association and began practising as a private midwife. Returning to the northern tablelands, she made a living delivering babies on far-flung stations, riding vast distances to places around Bundarra, Tingha, Quirindi, and Inverell. Her practice was to travel to the farm before the baby was due and live there until the delivery. She became widely known in the district for her midwifery skills and for her ability to intuit when she was needed.

Yarrowick never married or had children. When she was not working, she lived at Bassendean station, Tingha, the home of her Broun relatives. At some point in her early to mid-forties she disappeared for several years; the Kelly and Broun families had no contact with her during this time. On her return she told them that she had been living with Aboriginal people, including an uncle, at Rockhampton, Queensland. She offered no explanation as to why she had gone, leaving them to cast her disappearance as a ‘walkabout’ (Hardie 2003). Returning to midwifery, she delivered her cousin William Broun’s son William James Peryman Broun at Bassendean in 1922. The labour was difficult and the baby’s mother, Miriam, haemorrhaged soon after the birth, a condition that frequently resulted in death. Yarrowick ‘got up on the bed and put her hand inside her and the other hand on her, to staunch the bleeding’ (Hardie 2003), saving Miriam’s life.

The New South Wales government passed legislation to make nursing a registered profession in 1924. Yarrowick was registered by the Nurses’ Registration Board of New South Wales in 1927. Her registration was renewed each year until 1935, after which she may have been forced to stop delivering babies, her cousin Catherine ‘Katie’ Broun writing in 1937: ‘Another thing I’d like to see more of in the country: training maternity nurses (now that they have put a stop to the old midwife practicing)’ (Inverell Times 1937, 2).

In 1946 Yarrowick, in poor health and crippled with arthritis, wrote to Katie to ask if she could live with her at ‘Raino,’ Katie’s home at Tingha. Feeling ready to die, she assured her cousin that she had saved enough money to cover her own funeral expenses and had made arrangements with the funeral director. While Yarrowick was living at Raino, Katie contracted measles. Late one night in 1947, sensing that her cousin was seriously ill, a bedridden Yarrowick banged her walking stick on the ground until she woke a servant. She had him get her out of bed and take her into Katie’s room. In the absence of medicine, she instructed him to sponge Katie all night to keep her temperature down, and to help her drink to keep her fluids up. Thanks to such ministrations, Katie survived.

Yarrowick was admitted to the Tingha District Hospital in January 1948. She would remain a patient at the Cottage Hospital, Tingha, until her death there, some sixteen months later, on 17 April 1949. As she had arranged, she was buried at Bundarra cemetery in the Roman Catholic section, next to her grandmother Catherine Kelly. Her relationship with the Kelly family was a defining feature of her life. Although she did not share their name, its members claimed her in various ways and she reciprocated, choosing to share her life with them until the end. Possibly the first Aboriginal woman to become registered as a nurse in Australia, she is remembered for gaining professional recognition in a field that would not become open to Aboriginal people until the second half of the twentieth century.

Odette Best (Yugambeh, Goreng Goreng, Boonthamurra/Punthamara) and Abby Slinger (Wiradjuri) co-wrote the article.