Elizabeth Boyle

The town of Donald in Victoria, halfway between Mildura and Melbourne, located on the Richardson River, at the junction of the Sunraysia Highway and the Borung Highway, is the beginning setting for this journey of memories. The town of Donald grew after the early 1860s when the land was opened-up to farming. The earlier industries servicing the farmers, then food production such as dairies, flour millers, butchers and bakers, saw the town grow. A post office and town hall, hotels, boarding houses, churches, solicitors, midwives and doctors soon followed. It was not until after The Bill in 1872 which ordered ‘free, secular and compulsory’ education, that small schools were established. One could be forgiven for not knowing that it also had small private hospitals. It was at one of these private hospitals, called the Ivanhoe that Elizabeth Theresa Hoare was born on the 23rd February 1924. Her parents Annie Bridget (Moore) and William Bluff Hoare were now the proud Mumma and Dadda, as they were affectionately known to Elizabeth, of their second daughter. The name Elizabeth derives from the Hebrew name Elizabeth meaning ‘My God is my oath’ or ‘My God is abundance’.