Marie Byles

National Trust, Grossman House Maitland, Posted 14 August 2007

Speech by Kellie Tranter

It is a great pleasure to be here with you all this evening to officially open the Marie Byles: A Spirited Life exhibition and I thank the National Trust for inviting me to do so.

Although there are some parallels between the life of Marie Byles and my own - there will never be another Marie Byles.  She was an extraordinary person.

It would be quite foolish to stand before you all this evening and pretend to provide some insight into the heart and mind of Marie Byles.  She was quite an enigma and with only a few exceptions (perhaps her parents and a couple of her closest friends) I think that her views about many things will remain very much a mystery.

Nonetheless the way Marie conducted herself, treated others and the way she lived speaks volumes and this evening I would like to focus on Marie Byles the person.

If I could firstly give you a taste of Marie's achievements:

• Born in 1900.
• Finished high school in 1917.
• She won an exhibition to the University of Sydney and started studying Arts/Law in 1918.
• She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1920 with first class honours.
• She commenced the study of law in 1921.
• Marie finished her articles in 1924 and was the first woman admitted as a solicitor in New South Wales on 4 June 1924.
• After working for two years as a solicitor, in 1927 she then went overseas for two years travelling and undertook her journey on a Norwegian cargo ship and climbed mountains in Britain, Norway and Canada.
• On her return she set up her own practice in Eastwood.  The first woman to set up a sole legal practice.  We should all note that she did this at the commencement of the Great Depression.
• She wrote legal articles for a womens magazine.
• She opened a city office in 1932.
• In 1932, she took on an article clerk and she made him a partner in 1938 when she left the practice in his hands to lead expeditions to Mt Cook in New Zealand and to Mount Sanseto, an unscaled 20,000 foot mountain in western China.
• As a result of the continued growth of her practice she floated a private company and purchased land to build a larger office.  Naturally, she designed it.
• She was instrumental in the creation of Bouddi Natural Park after her extensive and exhaustive lobbying.
• She climbed to the Crystal Peak, New Zealand 1935.
• Her practice continued to grow and by 1954, she had taken on a male partner and was able to travel to India for a years holiday.
• She returned and bought out most of the shareholders in the company so that she was the sole owner of the property.
• In the late 1950s she employed between 8-10 women and later commenced a profit sharing scheme within her practice.
• In 1966 Marie was savagely assaulted in her home.  She never recovered and did not return to her practice.
• Marie retired (and I use that term loosely) in 1970.
• Marie died in 1979.

Like most achievements in life they seldom come without challenges, criticism, pain and frustration.  Fortunately, Marie was smart enough to know that we do not live in a world whereby something is either right or wrong, rather it is a matter of individual opinions.  Unfortunately, the trouble almost always occurs when a person attempts to impose their own opinion on another.

Nonetheless to do what she did at the time she did it does provide some insight into the heart and mind of Marie and to the self-belief, courage and perspective she obviously possessed.

What struck me about Marie's story is the fleeting comment made by one of her close male friends.  He said words to the effect "I didn't think of Marie as a woman, I just saw her as a person". The delightful aspect of this comment is that I am sure Marie always saw herself as a person...who just happened to be a woman. 

I have always felt that true equality will be achieved when each person makes the conscious decision to remove the labels that they have over time attached to themselves and when they ignore the other labels that others seek to place on them.

Marie certainly ignored conventional behaviour and her approach to life is reflected in the old Irish saying "no meanness, no fear, no envy".

Marie challenged herself.  She did not participate in the race of life nor did she seek to compete with others.  She knew that the answers to her questions lied within and more importantly, she was at peace with the world and herself.  The characteristics of a true pioneer.

Her mother was right to say to Marie all those years ago..."We cannot be true to ourselves unless we are indifferent to what others think and say about us".

Marie encouraged and assisted both men and women to achieve self-sufficiency almost to the point of being a life quest.

But why?

Her mother once said to her "when you grow up, you must not copy me; you must earn your own living."

I can only speculate but perhaps through her own experiences she knew that when a person is truly self-sufficient they have nothing to lose, nothing to fear and nothing to envy.  More importantly (and I am sure that Marie would agree) when you become self-sufficient you can never be denied happiness.

Finally I think it is wise to focus on Marie's sense of perspective.

As a conservationist and a person with immense perspective I wonder what Marie would think as she looks down...to see the pace at which things seem to be moving, the irreversible effect we are having on the planet (even though we are all temporary occupants of it)...and I wonder whether she peers down and is filled with sadness or glee.

This is a taste of Marie's perspective....

"I have never had the slightest desire to acquire that "proper house" and of all the places at which I have stayed during my travels, only the bungalow at Binwar in the Himalaya Hills with its vision of snow peaks, could compare with the beauty of the bush land seen from my own cottage". 

"...when we stand upon our mountain peak and see the snow-clad ranges stretching out as far as the eye can reach, we are filled with an ecstacy nothing else on earth can bring."

"Soon after I started practice a kindly friend warned me that I should never make a success if I did not wear make-up and dress more expensively.  I have never worn make-up because I do not like it, and I always told people like my friend that the others in the office dressed nicely enough to make up for my deficiencies, although I always regard cleanliness and neatness as a basic."

"I was given a good but not a brilliant brain...I often look back on all the audacious things I have done and wonder how on earth I did them and why, for I have no outstanding talents and all is transient - a laugh or a sob in the mist of time."

"I have never made a fortune; I am not one of those who have this ability; besides, I have never wanted to for there are more interesting things to be done.  But after the return from India (in 1954) there was soon ample income...I have never borrowed not even for the house or office building.

So how did Marie gain such clarity of mind and perspective? Why was she unafraid of uncertainty? Well, surely once you climb a 20,000 ft mountain and gaze out onto the world you become intoxicated by your own mortality.  You can't ignore the fact that everything (as we know it) can be erased and you certainly can't avoid the realisation that this race for status, money, power and possessions may change the ride but it will never change our ultimate destination.

Thank you Marie.