Dame Rachel Cleland, DBE (née Evans; 19 January 1906 – 18 April 2002) was an Australian expatriate community and social welfare worker in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

Career

Born in

Perth, Western Australia Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

in 1906, the eldest of six children, Rachel Evans Cleland lived an active life which was centred on politics and community organisations. She was a niece of the West Australian feminist, Bessie Rischbieth. Cleland's background and her later training and work as a kindergarten teacher stood her in good stead for the expatriate life she eventually embarked on in Papua New Guinea. Her husband, Sir Donald Cleland, was Administrator of Papua New Guinea from 1951 until 1966. He was a founding member of the

Australian Liberal Party The Liberal Party of Australia (LP) is the prominent Centre-right politics, centre-right list of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia. It is considered one of the two Major party, major parties in politics of Australia, ...

. Rachel Cleland contributed to organisations such as the

Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

, Girl Guides Association of Papua New Guinea, Country Women's Association, and

Young Women's Christian Association The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swit ...

(YWCA) as well as the integral role she played in establishing pre-schools throughout

. Sir Donald died in 1975, two weeks before Papua New Guinea's independence ceremonies. Rachel stayed for many years, her book ''Papua New Guinea: Pathways to Independence'' being published in 1983, before eventually returning to Australia near the end of her life. In her later years Dame Rachel was very vocal on her opposition to the logging of

old-growth forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Natio ...

s. By then she had lived in Papua New Guinea for 27 years. She continued to make trips from Australia to Papua New Guinea for most of the rest of her life, making a total of eight visits between 1979 and 2000.

Honours

Rachel Cleland was appointed as a Member of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in 1959 and a Commander of the Order (CBE) in 1966 for her work with women and children. In 1980, Cleland became the first western woman to be appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) by the government of

for services to the country she had lived in for so much of her adult life. She was honoured for the volunteer work she did for many

organisations and for helping involve women in public affairs.

Death

Dame Rachel Cleland died peacefully in

Goondiwindi Goondiwindi () is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Goondiwindi Region, Queensland, Australia. It is on the border of Queensland and New South Wales. In the , the locality of Goondiwindi had a population of 6, ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, aged 96, on 18 April 2002, after a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

. She had only a week earlier moved there from Perth to be near her son, Evan, and his family.

Quotes

''"I enjoy now whatever is happening - my idea is you can't enjoy tomorrow, and you can only enjoy yesterday if you are enjoying today."'' (R. Cleland)

References

External links

Biodata
womenaustralia.info

abc.net.au {{DEFAULTSORT:Cleland, Rachel 1906 births 2002 deaths Australian expatriates in Papua New Guinea Australian Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Activists from Perth, Western Australia