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Minnie, the remarkable story of a true trailblazer who found freedom and adventure in the outback, Marianne Van Velzen

eng

individual biography

illustrationsportraits

no index present

non fiction

Minnie

Marianne Van Velzen

the remarkable story of a true trailblazer who found freedom and adventure in the outback

Only a slip of a girl, Minnie could match any man in stamina, perseverance and strength. She arrived in Coober Pedy when camels still brought in essential supplies, and water was so scarce that no-one washed. Together with the other miners, she braved the heat, the flies and the dust. Every day she waited for that special sound the pick made when it cracked opal. The first woman to dig her own shafts in the Australian opal fields, Minnie began her working life as a typist in London. But she and her younger brother, Victor, sought freedom and adventure in the 1920s and found plenty of it in the outback

adult