Dawn’s life woven with kindness
• Dawn Walley has loved Scottsdale since she arrived in 1955.
By Daisy Baker,
April 27, 2022
Scottsdale’s Dawn Walley has been giving back to the community for most of her life.
She was born in Hobart and raised in a little town called Ranelagh near Huonville alongside her brother and sister.
The town had a post office, around three shops, a town hall and the Salvation Army, which she said has always been a big part of her life.
“When I got to seven or eight my parents thought we really should be going to Sunday school somewhere and because our neighbours were Salvos they could pick me up and later it was my brother and sister as well,” she said.
“I’ve been involved ever since.”
Just a few weeks away from her 93rd birthday, Mrs Walley said she is grateful to live in her own home and still have all her faculties.
Every day she goes out walking with her trusty walking frame, affectionately nicknamed ‘Hugo’.
“Where Hugo goes, I go. I can’t do without Hugo,” she laughed.
A young Mrs Walley came to the North-East in 1955 chasing work, alongside her husband to be, Leslie Betts.
“Work had dried up [at Ranelagh] because it all revolved around the apple industry,” she said.
“There was a job going up at the hospital at the time at the NESM as a ward’s maid.
“So I came up here and I’ve been here ever since. I love Scottsdale. I don’t wish to be anywhere else.”
She worked at the hospital for around four years before the birth of her daughter Heather in 1959.
In the years that followed, her family grew with the arrival of two sons, Stafford and Graeme.
Her husband sadly passed away when Graeme was just two weeks old in 1963.
“That was an unfortunate happening but it was one of those things that happen to some people in life sometimes. The kids kept me going. Stafford wasn’t quite two and Heather was almost four.”
She remarried nine years later in 1972.
“My [late] sister and I always said that was the year when we shocked the world,” she laughed.
“I didn’t expect to ever marry again and in 1972 I met up with Max and we got married and Mary, my sister, after 11 years, she had a new baby.
“So we did shock the world.”
Mrs Walley met Max by chance through mutual friends when they both visited at the same time.
He was employed as a cabinet maker working for Kelvin Robertson in Bridport.
She said it was more or less love at first sight.
He drove her home the night after they met.
“He said ‘Could I come up and see you next Wednesday night?’. I said ‘oh that would be nice, I’ll put the kettle on,’ and it went on from there.”
Max passed away 12 years ago but Mrs Walley said he was a great companion for many years and helped her raise the family.
“Max was a good chap and we really got on very well. I do miss him,” she said fondly.
These days she keeps active with a busy social calendar, as a member of the CWA, Probus Club, Senior Citizens Club and Temperance Union.
Mrs Walley also gives back to the community through the Salvation Army, and visits to the hospital and Aminya fortnightly on Saturdays.
Of an evening, she keeps busy knitting beanies which she donates to the local appeal for Samaritan’s Purse Operation, Christmas Child shoeboxes, and the CWA baby boxes.
She said she’s not one to sit idle, knitting a few beanies a week with the company of the television, resulting in around a dozen to donate at her monthly meetups.
“My mother taught me how to knit when I was about seven and I really took to it,” she said.
“It’s something I love to do and have done ever since.”
Almost nine decades on, she is reminded of her mum each time she picks up
the needles.
Mrs Walley said there is plenty of love around her still with her three children, nine grandchildren children and one
great grandson.