Marie Byles, mountaineer, hiker, bushwalker, explorer, journalist, women's champion, conservationist, lawyer. Photo courtesy National Trust of Australia and nSW
Described by some as ‘prickly’, ‘difficult’ and ‘intimidating’ of presence, Marie Byles remained a lady of strength whose actions and deeds are a truer manifestation of what lived in her heart.
As New South Wales’ first female solicitor Marie employed mostly women at a time when women working was considered unacceptable, even if they toiled all day and half the night as housewives, unpaid.
Marie encouraged and helped single mothers, when these were pariahs in our society, to find their own financial independence. To many she was refuge of common sense and decency. Her own refuge was the Bush and views of trees, miles and miles of trees. Her gift to subsequent generations is spoken quietest by her battles for our environment.
Her connection with Pittwater commences before November 26 1914, when her father, Cyril Beuzeville Byles officially purchased Lot 153 at 44 Sunrise road Palm Beach.
As the Barrenjoey Land Company was promoting the sale of the lots of lands on the Barrenjoey Peninsula through encouraging a deposit and easy terms and then organising to whom you would pay your mortgage some long time later, and all Lots sold in that January 1912 and second December 1912 land sale, including Lot 153, it is likely the Byles family had installed a holiday home by 1913-1914, as occurred with the Chorley home on the beachfront.
The first land sale saw the blocks available being snapped up by people such as Lucy Gullett (Sunrise road) or the members of the Brown family of doctors, on Ocean, Sunrise road and Pacific Roads, along with successful businessmen of that time such as Mr. Chorley, who did well selling cloth and uniforms during WWI and Thomas Peters, an engineer who was then engaged in building the Burrinjuck Dam.
The second December 1912 sales saw the remaining prime positions snapped up, including those alongside Hordern Park, named for one of the early benefactors in Palm Beach's landscapes, A J Hordern.
Byles land at Palm Beach in Vol-Fol: 2539-82:
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The holiday house, called 'Seawards', stayed the property of the family, being transferred to the eldest son of Cyril and Ida, David John Byles in February 1955 after both had passed away. The Lot was eventually split into 3 lots by their son.
Seawards was a simple cottage structure with open 12 foot verandas on which the family slept.
'Seawards', on Sunrise Road, Palm Beach, circa 1914
The eldest of three children, Marie was born in 1900 in Ashton upon Mersey in what was then Cheshire, England, to progressive-minded parents. Her younger brothers were David John Byles(1903-19850 and Baldur Unwin Byles (October 24 1904–1975).
Her parents were Unitarian Universalists, Fabian socialists and pacifists. Her mother Ida Margaret (24 May 1869 - 11 Sep 1953), née Unwin, was a suffragette and had studied at The Slade School of Fine Art, until "her artistic talents were lost to the drudgery of housekeeping", and who impressed upon her daughter the necessity of being financially independent of men. Her father, Cyril Beuzeville Byles (1871 - 19 Nov 1952), was a railway signal engineer. In England he involved his children in campaigns against fences that prevented public access for recreational walks.
The family moved to Australia in 1911 because Cyril Byles was appointed Chief Signals Engineer with the New South Wales Government Railways, to design the signal system for electrifying the railway system. They found a block of land in Beecroft and in 1913 built a house there which they named 'Chilworth'. The family spent Summers by the sea, and in 1913 they also built the small cottage 'Seawards' at Palm Beach, on Sunrise Hill facing the lighthouse and, towards the sea.
Byles family portrait: Marie Byles with her parents Ida and Cyril and her two brothers circa 1913. Courtesy Mona Vale Library Local Studies and Byles family
Marie was excited to hear the Boy Scouts movement was coming to Australia, obtaining the Scouts rulebook and avidly devouring it, only to discover that they would not admit girls. So, Marie founded the Pirate Girls, barefoot and with a skull and crossbones flag, they rowed across Pittwater, camping and exploring the bush
The Pirate Girls pictured in their late teens, likely photographed by Marie - who is at right and back row. Photo courtesy of State Library of NSW Archives
Marie was educated at Beecroft Primary School, and at the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney, at Croydon from 1914 to 1915, and in 1916 and 1917 at the new second campus of the school at Pymble (now known as Pymble Ladies' College). She excelled, and became a prefect and dux of the school in 1916, and Head Prefect and dux the following year. At matriculation, she won a scholarship to the University of Sydney.
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Byles was one of a small number of women to attend the University of Sydney. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1921 and in 1924 she completed a Bachelor of Laws degree and became the first woman to be admitted as a solicitor in New South Wales. Although Ada Evans had graduated in law in 1902, it had been illegal for a woman to practise law in Australia until 1918.
In 1932 she joined The Women's Club, which was created in Sydney in 1901 to provide a place where women "interested in public, professional, scientific and artistic work" could meet.
After clerking for four years, in 1929 Marie set up a legal practice, the first woman to do so in New South Wales. Byles operated two law practices – one in Eastwood and the other in the central Sydney. She gave young women opportunities to participate in the profession.
'The business in Eastwood built up because she had the reputation of getting things done so quickly and that was almost unknown in a legal office, she was notorious.' (Employee, Ruth Milton).
Marie worked mainly on conveyancing and probate, and also to ensure just divorce settlements for female clients. She retired and handed over the legal practice to a partner in 1970.
As a student, Byles wrote and published articles on legal, political, and environmental subjects. From 1927 to 1936 she had the position of legal correspondent for the Australian Women's Mirror. She wrote articles against women changing their name on marriage, so as to protect their financial assets. As legal correspondent she brought attention to laws and court practices that discriminated against women. She gave lectures for the Australian League of Nations Union and wrote pamphlets for The United Associations of Women.
Marie also used her knowledge in our local community - newspaper reports record:
'Barranjoey House' circa 1925 - photo courtesy Avalon Beach Historical Society - note the castellated roofline.
3. Recommending that E G. Stone's offer to dredge a channel through the sand-bank in Narrabeen Lagoon at the entrance to Deep Creek be accepted on the conditions agreed to by him that the channel measurements shall be 27 to 30 feet wide at the top, with 3 to 1 slopes in the sides of the excavations: Resolved, _That the Engineer's recommendation be adopted. (Crs. Hewitt, Sheppard) ... 5. Submitting estimate for repairing Palm Beach wharf: Resolved, That consideration-of the report be deferred, and Mr. Goddard, Boatshed, Proprietor, of Palm Beach, be written to, inquiring what fee he would require for the use 'of his wharf. for the public for the next three months.'..(Crs. Hughes Hewitt) 34. Barrenjoey Peninsula Advancement League, 5/9/35, forwarding copy of letter sent to Minister for Transport, requesting deputation on matter of lack of up-to-date transport facilities facilities in the Shire, particularly to the northern portion of the Shire; requesting that the Council arrange to be represented on the deputation. Cr. Hughes moved, Cr. Sheppard seconding, that the President and Cr. Hewitt represent this Council on the proposed deputation. Cr. Nicholas moved, as an amendment, Cr. Ross seconding, that the letter be sent to the Warringah Transport League for consideration. The amendment was carried. The motion was amended was thereupon put and carried. 35. M.B.Byles, 6/9/35, further re condition of public wharf at Palm Beach, and urging that something, even of a temporary nature, be done to make it safe for use without delay. 35a. Palm Beach Progress Assoc., 11/9/35, re: same matter. (Dealt with in conjunction with Shire Engineer's report to this meeting.)
Conservationist and bushwalker
As a teenager at her family's holiday retreat at Palm Beach, Byles would look through her telescope across Broken Bay to the bushland beyond on the Central Coast. The area was marked on maps as Bouddi, an aboriginal name meaning 'nose'. It was a coal reserve visited only by fishermen. In 1920 Byles and some of her university friends set out to walk through the bush of Bouddi to Maitland Bay, then known as 'Boat Harbour', where they camped. It became a favourite spot for them. The only bushwalking club at the time was the Mountain Trails Club led by Myles Dunphy, which did not admit women.
By 1929, there was an increasing focus on organised recreation for the city and suburban population and Marie joined the two-year-old Sydney Bush Walkers Club. In 1930, a new name for Boat Harbour was proposed by the club; bushwalker Dorothy Lawry suggested "Maitland Bay" after the steamer that was wrecked at the northern end of the beach in 1889.
Over the next five years, with the support of the Federation of Sydney Bushwalkers Clubs, Byles successfully campaigned in the press for the area to be placed under public ownership. The creation of Bouddi Natural Park in 1935 was a landmark achievement for the early conservationists. The Lands Department set aside an even larger area than Byles had proposed. Byles was elected a trustee of the board that managed the park, and for many years organised volunteers to clear and maintain its walking tracks.
A lookout over Bouddi has been named after her; it is accessible by car, on The Scenic Road in Killcare Heights just south of the Bouddi National Park Visitor Centre.
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The Marie Byles lookout. Photo: Foto Sleuth
In 1939, Byles was the co-founder, with her close friend Paddy Pallin, of The Bush Club. This was a bushwalking club with an emphasis on day-walks, which did not impose rigorous entry tests on prospective members and attracted many pre-war European refugees as members.
Photos taken by Mr. Pallin at and of Palm Beach views over the golf course and towards Lion Island are likely to have been taken on a visit to the Byles home at Palm Beach. Some of these date into the 1960's.
Some examples of her work to bring the beauty, serenity and knowledge of our own landscape to others are recorded in this items:
Marie was also opposed to the excise of land dedicated to the public put to private use and profit, just as her father had raised her years ago to defend access and peace for all decades before. For example, Governor Phillip Park being taken from everyone so the Warringah Shire Council could profit from camping fees:
Palm Beach Camp
Sir,—It is gratifying to read that there at last seems a possibility that Warringah Shire Council will put an end to the permanent camps on Phillip Park. Permanent camps on a public park have been a scandal for many years. They are instances of the filching of public lands by private individuals.
M. B. BYLES.
Eastwood.
Palm Beach Camp (1952, August 25). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18278690
A Spiritual Life
Marie became interested in the Quaker denomination of Christianity, but was refused membership. During her travels through Burma, China and Vietnam in 1938, she often chose to stay in temples, which brought her into direct contact with non-European cultures and religions. On her return, she renewed her interest in the teachings of Gandhi, and began exploring Buddhism. A collapsed foot arch meant that she was no longer able to hike long distances or climb, and she studied spirituality and meditation to find ways of dealing with her pain.
Over the following years Byles spent a year in India, including the Himalayas, and made three trips to Burma and two trips to Japan. In 1960 she formed a meditation group, inviting interested people from any religion or none to meet on Saturday afternoons to study meditation techniques. In later life she became particularly drawn to Mahayana Buddhism and the conscious practice of kindness and compassion. From these experiences she completed four books on Buddhism.
Byles was raised as a strict vegetarian by her mother, and in 1957 commented that she had never eaten meat.
Left to right: Marie was an avid and adventurous traveller; pictured on Dyrhaugstind Mountain in Norway; greeting Buddhist nuns in Burma in 1957.
A Place of One's Own
By 1938 Byles left her family home in Beecroft and built her own house on bushland that she had bought in 1935 at the edge of nearby Cheltenham, adjacent to crown land. She named it 'Ahimsa' after the term used by Gandhi meaning "harmlessness". The four-room cottage is a simple design built of fibro and sandstone, and the large north-facing verandah is primarily where Byles slept and lived in preference to the interior rooms.
'Ahimsa', the house that Byles built on the edge of Cheltenham, as it looked in 2015. Photo: Nadiatalent
Marie Byles pictured in the garden at Ahimsa in 1972. Photo courtesy National Trust Archives
In addition to the cottage, Marie wanted to have a place on her land for groups to meet for discussions and meditation. By 1949, the 'Hut of Happy Omen' was complete, designed as an open sleepout with bunks and a large sandstone fireplace. She had another small house built next to 'Ahimsa' in 1975, called 'Sentosa' (a Malay language word meaning peace and tranquillity).
In 1970 Byles bequeathed her property to The National Trust of Australia (NSW), which she had helped in 1946 when she was the consulting solicitor who drafted the organisation's constitution.
This would be when she met another lady who worked to protect the environment of Pittwater, Annie Wyatt. Not only had Annie's family connections to Palm Beach (in Annie Wyatt Reserve) and to Mona Vale where her relative Robert Forsyth bought acreage which her husband Ivor Wyatt would later sell as a real estate agent, Annie, as a resident of Manly, recalled with devastation in her later years the Manly Wildflower Shows that impacted the local environment and caused the extinction of local species of flora and the wildlife that ate these plants.
See: Annie Wyatt Reserve: Palm Beach - Pittwater Fields of Dreams II
However, Annie was one of several like minded individuals who became firm friends with this Palm Beach Conservationist:
“Byles was friends with Clare Stevenson and Stella James who had a Burley Griffin home designed for them in bushland on Sydney’s northern beaches. According to Stephenson, the design of the Stella James house in Avalon reflected the relationship between these women as equal partners and their desire to fit in with their surroundings rather than dominate them.” (Cadzow, p.16, 2007).
Stella James House is in Avalon Beach - on the way up to Bilgola Plateau.
Legacy
Marie never married, had no children, and considered it a waste of potential when her friend Dot Butler chose to have children rather than continue with full-time mountaineering.
In 1966, like so many women before her who stood on their own two feet and spoke plain facts out or defended other women and their rights, and like so many since, Marie was attacked inside her own home.
No one was ever charged.
The assailant assaulted her so badly her skull was fractured, and caused significant injuries and left her locked in a cupboard.
Marie never recovered and never returned to practice.
Marie Byles passed away at 'Ahimsa' in 1979.
In 1985 a dramatized documentary, A Singular Woman, was made by Gillian Coote using text from an unpublished autobiography written by Byles, along with re-enactments and commentary by friends. Her papers (1923–1982) are held in the State Library of New South Wales.
Byles Creek near her home is named in her honour, as are Byles Place, in the Canberra suburb of Chisholm,[21] and the Marie Byles Lookout in Killcare Heights, N.S.W.
However, here in Pittwater you can gaze up to Sunrise Hill, across the Pittwater, or north over the estuary to Bouddi and honour and celebrate this 'Singular Woman' by enjoying what her work, alongside her like minded peers, gained for us who are here today. Maybe even plant out a few native shrubs or trees or stand up when organisations like the National Trust ask you to defend your own and your children's heritage and these ark-like environment places, like Pittwater.