By Bronwyn Hastings

An example set by her ‘backbone of the country’ mother saw Nhill’s May Craig find, and take advantage of, rare opportunities presented to her as a young woman.

She signed up for World War II service, danced with actor Chips Rafferty, and considers the 1939 Black Friday bushfires the most dangerous situation she has faced during her 104 years. 

Mrs Craig, speaking at Legacy’s monthly meeting, said she grew up on a farm at the Otways. Her father died when she was 10, leaving her mother to raise six children, who were aged between 12 months and 15 years. 

“My mum was one of those women who were the backbone of the country – after the first year, she never looked back,” she said.

“I think that those early women were absolutely wonderful, what they suffered and how they brought up big families – and there were a few in those days.”

Mrs Craig has no memory of seeing a doctor before she was 10, and has lived a healthy life thus far.

“I do forget things sometimes – but I forgot things when I was 15,” she said.

When Darwin was bombed in 1942, Mrs Craig said she wanted to do something to help – one of her cousins was killed during the war – so in ‘desperate times’ she joined the newly-formed Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force, WAAAF.

“I had a day off so I went to Melbourne – I didn’t tell anyone – and joined up,” she said.

An estimated 716,000 women served in the armed forces during the war years. Many of them had never worked outside the home, but took on jobs previously done by men. 

Mrs Craig said she did three weeks’ rookie training and a three-week stewardess course, where she learnt how to march, and carry three bowls of boiling soup.

“I also learnt how to throw an enemy to the ground if I was attacked,” she said.

In March 1943, Mrs Craig made history.

“We assembled on the parade ground at Melbourne University and swore the oath of allegiance and were enlisted in the RAAF – the first women’s service to do so, other than the nursing services,” she said.

When the war ended, Mrs Craig was stationed with a friend in Adelaide.

“Everything just stopped,” she said.

“Everybody rushed out on the street. In sheer jubilation you hugged and kissed total strangers. It was just magic.

“Until you heard about the prisoners of war.”

After the war, Mrs Craig rented a small flat opposite Melbourne’s exhibition building with two other women and worked at Easy Fits River Factory, where they were ‘crying out’ for staff and paid good rates.

“That was run by three lovely Jewish men,” she said.

“One of them had lost his whole family in the holocaust, and I believe another one of them went on to become a film-maker in Australia.”

Mrs Craig and her husband Keith moved to Kaniva ‘for a year’ after visiting her brother-in-law one Christmas, and stayed. 

She now lives at Nhill, near daughters Lesley and Donna and her legatee Merv Schneider. 

Mr Schneider, an active community member and aged 99 years, said he first met Mrs Craig about 10 years ago and has assisted with her welfare since.

“She’s a marvel,” he said.

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