Olive Pink’s death

‘In the winter of 1975 as Olive Pink lay on the cold floor of her corrugated iron hut she was determined never to have to endure another centralian summer. She was just past her ninetieth birthday. It had been a grand occasion and she had permitted her most valued and trusted friends to take the photographs of her which, until then, she had always refused. Her ‘weak heart’ had survived physical hardship, malnutrition, serious bites from centipedes and redback spiders, several falls and accidents. Now she had come full circle and was ready to go.’
(from: Marcus, Julie ‘The Indomitable Miss Pink’ Sydney, UNSW Press, 2001 p.298)

Olive Pink on her 90th birthday
Olive Pink pictured on her 90th birthday, 17.3.1974
Photo: Courtesy of Northern Territory Library
and Information Service, File05/05085

Olive Pink died on the 6th of July 1975 in the Alice Springs hospital.

‘Her funeral was a quiet affair. Many of her friends were away and the service was conducted by a Quaker. As she wished, she lies close to the Aboriginal section of the cemetary and, somehow, her headstone faces in the opposite direction to those of her companions. She looks out at the glorious colours of the Macdonnell Range...’
(from: Marcus, Julie ‘The Indomitable Miss Pink’ Sydney, UNSW Press, 2001 p.299)

Inscription on Olive Pink's Grave
Inscription on Olive Pink's Grave, Alice Springs
Photo: Gillian Ward, March 2007 enlarge
Olive Pink's grave facing
Olive Pink's grave facing Mt. Gillen, Alice Springs
Photo: Gillian Ward, March 2007 enlarge

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Last updated 9 May, 2007