An incredible life: Carmel Joan O’Dwyer’s story, part one

She also adopted five children with her husband and is described as a very dedicated mother whose passion for fashion never faded.

Carmel was born Carmel Joan O’Dwyer, known as Joan all her life, in the Cobram hospital on April 8, 1922 to Ned and Eileen (McKenzie) O’Dwyer.

The family lived in Boosey at the time, on a property called “Woodlands”.

She was set up for success from the start; her mother was the first woman outside the metropolitan area to matriculate and her father had a Model T Ford, an impressive achievement for the time.

Eileen also taught at a catholic school in Katamatite, where she eventually met her husband Ned.

Joan’s daughter, Cathie Fletcher, said their life would have been incredibly hard at the time, but they wouldn’t have known anything different.

“It was definitely a hard life, but I don’t think they knew that ... life was simple, they found a lot of joy in collecting eggs, milking cows, things like that,” she said.

“Mum and another girl were good runners, so they’d have races and their dads would place bets ... just simple.”

“All the kids used to just love lining up along the timber on both sides of the car and her dad would drive very slowly, but great fun.”

The family moved when Joan was seven years old, after the family property was divided up between all the men in the family.

Her parents decided to move to Methul in New South Wales, where her father farmed wheat and oat on a property called “Hillview” while her mother continued to teach.

It took her brother 56 days at age 12 to travel by horse and gig with her father alongside, to Methul where they had purchased land; Joan, her mother and sisters followed by train.

However, war had broken out after they moved from Boosey and the Great Depression made finding a job in the area incredibly difficult.

Joan made the big decision to move to Melbourne at just 18 to find work.

She stayed with her older brother, who had moved there as a police officer, and his wife with Joan looking after their young child.

Unfortunately, the child later died and she had to move into St Anne’s, a women’s boarding house run by nuns, not far from the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens.

With it being wartime, she wanted to help any way she could, so she got a job making uniforms for the soldiers. It was here she began her career in dressmaking and tailoring.

Cathie said while making uniforms was not her passion, she still enjoyed it as it was helping with the war effort.

“What she enjoyed was contributing, so she didn’t mind doing it because it was contributing to the war,” she said.

Joan met a gentleman there known as Mr Huppert, who was making suits for the soldiers.

He taught her everything he knew from his years of experience, as well as introducing her to Iris Donoon, who was involved in the couture industry, due to Joan’s ongoing interest in wedding dresses.

Iris taught Joan a great deal about making wedding dresses, including how to pattern them on newspaper.

She used these skills for personal enjoyment too, making wedding dresses and everyday-ware for her friends from the boarding house, as well as using rationed fabric and tablecloths to make outfits for herself.

“Because money was really scarce, so that was Mum’s gift to her girlfriends ... she did it on a pedal (sewing) machine, they made the patterns out of newspaper,” Cathie said.

It was through this opportunity she met Dame Zara Bate who was a successful businesswoman, fashion icon and the wife of Australian prime minister Harold Holt.

Due to the extended nature of Joan’s story, The Courier will continue this feature in the next edition.