Collecting first day covers and gemstones interested Jill Graham .
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Without any fanfare ,the lowly public servant responsible for compiling and printing Darwin’s WHO’S WHAT WHERE ,once the official guide to anybody of note in the Territory , has died. She was Jill Graham, in her mid seventies, who worked in the Information and Public Relations Branch , later Protocol .
She laughingly called the guide WHO’S UP WHO , and said of all the many responsibilities she had in the Northern Territory, maintaining that publication caused her the most trouble .
Some people would almost kill to be listed, it being great for their ego and self esteem . One fanatical person , of religious persuasion , complained bitterly in correspondence to government about not being mentioned many times in WHO’S WHAT WHERE. Jill had exercised her editorial prerogative to restrict the number of times a person got a mention in one edition and received official approval for her action.
From London, a capable shorthand writer and typist, she came to Australia with her second husband , a time and motion study expert, in a bid to save the marriage . Here the husband encountered the aggressive attitude of Australian workers to “Pommie” time and motion experts ; the marriage founded as a result.
Stranded in New Zealand ,wanting to come back to Australia, she literally went sobbing to the bank authorities to get approval to transfer money to Sydney and pay for her fare . At the time , you almost needed written authorisation from the Queen to transfer money out of NZ.
An adventurous gal, she went gemstone prospecting in the Emerald, Queensland, area, and described how she had nearly burnt down the camp just on dusk when she accidently set fire to kerosene. She wore a large cut semi precious gemstone as a souvenir of that episode. During an Asian trip she was pursued by an amorous gentleman, whose name may have been Sabu, in some sacred elephant caves.
She survived Cyclone Tracy , however was missing , feared dead, because she had been invited to a bush wedding, followed by a strange encounter at the Adelaide River War Memorial Cemetery. After the cyclone, she was sent to help run the Northern Territory stand at the Sydney Royal Easter Show with the government PR officer, Dick Timperley, and Darwin's colourful White Hunter , Allan Alexander Stewart. The brave hunter Stewart spent most of the time with old comrades and captains of commerce in the members' bar , but did arrange for the Royal Australian Navy Band to frequently march up and play deafening music outside the Territory stand.
Timperley was furious , and said he would not be surprised if Stewart arranged for a Scottish pipe band in kilts playing Amazing Grace to be parachuted onto the Territory stand, which would have revealed a thing or two about Highlanders. .
Her position in the Information and Public Relations Branch brought her into contact with many Darwin and interstate journalists and photographers . Involved in several royal visits , she kept an official photograph of Prince Charles in full regalia , across which an office colleague had scrawled something like : To Jill, with love and kisses ,Charlie . It was suggested News of the World would pay a fortune for the pic .
A faded family photo of hers showed a plump relative dressed as John Bull . Because of her many experiences and misadventures , described with much gusto and hilarity , it was frequently suggested she should write a book called The Perils of Jill . A member of Little Darwin’s research team began doing genealogical research for her.
It was discovered that one of her ancestors had been a bookseller who published catalogues from 1760 to 1796 . It seems fitting then that Jill Graham became responsible for the compilation and publishing of Darwin’s all important Who’s What Where* Suffering from abdominal pains ,she was admitted to the RDH and then the private hospital where she developed pneumonia , and was preparing to come home to her Nightcliff unit with its teddy bear collection when she died suddenly.
