Ernestine Hill

Ernestine Hill (born Mary Ernestine Hemmings, 21 January 1899 — 21 August 1972) was an Australian journalist, travel writer and novelist. Known for her various travels across Australia and her writings about the diverse landscapes and cultures in the country, she published books such as The Great Australian Loneliness in 1937 and The Territory in 1951. She also wrote a novel, My Love Must Wait, published in 1941.

Life Born Mary Ernestine Hemmings in Rockhampton, Queensland, she was the daughter of Robert Hemmings and Margaret "Magde" Foster-Lyman and they spent much of her early life moving up and down the coast, from Mackay to Thursday Island as they both had mobile professions; she was their only child.

Following the completion of her schooling there she attended Stott & Hoare's Business College, Brisbane where she gained high passes in shorthand and typing skills. On completing her studies, she worked briefly in the public service (as a typist at the Department of Justice Library), and then for Smith's Weekly, Sydney, first as the secretary to the literary editor, J. F. Archibald, and later as a journalist and subeditor.

On 30 October 1924 her son Robert was born. Rumoured to be Robert Clyde Packer's son, who she met in her role at Smith's Weekly which he founded, although this has never been publicly acknowledged. Ernestine assumed the surname Hill after the birth to protect herself saying that her husband, Mr Hill, was either overseas or dead. and amassed a collection of over three thousand photographs in which she documenting the landscape and her encounters with Aboriginal people.

In 1931 her sensationalist reporting of the discovery of gold in The Granites, north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, contributed to a gold rush and a stock-market boom. This rush resulted in a major failure which left many prospectors stranded and destitute, and Hill was attacked for irresponsible journalism.

It is also during this period that Hill first formed a relationship with Daisy Bates, who she first camped with a Ooldea, South Australia in June 1932; their relationship became an ongoing one throughout the remainder of Bates' life. AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource claims that Bates eventually confirmed that Hill did ghost-write the book.

Hill then stopped travelling and worked for the ABC from 1940 from 1944, first as the editor of the ABC Weekly's women's pages (1940-1942) and then held the position of commissioner (1941-1944). However, while this provided her with a small pension, her final years were characterised by financial and health problems and, in 1970, she returned to Brisbane to be cared for by her family and died in their care in 1972.

Legacy The majority of her writing, which comprised books as well as articles for newspapers and such journals as Walkabout, resulted from her wide travels across Australia. They recorded her adventures and focus on the Australian landscape. She could also be controversial.

She is best known for The Territory (1951). However, her only novel, My Love Must Wait (1941), a fictionalised biography of sailor and navigator Matthew Flinders, sold well overseas as well as in Australia.

Hill's portrait, painted in 1970 by Sam Fullbrook, is in the Queensland Art Gallery an image of this portrait is available through the National Archives of Australia.

Works

Non-fiction The Great Australian Loneliness (London: 1937; Australia:1940) Water into Gold (1937) Australia: Land of Contrasts (1943) Flying Doctor Calling (1947) The Territory (1951) Kabbarli: A Personal Memoir of Daisy Bates (1973)

Fiction My Love Must Wait (1941)

Radio plays Santa Claus of Christmas Creek in Australian Radio Plays (1946)

Works about The following books have been written about Hill and her life:

Van Velzen, Marianne (2016). The call of the outback: the remarkable story of Ernestine Hill, nomad, adventurer and trailblazer. Allen & Unwin. Hogan, Eleanor (2021). Into the loneliness : the unholy alliance of Ernestine Hill and Daisy Bates. NewSouth.