Jane Winifred Steger

Jane Winifred Steger (15 November 1882 – 16 March 1981), a.k.a. Winifred the Washerwoman, Bebe Zatoon was an Australian author and pioneer of South Australia who spent much of her life involved with the Afghan cameleers in Australia through her relationships with Ali Ackba Nuby and Karum Bux.

Biography

Steger was born on 15 November 1882 in Lambeth, London, the daughter of house-painter Wilfred Isaac Oaten and Lousia Dennis. In 1891

Father and daughter settled in the Darling Downs in Queensland where they took up unprofitable land, that was infested with Prickly pears, and they experienced severe hardship. Due to their poverty Steger started working at a young age as a nursemaid and, later, as a 'skivvy' (maid).

Steger worked as a barmaid for 7 years before meeting Ali Ackba Nuby when they were both working at Mungallala, Steger at the hotel and Nuby running a general store in another, disused, hotel. Steger called Nuby an 'Indian Hawker' and the two formed a romantic relationship and would go on to have 3 children together. During their relationship Steger converted to Islam. Some of these articles were later included in One Thousand Roads to Mecca; a collection of travel writing.

Steger separated from Bux in November 1928, ending their marriage of convenience, after receiving an invitation to become governess to the family of King Amanullah Khan, the royal family of Afghanistan. However, by the time she arrived in India with her 3 children to Nuby, the king had been overthrown and she travelled with a medical team to the border and helped escort Queen Souriya back to Bombay. Following these adventures Steger returned to South Australia where she continued to write (works listed below); she was a self-proclaimed 'compulsive writer'.

During World War II Steger ran a mess for miners in the Northern territory town of Tennant Creek where she kept goats to provide milk and meat. After the war Steger moved to Alice Springs where she managed a poultry farm. In 1952 Steger saw her eldest son, who she had not seen since 1909, who came to Alice Springs to tell her that Charles Steger, who had always refused to divorce her, had died.

She continued writing into her late 90s until, following a fall, her typewriter was taken away, and she died in the Adelaide suburb of Campbelltown on 16 March 1981.