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The Borlands Part 2: in the Social Pages

Louis and Ellen Borland of Roma, Queensland had three daughters: Dorothea Isobel (known as 'Doss'), Nellie Dawn (known as Dawn) and Maisie Frances. Back when I was starting out my research, Mum said that my Auntie Rita remembered them as very good-looking. Presumably these girls made a visit back to Gippsland on occasions and, being just a few years older, must have made an impression on a young Rita. Another digression for close family: I suspect that the youngest of my aunts, Auntie Roma, was named at least partly in honour of their home town, given the family connection (Roma was born in 1933, when these girls would have been about 22, 17 and 15). Also, Roma's middle name was Dawn, perhaps this was also a nod to her Queensland relative. 

The 1930s and 40s saw the Borland girls mentioned regularly in the local newspapers, particularly the Western Star and Roma Advertiser (published in Toowoomba): from a young age at fancy dress balls through to their teenage years, making their debuts, attendance at Golf Club and church balls and picnics... all the big events in the small town of Roma! Almost every movement of residents was reported in those days - whether it be leaving for, or returning from, stays with relatives elsewhere in the country or holidays at the coast; country newspapers really were the Facebook of the day, and from the number of times the girls' pictures appeared in the papers, the Instagram of the day too. And it wasn't just local, they featured occasionally in the Brisbane papers too. As you can see below:

Dorothea (Doss) Borland

Dorothea (on the right) at the Ascot races in Brisbane, in 1932:

Doss married the amusingly named Hurtle Roy Hart (unsurprisingly he went by the name of Roy) in Brisbane in 1935. She is shown in her wedding dress at left, with her sisters Dawn and Maisie as bridesmaids on the right (with her niece Elaine Kenny the flower girl)

 

After the war, during which Roy served in the RAAF, the couple returned to Roma, where Roy operated a Ford dealership called the 'Traders Garage' until the 1970s. They retired to Southport on the Gold Coast.   

Dawn Borland

Dawn in 1934 prior to making her debut (left) and pictured first on the left photographed at the Roma races:

Some 'glamour' shots from about 1936/7:

An 'attractive lass from Roma, who will be attending all the winter gaieties' (1939): 

Another moody shot used in the announcement of her engagement to Peter Evison Corfe, and a shot after their wedding at St Stephen's Cathedral in Brisbane in 1940:

Peter enlisted in the Army straight after the wedding to serve in the war, then became a director of the Maranoa Trading Company (that had been set up by his father-in-law Lou Borland) while working as a grazier on the family's property 'Norton' near Roma. After Peter died, Dawn moved to Brisbane.

Maisie Borland

An almost ethereal shot of Maisie (far left) ahead of her debut in Roma in 1937. The following year "attractive" Maisie entered Queensland University where she studied to become a masseuse.  

In 1942 she married Laurence Rowe in Brisbane, who was also serving in the Australian Army at the time. They moved to New South Wales where she worked as a physiotherapist but the marriage doesn't appear to have lasted.

From these photos and captions, I like to imagine that the Borland sisters were quite the 'darlings of the social scene' in Roma, and maybe even in Brisbane too! While Maisie lived to 80 and Dawn had a wonderful innings of 96, Dorothea the eldest outlasted them both. 'Doss' reached 104, making her almost certainly the oldest person in my extended family tree.

'Doss' Hart on her 100th birthday at Southport with her four surviving children

(Western Star, 28 October 2011)







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