Australia’s Wealthy Women

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 526, 1 December 1928, Page 26

Australia’s Wealthy Women

BRIDE OF HAL LITCHFIELD, SOUTHERN CROSS NAVIGATOR, INHERITED £BO,OOO USTRALIA’S millionairesses are few and far between. Sydney has its fair „ share of wealthy families, but women who are weaimy in their own right, with fortunes either inherited or built up by their own efforts, are very few in number (says a writer in the “Daily Guardian”). Dame Nellie Melba, of course, is one of our richest as well as most famous women, her golden voice bringing her a golden fortune. In Sydney, Dame Edith Walker perhaps leads the way, not only for her fortune but for her generous donations

Mrs. H. Litchfield, who inherited £BO,OOO before her marriage to the popular ■navigator of the Southern Cross airplane.

to charities of every hind. High on the list of wealthy young girls comes Joan Norton, who recently, on her 21st birthday, signed 17 cheques benefiting local charities to the extent of £II,OOO, including £IO,OOO in £1 shares from her estate for the Sydney University. Other young Sydney heiresses are

Miss Joyce Howes, an orphan who, still in her early twenties, has a fortune of hoi- own left by her parents, and Rena Holdsworth, who has married Hal Litchfield, navigator of the Southern Cross on the New Zealand flight. With her brother,. Miss Holdsworth inherited a short while ago about £BO,OOO from her father, A. Tertius Holdsworth. Miss Macarthur-Onslow, president of the Victoria League, and energetic worker for the Bush Book Club, has the fortune and fame of a family associated with Australian development from its earliest days, behind her. Belonging to another prominent and wealthy family is Miss Mary Fairfax. Two wealthy sisters are Mi;s. Wallis Furness and Mrs. J. W. Crane, who, with their seven brothers, shared the huge fortune and estate of their father, the late Thomas Longworth, of Woollahra House, much of whose riches came from the Cobar mines. Mrs. Hqrry Burrell, wife of “the platypus expert,” and a keen worker for many charities, was the only child of the wealthy Hills, of Manila; while another wealthy woman who has given generously of her fortune for worthy causes is Miss Edith Hill, of Woollahra. Suburban Fortunes Then there are Lady Hay and Miss Hannah Jones; “Tootles” Williamson, now Mrs. Horsley, the daughter of Mrs. J. C. Williamson, of huge theatrical interests; Mrs. Augustus James, wife of the judge, who is interested in real estate; Mrs. Freehill, who lent her beautiful home to Cardinal Cerretti for the recent Eucharistic Congress; three prominent Strathfield women— Mrs. Chas. Hebden, Mrs. C. T. Newman, and Mrs. G. F. Todman; and many others. Of Sydney’s self-made women, one of the most prominent is Mrs. Maclurcan, silver-haired hostess of the Wentworth; Ethel Turner, now wife of Judge Curlewis, has seen her books for children run through manv editions successfully; May Moore owns a well-established photographic studio. And there are Miss Cahill with her brother, head of CaTiill’s restaurants; Mrs. Horton, of Craigieburn, Bowral; Mrs. Frank Daley, of “Jacqueline,” and others who are building businesses.