Beauty made region proud

As the summer sun sets in and beachgoers begin to develop the golden complexions of a coastal life, it may be unsurprising to learn the Mid West has had a long history of beautiful people, including the first Miss Australia.

Walkaway-born Beryl Mills was crowned Miss Australia in 1926, at the tender age of 19, withThe West Australian reporting in its summary of the competition she “grew up on a sheep station near Geraldton”.

TheGeraldton Express wrote the “local theatres should be packed to overflowing” for the screening of the Miss Australia elimination, where “the Geraldton girl, will be seen as one of 46 beauties”, with film shipped to Geraldton through a special arrangement “immediately after the Prince of Wales’ screening”.

The Millses were an old pioneer family in the Geraldton-Greenough region but had mostly stayed in the Chapman Valley, farming at Narra Tarra, with Beryl’s father Frank venturing across the river to establish the Mt Hill farm in Walkaway in the late 1800s.

Hazel Logue, who now occupies the Mt Hill farm, said the family must have moved away by 1909, just two years after Beryl was born.

However, Ms Logue said the Millses had actually left behind all their paperwork and documents when they moved, and she had now begun searching through the historical papers to dig up more history on the family.

Enga Smith is a daughter of Beryl’s cousin John Stuart Mills, now living in Carnarvon. She said although Beryl was occasionally mentioned, she was “old news” and didn’t come up very often because she had lived in the Eastern States, then in the US. “My mother always said Beryl wasn’t beautiful but she was bonny — it was that sporty, popular look for the time,” she said.

The record of the Australian Dictionary of Biography agrees, pointing out the the 169cm tall Beryl “eschewed make-up” and her wholesome character and sporting ability made her “the ideal Australian girl”.

Beryl was more than just a pretty face because after graduating from Geraldton Primary School she received a scholarship to Perth Modern School, where she was nominated a prefect.

But when she obtained leave from university to travel to the US as Miss Australia, one academic commented her reason was “unworthy of a serious student”.

Beryl’s careers were numerous.

She worked as a teacher around Carnarvon, a librarian in Sydney, a factory supervisor and a rescue volunteer in the US.

She finally retired to Florida, where she died in 1977.

Ms Smith said although she had never seen Beryl, a photograph of her dressed in the winner’s sash did hang on her wall, and inspired her to write and publish a poem:

“At the age of 19 she was feted and favoured, and travelled far from her country home.

“We never met her anyway by the time we were old enough to know, the fuss was over long ago and she lived in the USA, Richmond Virginia I seem to remember.

“It could have been another planet it was so far away.

“And so you smile your winning smile and wear your winner’s sash, forever Miss Australia in a Sydney studio.

“I trust it brought you happiness all those years ago.

“For at the time and on the day, Beryl, Beryl on my wall, you were the fairest of them all.”

— Enga Smith, 2003,Mosaics.