Miriam was always destined to lead an adventurous life. Her father Frank Pope was born and grew up in north west India, where his father served in the Indian Army, seconded by the British military. In his teens, her father moved to England, where he joined the army in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, serving in the Middle East and Germany after World War II.
{{image2-a:r-w:250}}Miriam was born in Solihull, Warwickshire, England, in 1950. She was joined in 1952 by her new sister and lifelong mate Vanessa. However, Frank had itchy feet and in 1953 was appointed by the British Crown Agents as a mechanical supervisor to be stationed in a small, dusty town – Tabora in western Tanganyika in colonial East Africa, now known as Tanzania. Here the family was to live for the next three years.
Just to get to Tabora was an adventure in itself for a family with two young children. First, there was a long flight from London in a BOAC Viscount via Rome, Khartoum and Entebbe to Dar es Salaam. This was followed by a three-day trip on a wood-fired steam train to Tabora.
“I was very happy. I loved Africa,” Miriam recalls. “We weren’t rich but we were very fortunate living among such wonderful animals and incredible scenery.”
The Pope family’s house was surrounded by low, dense scrub and Frank, in an attempt to dampen Miriam’s natural desire to explore, told her not to go anywhere in the bush as a leopard lived there. However, one day Miriam’s mother Jean glanced out of the bedroom window and called out to Frank that there was a large dog outside. A quick check by Frank soon revealed spots, a long tail and feline features. Indeed, it was a leopard and he had to live with his own fairy story.
Next came six months’ leave; the family made the trip back to England, complete with Miriam’s 18-month-old brother Alan. It was on this trip that Miriam was to meet the first of many celebrities throughout her life. Gordon Scott, the second actor to play Tarzan in film, was returning from filming on-site in Africa and was occupying the seat behind them on the plane. This gentle giant of a man was to help entertain baby Alan on the long flight home.
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Miriam had a short spell of formal schooling in England and two experiences are still fresh in her mind. The first was when her tummy could not accept the taste of the fresh milk issued at the school. In Africa, milk was always boiled and then drunk with cocoa. The other issue was the inevitable schoolyard bully, who on hearing a few words of Swahili and that little Alan had been born in Africa, demanded to see her black brother.
ON SAFARI WITH THE ANIMALS
Her father was again posted to Africa, this time to Dar es Salaam, the then capital of Tanganyika. Although Anglican, Miriam’s parents chose to send her to St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School because of the better facilities available there.
After six months, in 1956, her father was posted to Lindi, a small regional colonial town on the south-east coast of Tanganyika, once the shipping terminus for the African slave trade caravan route from Lake Nyasa. The family was constantly on the move. Then it was on to Arusha in 1959.
“This was the prime location in Tanzania, being not far from Mount Kilimanjaro and right next to Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti,” Miriam explains. “I mean, what a childhood!”
{{image4-a:l-w:250}}The movie Hatari! was filmed in Arusha and Miriam’s mum happened to be an extra in the cast. One day, the young Miriam spotted John Wayne in a cafe “and I promptly asked for his autograph. He put his arm around me and called me a sweet little girl”. Then he handed her autograph book around the table for the other notables to sign, among them comedian Red Buttons. Her second brother Colin was born around this time.
In his capacity as regional mechanical supervisor, Frank had to make frequent field trips and at times the family were able to go on “safari” with him, enabling them to have many close up experiences with African animals. These included being woken one night in their flimsy tin shed by the sounds of loud grunting. On checking, Frank calmly announced it was only a pride of prowling lions and to go back to sleep!
Another safari was to the Olduvai Gorge, which is recognised by some as the “cradle of civilisation”, where the skull of a 1.8 million-year-old primitive man was discovered. Ancient bone fragments were still to be found in the area, which made the children’s exploration even more exciting. But life in their piece of paradise was to come to an end in 1962 when Tanganyika became independent from Britain.
ON TO AUSTRALIA
As Miriam was then approaching high school age, her father felt it was time to move back to England. The visit, however, was short lived and in late 1962 the family migrated to Australia, to settle in Bunbury, Western Australia, for the next 10 years. Her third brother Neil was born in 1964. Miriam says Neil is the only “dinkum Aussie” in the family! When she finished school and joined the workforce, Miriam’s first job was with Television Channel 3, now the Golden West Network. Her dad didn’t really settle into life in Bunbury and in 1970 the family split up to follow separate paths.
{{image5-a:r-w:250}}Miriam’s parents plus the two youngest boys went to Papua New Guinea, with Frank again a mechanical inspector, while her sister Vanessa went nursing in Fremantle and Alan remained at school in Bunbury. Miriam married in 1970 and shortly after moved to Exmouth, WA, where she began work with the United States Navy. Rapid promotion led to a senior position in its supply services, doing high security requisitioning.
The urge to travel surfaced and in 1974, Miriam and her first husband set off with their caravan to take a leisurely journey of four months up the WA coast to Darwin.
Probably because the climate reminded her of her childhood in Tanzania, Miriam fell in love with Darwin – an affection that still remains today. In those days it was not unusual for residents with large blocks of land to rent out their backyards to caravan owners, so they joined five other vans and shared showers and toilets under the owner’s elevated house.
Employment was no problem and both were soon in work. With her media experience, Miriam found herself working as a traffic clerk with Radio Station 8DN, a position she enjoyed. During her time in the media, Miriam was to meet many people of note, including prime ministers, entertainers and authors.
SURVIVING TRACY
The build-up to the wet season in November 1974 was very hot and humid. When a cyclone warning was issued in early December, Miriam’s husband, a skilled rigger, tied down their caravan by securing it to four 44-gallon (200-litre) drums filled with water. It was a simple but very effective solution to a real problem. This cyclone did not eventuate but on Christmas Eve, Cyclone Tracy arrived and made a direct hit on Darwin. The couple huddled in their van with their two cats.
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The van was battered with flying debris all night, causing it to leak “like a sieve” in the torrential rain, but it remained upright because of the 44-gallon drum tie-downs. Miriam said it was a terrifying night and all they could do was pray in shorthand as the storm raged outside. The fury of the cyclone eased at dawn and they emerged to the desolation that was Darwin.
They found their caravan was the sole survivor of the backyard group. The elevated house was damaged and still standing but the house behind them was demolished. Evacuation of the city was declared. The van was leaky but roadworthy and their land-cruiser was “just” sandblasted. It had no headlights but its tail-lights still worked and they fell in at the rear of a small convoy of other damaged vehicles, with one whose headlights still worked leading the group for the trek to Brisbane – a battered and bruised small party of survivors who were just happy to be alive.
It took six months to have the van and the car repaired and they decided to travel to northern Queensland. However, Miriam’s love for Darwin drew them back, despite the fact the clean-up of the flattened city had barely commenced. Employment was no problem. The boss of Radio Station 8DN simply asked: “When can you start?”
After a few years the travel bug bit again and Miriam and her husband returned to Bunbury, where their two children Jarrod and Karina were born in 1978 and 1979. Homesickness set in again and it was back to Darwin to buy a house and bring up the children. When they commenced school, Miriam rejoined the workforce, first with CRA Exploration. But she was soon headhunted by the local TV station and so returned to her first love, the media, where she remained for 10 years to become program manager.
SHUNNING THE LIMELIGHT
{{image7-a:r-w:250}}The year 1993 was a traumatic time for Miriam, with the breakup of her first marriage. In 1994, Miriam met Peter Watters, then the general manager of Northern Cement, who had also experienced a broken marriage. There was an immediate close attraction between the two. An unusual feature of the relationship is that Peter and his ex-wife Bev have maintained a firm friendship and Miriam and Bev are now also friends. This continues still today.
Peter was deeply involved in the Institute of Quarrying’s affairs in Darwin so it was inevitable that Miriam found herself attending committee dinner meetings in the close-knit Northern Territory branch. As their relationship developed, Peter, knowing of Miriam’s affection for Darwin and her significant career, cautioned her that he was in line to become general manager of Sunstate Cement in Brisbane. Love won out and they moved to Brisbane to follow Peter’s career and were married in 1995.
Following his service with the Northern Territory branch, Peter became secretary of the institute’s Queensland branch and, due to his busy job, for nearly a decade
Miriam helped out with the paperwork necessary to keep a branch running smoothly. In the ensuing years, they attended many national conferences, which Miriam enjoyed because of the friendships she made there. In 2004, the Watters were involved with the organising of the national conference in Queensland at Twin Waters, an event Miriam will never forget: she unexpectedly found herself chairing the all important ladies’ committee.
“I hate being in the public spotlight,” she says. “I do not like public speaking – I won’t public speak – so it took several glasses of bubbly for me to get up and say, ‘Thank you!’ to the men on Orica Day!”
This coming from a lady with a long career in the world of radio and television and whose earlier days were spent in deepest Africa!
Retirement has become a leisurely affair and with family on both sides scattered all around Australia, there is never a shortage of destinations for the Watters to visit in their van. A quiet time of life for someone who spent Cyclone Tracy in a caravan while the world literally collapsed around her.
Writer’s Note: Miriam and Peter Watters are only the second married couple interviewed for Quarry. The first were Muff and Murray Neuenkirken. The two ladies will present a unique challenge for the title in a prospective second edition of Men of Stone!