Bertha Telfer

Family Stories

Bertha was the adopted daughter of John and Caroline Telfer. As a child her mother died and her father — a Swiss immigrant named Moelling — could not care for his four children, so Bertha was taken in and raised by the Telfer family. She studied at Rev Lockhart Morton's College in Adelaide preparing for missionary service and was accepted by the United Aborigines Mission in December 1908. At the Burnt Bridge Mission on the Macleay River in 1906, she gave addresses alongside Mrs Rudder and Mrs Ingram. She was a tiny woman with enormous courage — the book describes her going to many places where a white woman had never been before, full of fun, with a simple faith. She would "just say a little prayer and the dear Lord will look after me." Around 1915–17 while at Sunday Island in the Buccaneer Archipelago near Broome, she met and married James Alcorn, an official with the Broome pearl fisheries. They had one son, Frank. After returning to South Australia and spending time at Willow Plains and Warcowie, they moved to New Guinea where Jim had a government job. They later lived at Clare and then Norwood, where they ran a small shop. After Jim's death, Bertha lived at Edwardstown in a granny flat built onto Frank's property until she became too feeble. She spent her remaining years at the Serene Nursing Home at Lockleys and died on 10 August 1965, aged 93. (From the Borders to the Bush, pp.127–129)