A BEDOURIE woman has been remembered as an inspirational pioneering woman.
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Jean Smith, 86, died recently and Member for Mount Isa Robbie Katter paid tribute to her, saying she was the ``epitome of an inspirational pioneering woman, bearing witness to the progressive march towards change that has occurred in the Diamantina Shire Council since the mid-1940s.''
Mr Katter said she was a great storyteller about her life in the bush.
Mrs Smith was a resident of the shire for more than half a century.
Born Jean Lois Scobie, she moved from Clifton Hills on the Birdsville Track to Ethabuka Station in the mid-1940s and finally to the township of Bedourie in the late 1950s.
Her five children learnt the bushman skills of their stockman father, Peter, on Ethabuka Station.
Mrs Smith moved the children to Bedourie where she taught them daily in their house, which is iconically known as The Mud Hut and still stands at the southern end of Bedourie's main street, Herbert Street.
Mrs Smith also taught other children in the town.
When her eldest son, Jim, bought the Bedourie Hotel in the early 1970s, Mrs Smith took on the role of postmistress and served in that role for more than 30 years.
In 1988, she was awarded the Diamantina Australia Day Citizen of the Year award for her contributions to the community.
She celebrated her 80th birthday in Birdsville in the presence of Governor-General Mitchell Jeffrey.
Mrs Smith was the youngest of seven children, and was born in Adelaide.
The family lived in Ooroowilanie, 193 kilometres north of Marree on the Marree-Birdsville Track, on the edge of Sturt's Stony Desert.
She never liked wearing shoes, but had to wear them when the family went to Marree, about once a year.
At about 20, she moved to Birdsville after a stint helping on stations in the Channel Country.
She landed a job at the Birdsville Hotel, which was the start of a long career in the hospitality industry, and loved it because she learnt a lot.
From Birdsville, she moved to Bedourie and ran the pub and post office, where she met her husband Peter Smith.
They had five boys - Jim, Don, David, Roy and Max.
