Mount Isa entrants and their supporters were encouraged to have fun washing cars, participate in fun-runs and walks to the Lake, fashion parades, garage sales, social evenings, cake stalls, conduct cent sales, start a mile of coins, organise tombolas along with a hundred and one other inventive fund-raising ideas. For over 45 years, it was the success of these thousands of fund-raising events that were held across the nation which was responsible for $87 million to be raised by Miss Australia Quest entrants, for the Spastic Centres of Australia and in turn, Cootharinga Home for Crippled Children in Townsville.

While there was never any doubt entrants had dreams in their eyes of winning one of the many incentive prizes on offer to the highest fund-raisers, when they first joined the Quest, they were soon won over with the very real reason they had agreed to forego their regular social life for a year; to help children throughout Australia. For local entrants, their visit to Cootharinga Home in Townsville was a great leveller and an eye-opener to the costly provision of disability services required just to give these children a chance to be contributing members of their communities.

In the brochures encouraging young women to enter the Miss Australia Quest, it was stressed that the Quest was not representative of an individual image, but rather it symbolized a combined concept of participation, striving, helping and achievement. Mount Isa young women who took on that challenge and have continued to be synonymous with the Quest include Joan Hickey, Edna Ferraris, Daphne Munro, Pat Hayton, Sandra Brown, Robin Lamont, Paula Kennett, Valmai Cheyne, Merrin Westcott, Ingrid Cooke, Jennifer Skelton, Kim Louie, Jasmine Benvegnu, Donna-Maree Philips, Sharon Larkin, Jacquie Donegan, Patricia Van Eke, and Trudy Swift.A small number of the 130 young women who graced the Miss Australia Quest - Mount Isa dais.

And just as there was no end of young women entering the quest, there was no end of innovative ideas to prise an extra dollar out of a pocket which meant for Sharon Larkin, the opposite end of homely comfort, when she held a Poverty Night (sleep over) at the Buffalo Club.

While most of the other entrants would organise the tried and true ways to fund-raise, Trudy Swift laughed all the way to the bank with her alternative lady-like efforts. Never one to mind getting her hands dirty for a good cause, she soon gained her ‘shovologist’ (colloquial slang for one who swings a shovel) title in the equine paddocks as she shovelled and bagged manure for sale.

Whether it was equine excrement one day or beautiful babies the next, Trudy and her support group continually enlivened the Miss Australia Quest in 1972, albeit at all times with style and decorum, with shovel or without. Only a year earlier, Happy Valley school teacher, Jennifer Skelton set the fund-raising bar to extreme heights when she returned from the state judging wearing the Miss Queensland Charity sash. With the help of her sponsor, the Mount Isa Irish Club, Jennifer said every 20 cents from raffle tickets in chicken and meat trays soon added up to her winning total.

“Fund-raising was a bit of a problem because there were about a dozen charities and three other Miss Australia Quest entrants trying to raise money at the same time”, she told the Courier Mail.

“But country people take charity work seriously, and the other three entrants were working for me at the end when they knew I had a chance of winning for Mount Isa.”

Jennifer was also one of the regional finalists in the Miss Queensland Quest representing the North West and while she did not take out the double crown, she was delighted when Miss Queensland, Gay Walker of Brisbane, went on to be crowned Miss Australia 1972. It did not matter that the local economy fluctuated along with the international mineral market, the community always found an extra dollar in support of a Miss Australia Quest entrant.

And it was that community spirit and support which earned Donna-Maree Phillips the title of Miss North West Charity and in turn saw her crowned Miss Queensland Charity a decade later. Whether they got dirty nails from bagging horse manure, frizzy hair from car wash soap suds, scalded arms from lifting hot water urns or sore faces from the continual smiles, these young girls developed into admirable young women of whom Mount Isa was extremely proud, with or without a crown.

A Miss Australia Quest entrant was appreciated and noticed by the way she presented herself at all times, her deportment (how to dress, sit and walk in a feminine fashion), her manners (knowing how to talk cohesively, politely and without profanities, knowing when to speak and when to stay quiet), the respect and consideration she showed for others and importantly she gained a quiet self-respect with a confidence that allowed her to move through life with dignity and style. And just as Swiss Finishing Schools have taught their young ladies how to politely eat cooked peas from a dinner plate, without spearing or squirting them around or off their plates, their Mount Isa Miss Australia Quest counterparts knew mashed potato was the secret behind eating peas.

Information sourced from archives of the Miss Australia Quest, Spastic Centres of Australia, Cootharinga Home for Cripple Children, MIMAG, and the North West Star newspaper.