Adelaide Miethke

Adelaide Laetitia "Addie" Miethke, OBE (8 June 1881 – 4 February 1962), was a South Australian educator and teacher who was pivotal in the formation of the School of the Air using the existing Royal Flying Doctor Service radio network.

Rudolph Carl Alexander Miethke (14 November 1832 – 21 October 1931), sometimes written Carl R. A. Miethke, born in Stargard, Prussia, now in Poland, migrated with his parents (Carl) Gustav Adolph Miethke and his wife Louisa, née Gaster, to South Australia on the San Francisco from Hamburg, arriving in June 1850, and settled at Blumberg (now Birdwood). He had two siblings on the boat: Augusta Mathilde Amalie Miethke, and Carl Emil Miethke. He spent a few years on the Victorian goldfields, followed by extensive overseas travel, during which he served from 1861 to 1864 with Abraham Lincoln's 2nd California Infantry Regiment. On his return to Adelaide he joined the South Australian teaching service. In November 1869 he married Emma Caroline "Louisa" Schultze, second daughter of Kapunda naturalist Frederick Schultze, and sister of Alfred Schultze, both members of Goyder's 1868–1870 expedition to the Northern Territory. He qualified as a teacher, and as was the policy at the time, was in his first years made to serve in a succession of small country schools: Parrot's Hill (near Moculta) in 1867, Reedy Creek in 1868, Mount Rufus then St. Kitts in 1869, moving to Angaston in 1871, Dalkey school (at Sichem) in 1872, Monarto in 1873, Carlsruhe (near Waterloo) in 1876, Chinkford in 1877, Manoora in 1880, Port Victor 1881–1885, Goolwa 1886–1891 and Woodville from 1892 until July 1905, when he retired.

Adelaide was born at Manoora, South Australia, the sixth daughter of Rudolph and Emma Miethke. She was educated at Victor Harbor, Goolwa, and Woodville public schools, where in each her father was schoolmaster, and from Woodville she went to Hindmarsh as a "pupil teacher". In 1903 she enrolled with the Teachers' Training College under Andrew Scott. and in 1905 started at Lefevre Peninsula School as a teacher's assistant, Victor John Pavia (c. 1857–1934) then being head master. She was fortunate in her "choice" of school, as V. J. Pavia encouraged originality in implementing what she had been taught. She showed such promise that Alfred Williams (c. 1864–1913), the Director of Education, exempted her from the usual requirement for student teachers to serve two years in outback schools. She concurrently studied art at the School of Design and further advanced studies in English and History, at nights, as spare time and her finances permitted. With the inception of High Schools in 1911, Miethke was transferred to Lefevre Peninsula District High School, became chief assistant, and subsequently senior mistress at Woodville High School.

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