Nene Gare
| Nene Gare | |
|---|---|
Nene Gare, ~1940
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| Born | 9 May 1919 Adelaide, South Australia |
| Died | 29 May 1994 Shelley, Western Australia |
| Occupation | Novelist, artist and political activist |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Spouse | Frank Ellis Gare |
| Children | Arran (1942–47), Lief Frances (b 1946), Arran (b 1948), Helen Shelley (b 1952) |
Nene Gare (9 May 1919 – 29 May 1994) was an Australian writer and artist, best known as the author of the novel The Fringe Dwellers (1961), which was made into the 1986 Australian film of the same name directed by Bruce Beresford.
Gare was born Doris Violet May Wadham in 1919 in Adelaide, South Australia. Her parents John Henry Wadham, a saddler and harness maker, and Mary Hounslow Wadham, were strict Methodists. Gare attended Adelaide School of Art and then Perth Technical College, returning to Adelaide to work as a typist from 1938 to 1939.
In 1941, she married Perth-based public servant Frank Ellis Gare, who then left to serve on the Queen Mary during World War II.
Nene and Frank Gare had four children, Arran (1942–47), Leif Frances (b 1946), Arran Gare (b 1948) and Helen Shelley Gare (b 1952).
From 1946 to 1948, the family moved to Papua New Guinea, where Frank worked as a patrol officer on Duke of York Island, at Salamaua and Mumeng. Many of her experiences in PNG formed the basis of the novel "An Island Away".
In 1947, at the age of four, her oldest son Arran died of malaria, while her two-year-old daughter Leif survived the disease. The family returned to Perth, where Frank worked as a clerk.
The couple's third child was born in 1948 and named Arran in honour of the son they had lost. Nene suffered a persistent cough so the family moved to Carnarvon in the northwest of Western Australia, where they managed a banana plantation and where their fourth child, daughter Helen, was born. Gare's novel "Green Gold" is based on this period.
In 1952-54, Frank was appointed District Officer with the Native Welfare Department in Carnarvon and was transferred to the position of District Officer for the Murchison Region, with the family based in Geraldton.
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