Dorothea Amelia Field “Dot”

“Dot loved to wear a floral dress, print apron and pink bedroom slippers. She had little schooling, married young and worked hard to support her three daughters.”² When her husband deserted the family in 1926,³ Dot worked at the Central Café and then the Blue Bird Café in Wingham. She had a close call in 1930 when the Blue Bird Café burned while she was asleep inside.⁴ After a brief time in Taree she moved to Harrington where she became a cook in the hotel.⁵

At Harrington Dot met Clarrie Towers, a returned WWI soldier. She moved into Clarrie’s tent on the Harrington Reserve where he was caretaker and thus began a 40 year love affair.⁶

In 1939, Clarrie bought an old shop on the corner of Granter Street opposite the Harrington Reserve where holiday makers could order meals.⁷ Dot’s friend recalled: “To sit in the big front room while Dot prepared a meal was like attending a vaudeville show. Vegetables were peeled and chopped with enormous flair. Fish were filleted with the flick of a knife. She could serve six loaded plates at a time, lining them up along her arms, and carry six full cups of tea without spilling a drop. At the same time she would carry on a conversation with her budgerigar and shout orders to her blue cattle dog to show us how he could climb the big gum tree on the other side of the fence. Dot was a great performer, and we were a willing audience.”⁸

Dot died the same year as her love, Clarrie, in 1982.⁹

Author: Janine Roberts

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