Grace Tyers (1884-1959)

Early History Society member

Grace Beatrice Tyers was born in Warrnambool in 1884 to Daniel Tyers and Elizabeth Merchant. Her siblings were William, Frances, Emily, Constance and Harold. Her grandfather William Tyers owned the local corn and hay produce store.
From an early age, Grace was active in her local community. She is noted as having been part of a musical program for a Loyal Temperance meeting in Warrnambool where she was part of a recitation group.
At the 12th celebration of the Warrnambool branch of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union she was awarded a prize at a ‘Scientific Temperance Examination’ for her recitation. Colonial towns hosted large numbers of shanties, hotels and pubs serving alcohol. Warrnambool was no different. Founded in 1847, by 1880 it had 27 hotels, bars and shanties. One for every 170 inhabitants, men, women and children. The regular use of alcohol led to serious social problems, particularly among the less well-off in society, and during the second half of the nineteenth century there were many attempts to deal with these problems.
Grace continued to be interested in writing and the Warrnambool Standard, reported that she had won literary essay competitions in the under 17 section. When she finished her schooling, she was employed as a teacher of shorthand at Warrnambool Technical School in 1915. She had greater ambitions and by 1916, she was employed with the Department of External Affairs and then promoted to Prime Minister Billy Hughes Department later that year.
From 1928 she was employed as a Hansard staff member. It is noted in the Canberra Times that Hansard Staff member Grace Tyers was receiving congratulations for winning first prize for her ‘Ode to Warrnambool’. The town was selected by the Victorian Progress Association in conjunction with the Melbourne Sun Pictorial as the ideal town of Victoria and the ode was sung to the tune of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ and broadcast on 3LO on 21 February 1928.

Grace applied to become a member of the HSV on 25 July 1923 and remained one until 1925. She always felt a strong connection back to her place of birth and wrote and presented a quite extensive paper titled ‘Early days in South-Western Victoria’ which she read to the Society on 29 March 1926. It was published in the Victorian Historical Magazine, Volume XII, #3, March 1928. The paper centres on Portland, Port Fairy and Warrnambool. She collected valuable details about the Henty family and their businesses. The Henty family were known as Victoria’s earliest European settlers and pastoralists, emigrant squatters who played a defining role in the establishment of Portland and the development of the region’s wool trade.
In it, she notes that she was born there and loves it ‘as such’. Then ‘In that love I have for some time sought out its set history and treasured up its early stories and secrets – even its traditions, which, perhaps, would be of doubtful value to a historical society. But dates, necessary as they are for historical writing, are but pegs to hang happenings on, while, as Tennyson has said, “truth” can be “embodied in a tale.”

During this period, she was still connected to her hometown. She was listed as Honorary Secretary of the Back to Warrnambool celebrations in 1930. Grace entered the inaugural ‘Ideal Town’ competition in 1928 which Warrnambool won in the large town category and led to the establishment of an annual gala week celebration during the 1930s. In 1930 a gala was held and a special ‘Back to Warrnambool’ song writing competition was held with prize of £20. Obviously passionate about her birthplace, Grace composed the ‘A Hymn to Home’ sung to the tune of ‘Auld Lang Syme’. The song was recorded by the Premier Four and released in 1930 on the Broadcast deluxe label. Grace also featured in a Back to Warrnambool poster in the Argus in 1930.

On her return to Melbourne, she worked as a journalist for the Argus and was a broadcaster on 3LO. In one of her shows she talked about great Russian writers and their stories.
Grace wrote a diversity of pieces that were published in the Argus. They ranged from serious reporting – Haunted Furniture In England and Old Japan (28 August 1937); The Greeks Had A Song For It (5 December 1942); England’s Hesse Leads the Nation’s Fighting Men (6 February 1943) to comedic short stories Have You Been Admired By a Chinaman? ( 9 November 1940 ) and The Mystery of St Titus Church (6 March 1943).
In 1945, and as busy as ever, Grace Tyers, as Honorary Secretary, was involved in the opening of the Baptist Union of Victoria aged people’s home at Strathalan, in Macleod. About 1,000 people attended, and £400 was raised toward the home.
After a long career as a journalist, writer and poet, Grace died at Heidelberg aged 74 in 1959 after a full and adventurous life.

Helen Laffin, March 2023

Acknowledgments
Thank you to the Warrnambool Historical Society for their assistance.
Without Trove, the stories about Grace Tyers would be lost.

Sources
Silent Lives: Women of Warrnambool 1840-1910. Elizabeth O’Callaghan 2017:239
Silent Lives. 2017:299
June 100 Years Ago – 1901. As reported in the Warrnambool Standard, compiled by Betty Beavis
Warrnambool Standard, 20 December 1916
Victorian Historical Magazine, Volume XII, #3, March 1928
Argus (Melbourne, Vic.: 1848 – 1957), Saturday 11 January 1930, page 21
Argus, 8 March 1935
Canberra Times, 14 October 1930
Argus, 26 February 1945