Peninsula's Past: First alderman’s lifetime of service

SOURCE: History Redcliffe. Images: Courtesy of City of Moreton Bay

As we celebrate International Women’s Day this month, we take a look at the remarkable life of Redcliffe’s first female alderman, Keitha Drake.

She devoted her life to the service of others from the moment she stepped onto our shore in 1950.

Keitha Mary Cousley Scurr was born in 1907 at Ekibin in Brisbane and was educated at Junction Park State School and Brisbane State High School.

She served on the local council from February 1952 to 1966, during a period of change which saw it move from the Town of Redcliffe (1921) to the City of Redcliffe (1959).

Other aldermen of Mrs Drake’s era were Messrs Webb, Frost, Hill, Sampson and Richardson. The council had just six aldermen in those days and the pay was two pounds per meeting – about five pounds per month.

Keitha died at Brisbane General Hospital on February 12, 1966, and was at that time chairman of the Council’s Building and Health Committee and the Council’s representative on the Redcliffe Hospitals Board and the Redcliffe Municipal Library Committee.

She had been president of the then Queensland Spastic League (now Cerebral Palsy League) on the Peninsula for the previous 12 years and was instrumental in founding the Redcliffe committee.

Keitha was formerly chairman of the Humpybong Welfare Committee and was for 10 years secretary of the Red Cross Society.

She was a member of the Redcliffe A H and I Society (Redcliffe Show), Redcliffe Peninsula Horticultural and Orchid Society, Redcliffe Music and Arts Society, Fellowship of Australian Writers, Esperanto Group, Senior Citizens’ Club, Clontarf QCWA, Redcliffe Hockey Club and was keenly interested in the City of Redcliffe Girls’ Marching Association.

She was also president of the Redcliffe-Sandgate District Cricket Club, patron of the Redcliffe Youth Club and chaperoned the junior hockey players when they played in Brisbane each Saturday.

If that wasn’t enough, she was also on committees for Guide Dogs for the Blind and Home Help Service and a member of Redcliffe Forum Club, the Queensland Women’s Electoral League and Business and Professional Women’s Association.

Keitha was the first president of Redcliffe State High School’s Ladies’ Auxiliary.

Her son Henry told History Redcliffe his mother’s behind the scenes charity work meant that there was a continuous stream of people coming to their home.

She always left the back door unlocked with an invitation on the kitchen table for visitors to make a cup of tea while waiting for her to return from a meeting.

In 1981, Works and Housing Minister Claude Wharton officially opened an 18-unit pensioner complex at Woody Point and named the units Keitha Drake Lodge.

Drake Street Woody Point is also named in her honour.