Deborah Vernon Hackett

Deborah Vernon Hackett (1887-1965) was a mining company director and welfare worker. Educated at the boys' grammar school in Guildford, she passed her early years in tomboyish pursuits, but the age of 18 she married Sir John Winthrop Hackett, forty years older than she. He was to father her five notable children. During World War I she raised funds for the war effort and wrote a housewife's guidebook, the profits from which went to various charities. Widowed and remarried, she moved to Adelaide, where as Lady Moulden, Lady Mayoress from 1920 to 1922, she raised £100 000 for charity and presided over the local branch of the National Council of Women. In 1923 she became interested in tantalite, a scarce mineral. Intrepidly visiting potential sites in the NT and WA, she became convinced of its viability as an export, and travelled to the USA to secure a contract to supply ore. She incorporated Tantalite Ltd while living in London in 1932, but returned to Australia to form a syndicate to mine wolfram in Central Australia. During World War II her tantalite was used to make radar equipment. After receiving an honorary doctorate and remarrying, she lived in Melbourne as Dr Buller Murphy, raising funds for the women's auxiliaries of various hospitals and serving on diverse welfare committees. In 1958 she published a book of stories of the Dordenup aboriginal people with whom she had run about when young. Touchingly, her third husband, barrister Basil Buller Murphy, wrote a little book about her interests in tantalite called A Lady of Rare Metal (1949).