© Chris Bishop, October 2025.
Photo: © Chris Bishop
The names of Frederick (Fred) White and his second wife Pauline can be seen on a plaque marking the Fred White Memorial Park, situated at the corner of Eastwell Road and Old Coast Road in Australind. It states that it was dedicated to Fred, ‘who as President of the Australind Progress Association and Tree Society rendered great service to the people of this district’. The park is very close to where the Whites lived on Eastwell Road.
The park is a thin north/south orientated piece of flat land that has been reclaimed from the shoreline of the Leschenault Estuary, when the Old Coast Road was straightened. As the filled area does not appear on a 1941 aerial photograph of the area, sourced via Landgate-Western Australian Land Information Authority, but is fully established by 1970 (as per Landgate Mosaic), the park must have been created during that time frame.
Fred was not on the inaugural Australind Progress Association, formed in 1957.[1] It is not known when he joined. He was President of the Association from at least the beginning of 1964. Members were heavily involved in the social and infrastructure issues of Australind of the day. In particular, the environmental impact of Laporte Titanium Ltd’s plant was a major focus. As President, he publicly expressed concern with water and air pollution, and the odour emanating from Laporte, and the consequent impact to human health, and on Leschenault Estuary. The air quality issues directly impacted Fred and Pauline’s house and lives on Eastwell Road.[2] A newspaper article from January 1970 describes Fred’s concerns with Laporte’s impacts and his background.[3]
The Australind Tree Society appears to have been active since the mid-1960s, but it is not known when Fred joined the group. As the name implies, it promoted the planting and preservation of native trees. It appears from the plaque in the park that he was at one time President. An arboretum was planted at Mullewa during Fred’s tenure at the school there and would have benefitted from his involvement and interest.
In the early 1960s, Fred taught English to migrants resident at Australind.[4]
Fred’s key life events were:
BIRTH, 12 Aug 1889, Darling Point, New South Wales.
DEATH, 26 Apr 1974, Australind, Western Australia.
MARRIAGE 1, of 14 August 1916, to Lucy Ann Hilda (Hilda) Pearce.
(Hilda Pearce, BIRTH 5 Oct 1884, Ballarat, Victoria. DEATH, 1 May 1946, Pinjarra, Western Australia.)
MARRIAGE 2, of 1950 at Geraldton, Western Australia, to Pauline Hilda Berthold (BIRTH 1886, DEATH 4 June 1974 at Australind, Western Australia.)[5]
Fred was the oldest of several sisters and brothers, pictured at the end of this article standing in front of the family house with their parents in May 1914. The photograph was taken in Bridgetown, where his parents died in the 1950s. Pauline had a younger brother named (Herman) Francis, who when signing up as a soldier in 1915 gave his father’s address as Bridgetown. This makes it likely that Fred and Pauline first met in Bridgetown.
Fred’s occupation was Primary and High School teaching. This commenced with the 1917 school year at Wanneroo, and ceased at the end of the 1953 school year at Mullewa High School. It included many widespread postings in between.[6] At all of his postings, his position was given as Head Teacher, which indicates he was held in high regard professionally and had leadership capability. He was teaching at Pinjarra at the time of the death of his first wife Hilda. He did not teach at Australind or in the Shire of Harvey, with his nearest postings being at Capel (1933 to 1939), and Donnybrook (1947 and 1948).
Fred had good organization and leadership skills, as evidenced by the following newspaper article, written upon his leaving Mullewa school:
During his 5 years at the local school, Mr. White has worked untiringly to have numerous facilities provided and the school accommodation improved and it is due in no small manner to his efforts that such good facilities as those pertaining today are being enjoyed…[7]
The first formal record of Fred living at Australind, is on an Australian Electoral Roll (Supplemental Roll) record for 1954. A reference connecting Fred to Australind indicates he was there on long service leave in January 1954.[8] As no record exists of his teaching career continuing beyond 1953, it appears his long service leave continued straight into retirement.
The Eastwell Road house, where Fred and Pauline lived in the 1960s, was built of wood, and was surrounded by thick native vegetation that hid the house from view from the road.An Australind child recalled getting English school lessons from Fred, after school hours.[9]
Fred had an enquiring intellectual view of life that he liked to share with like-minded people. This is summed up by the following death notice for Fred:
A fond farewell to a great friend and teacher. From all members of the Railway Institute Cultural Club. The tracks that we together tried still wind o’er hill and plain. Still falls the diamond pointed dew, still falls the freshening rain. May there be birds among the trees, may there be blossoms blown across the road, that last long road, where you have gone …[10]
Pauline Berthold
As the dedication plaque highlights Pauline White (née Berthold) as well as Fred, some additional information about her is in order. Pauline’s father Paul Berthold (Emil Paul Herman, 1860 -5 February, 1933) was reportedly a well-known identity throughout the Goldfields area. He had been elected Mayor of Broad Arrow and Malcolm. He was living in Bridgetown when he became very unwell. Pauline or ‘Matron Berthold, of the Kununoppin hospital, ‘resigned her position to help convey her father to a Bunbury hospital’.[11]
Pauline had commenced her career as a trained nurse by at least 1927. She lived with Fred in Australind from at least 1958. Fred’s only child, Byron James (b.1917), was with his first wife Hilda, and he had left home by then.[12]
Pauline was a leader type and accomplished in her own right, so the Whites would have been considered a formidable couple. As Pauline Berthold, she had nursing experience in various towns in Western Australia and previously in Queensland. She was at one time Vice-president of the St. John’s Ambulance Association of Bunbury.[13] The following advertisement appeared in several WA country newspapers in 1933:
WAVERTREE PRIVATE HOSPITAL, 32 Spencer-street. Bunbury. For Chronic Diseases, Aged Patients and Nerve Cases. Large airy single rooms in pleasant surroundings. In charge SISTER BERTHOLD. A.T.N.A.[14]
The colourised photograph below shows Fred, his parents and siblings at Bridgetown in 1914, with Fred believed to be on the left.[15]
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[1] https://www.harveyhistoryonline.com/?p=5736
[2] January 1964- As President of the Australind Progress Association, Fred White writes to the Manager of Laporte Titanium to complain about noise from the Titanium plant. [1964 ‘Australind People Complain About Noise’, Harvey Murray Times, 24 January, p. 7, viewed 18 September 2025]
[3] 29 January 1970, ‘Residents complain about smog, smells and noise’, South Western Times.
[4] ‘I only got to know about him as he tutored a colleague’s wife in 1960 to 63 when he was at Australind’ Ian Stimson in post to Harvey History Online Facebook page in May 2025.
[5] Ancestry.com tree created by C. Bishop in May 2025.
[6] e.g. Career extracted in May 2025, from a database created by the Carnamah Historical Society, as sourced from ‘The Education Circular’ of the State Government of Western Australia. Also refer to the following newspaper article – 1953 ‘MR. AND MRS. WHITE FAREWELLED’, Greenough Sun (WA : 1947 – 1954), 24 December, p.2. , viewed 08 May 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article258904210
[7] 1953 ‘Mullewa Losing Headteacher White’, Greenough Sun (WA: 1947 – 1954), 17 December, p.1, viewed 29 Oct 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article258904038
[8] 1954 ‘CAR STRUCK BY BULLET’, Greenough Sun (WA : 1947 – 1954), 3 February, p. 2. , viewed 08 May 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article258904736
[9] 28 October 2025- Phone conversation. with Stan Clifton of Australind.
[10] 2 May 1974, ‘Deaths-Fred White’, South Western Times. The source of the potential quote, starting The tracks…could not be found.
[11] 1933 ‘Obituary’, Manjimup and Warren Times (WA : 1927 – 1954), 9 February, p. 2. , viewed 29 Oct 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article257249019
[12] ancestry.com tree created by C Bishop in May 2025.
[13] 1939 ‘A RUMOUR DENIED’, South Western Times (Bunbury, WA : 1932 – 1954), 29 September, p. 4. , viewed 29 Oct 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article253089595
[14] 1933 ‘Advertising’, Kalgoorlie Miner (WA : 1895 – 1954), 1 April, p. 7. , viewed 28 Sep 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article95024636 ATNA stands for the Australasian Trained Nurses’ Association.
[15] 1914 ‘MR. R. J. WHITE, A BRIDGETOWN SETTLER, AND HIS FAMILY.’, Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 – 1954), 15 May, p. 34. , viewed 09 Nov 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article37968999