Patricia Adam-Smith OBE AO

Awarded for services to cultural heritage; literature

Born: 31 May 1924 in Melbourne
Died: 20 September 2001

Entered on roll: 2023

"Prolific author and adventurer"

Author Patricia (Patsy) Adam-Smith craved adventure and helped preserve and record community history, national traditions, folklore, and oral histories.

During World War Two, Patsy, aged 16, joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment as a nurse with the Australian Army First Orthopaedic Unit. She was posted to Queensland where she met her Tasmanian husband, who was medically discharged in 1944. The couple moved to Ulverstone when Patsy was 19.

Patsy’s chance for adventure came through an encounter, at Ulverstone wharf, with Captain McCarthy who had just returned from a mutton birding trip in the Furneaux Islands

in Bass Strait. Patsy then wrote to the editor of the Australia Magazine telling him that she was “going to write about the most exciting place in the world, the last frontier”. Patsy’s letter was obviously persuasive as she received air tickets, expenses, and a photographer.

Patsy was also approached by the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) to become a stringer from 1952-1955 reporting on northern Tasmania and writing articles for magazines.

Patsy’s life of adventure included working on the ketches Sheerwater and the Naracoopa. The books Moonbird people (1965) and There was a ship (1967) are narratives of her adventures aboard the Tasmanian small ketches that worked the coastline, often in hazardous conditions. During this time, Patsy became the first woman in Tasmania to gain a Radio Operator’s Certificate.

Patsy’s unique vernacular style recorded Tasmanian history. In 1968 Tiger Country was published about pioneering Tasmanian piners, miners, lighthouse keepers and fisher folk.

Patsy went on to write over 30 books. The ANZACs, shared the 1978 Age Book of the Year Award and was made into a popular television series.

While living in Tasmania, Patsy worked in Hobart for the Adult Education Office from 1960-1967 and travelled to King Island in 1966 to provide lectures during Book Week.

Patsy returned to Victoria in 1970 having contributed significantly to recording Tasmanian history through her books and collaborative works with artists such as Max Angus.