Ma Dalley
1954 - Mayor of Kew
Born
Minnie May Fimmel

4 June 1880
Minyip
Died8 May 1965
Kew
NationalityAustralian
Other namesMarie Dalley
Occupation(s)businessperson and mayor
PredecessorA S G Stevens
SpouseJohn Moroney
Childrentwo

Marie Dalley known as Ma Dalley born as Minnie May Fimmel (1880 – 1965) was an Australian businesswoman, philanthropist and mayor.

Life

Dalley was born in 1880 in Victoria state in Minyip. She was named Minnie May Fimmel by her parents Matilda (born Baum) and Carl Heinrich Fimmel. They had both been born in Germany.[1]

She married John Thomas Francis Moroney in 1897 and she had two daughters, Ida and Clare Josephine. She reinvented herself as Marie Dalley[1] and she was a widow.[2] She worked hard for long hours to gather enough money to become a businessperson. In 1905 she had two jobs. She was employed to pack tea during the day and at other times Dalley was making bags. For every thousand bags she made she was paid fourpence.[1] One of her early business deals was to make £50 buying fire damaged mouth organs and from each of these she then extracted a small piece of valuable lead.[2] She repaired fire damaged chairs and after she sold the first six she was in profit with 294 chairs still to sell.[1] Dalley owned a hardware business by 1914 on Elizabeth Street in Melbourne subject to a small loan.[1]

The business she was most associated with, was scrap metal dealing. In 1925 she established the company at Bedford Street in North Melbourne. She covered her three acres of land with a chaotic mixture of old equipment and second hand hardware which she bought and sold. M. Dalley & Co. Pty Ltd became one of the leading scrap dealers in Australia.[1] Others benefitted from her business, the industrialist, Ralph McKay, bought a boiler from her[3] and John Derham bought a lot of used machinery[4] which enabled him to start the State of Victoria's first plastic company, Australian Moulding Corporation Pty Ltd, in 1927.[5] The Visy company was also launched with a corrugating machine made from equipent sourced from Dalley's yard in the 1940s.[6]

During the 1940s food was rationed in Britain. Dalley became involved in several initiatives. She was buying unripe fruit and vegetables which was then stored after its temperature was lowered. This allowed the fruit to be ripened to order for canning. By 1946 she was exporting the frozen meat of 20,000 lambs to the United Kingdom, she bought a farm and she was also involved in the manufacture of margarine.[1]

Dalley was painted by James William Govett after she elected to be the mayor of Kew in 1954.[7] Kew had a mayor for 94 years before she was elected, but she was the first woman.[2] Money was set aside to celebrate her election but Dalley instructed that the money should be given to Kew's St George’s Hospital. Dalley later made a personal donation to the hospital of £250,000.[7]

Dalley died in Kew in 1965. Her archives are held by the State of Victoria.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Morris, Deirdre, "Clare Josephine Cascarret (1902–1977)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2023-11-17
  2. 1 2 3 "New Setting for Kew Mayoral Chain". The Age via Trove. 1954-09-02. Retrieved 2023-11-17.
  3. ↑ Kerville, D.; Lack, John, "Ralph McKay (1885–1959)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2023-11-17
  4. ↑ Centre, Australian Science and Technology Heritage. "Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Chapter 9, page 662". ISBN 0908029497. Retrieved 2023-11-17.
  5. ↑ Carroll, Brian, "Frederick John Walcott (Jack) Derham (1900–1953)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2023-11-17
  6. ↑ Kirby, James; Myer, Rod (2011-01-19). Richard Pratt: One Out of the Box: The Secrets of an Australian Billionaire. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-7303-7612-5.
  7. 1 2 "Painting, James Govett, Cr Marie Dalley : Mayor of Kew, 1954". Victorian Collections. Retrieved 2023-11-17.
  8. ↑ "Archive (Sub-series) - Subject File, DALLEY, Marie (1880-1965) & CASCARRET, Clare, 1958". Victorian Collections. Retrieved 2023-11-17.


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