Mackay’s Marge Johnston turns 100 after living a ‘tough life’

Marge Johnston lived through a world war, felt the effects of the stolen generation and raised her children from a tent in the Tasmanian winters before moving up to sunny North Queensland.

Marjorie Joan Johnston, born March 4 1924 is soon to celebrate her century.

On March 4, 100 years ago, a woman was born on a farm in Tasmania who would go on to meet with rock stars, pick fruit and settle in Mackay.

Marjorie ‘Marge’ Joan Johnston was born on March 4, 1924 to former WWI soldier and Tasmanian farmer Henry William Johnston.

Mr Johnston fought in France during the war and opted into the post-war ‘soldier settlement scheme’ which granted plots of land to returning servicemen.

“Dad was a good man,” Ms Johnston said.

“He was a good farmer too.”

Henry William Johnston served in the 40th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force in WWI and fought on the Western Front.

Mr Johnston was born with a secret however, despite his pale skin his mother was an Aboriginal woman.

“Grandfather had two farms and they had to hide her,” Ms Johnston reflects.

“She was a lovely old lady.”

Ms Johnston remembers visiting her grandmother frequently as a child, especially on Christmas, but also recalls the distance that her father and extended family would keep from her.

“They all had families and I reckon they might have thought their kids would be taken away.”

Ms Johnston grew up while the stolen generation was happening all around her — close to the hearts of many mixed race and Indigenous families.

“They never told us.”

Henry William Johnston and nine of his siblings were “white” but they had one sibling who was born with dark skin, she said.

“Dad was the third born and Jim was fourth was as black as that,” Ms Johnston said, tapping the black coffee table in front of her.

“But Dad and his siblings never took notice of that.”

Marge’s grandmother was named Joanna Everett, the family did not possess any photos of her.

‘Good clean living’ secret to long life

Marge became accustomed to an active lifestyle growing up on a farm and assisted in many farm chores including milking the cows.

Despite being “as good as anyone” at milking, she detested milk and never drank it, coffee, tea or alcohol.

Even though they weren’t ‘well-off’ Marge “never starved” as a child and lived a healthy lifestyle.

Marge recalls one day her father brought home his first car, a whippet car.

She fondly remembers him having to crank the vehicle from the front in order to start it and not so fondly remembers having to push the vehicle up hills.

“He wasn’t a very good driver”, she said, smiling.

Consequently Marge herself never owned a car or held a drivers license.

In Tasmania Marge married her first husband who would leave Marge and their two sons in a tent during the snowy Tasmanian winters while he went to the pub.

Eventually the couple moved to Melbourne where Marge’s first husband was hit and killed by a drunk driver.

The Easybeats were an Australian rock band which formed in Sydney in late 1964.

‘I done it tough’

Marjorie had her third child, Janelle Miller, in Melbourne where she became a cleaner for The Oslo Hotel in St Kilda.

Marge enjoyed visiting Melbourne and would go on to live there.

There she met Australian rock icons the Easybeats, who would play at the hotel.

Marjorie later followed a friend to North Queensland where she got a job picking tomatoes.

Her daughter Janelle joined her at work and was offered 50 cents for every ten boxes she could fill.

“Not that I ever saw that 50 cents,” Janelle recalls, laughing.

Marjorie’s second husband was a WWII veteran named John MacDonald.

He served in Papua New Guinea and was stationed in Japan during the occupation. He even kept a pet monkey, but was unable to bring it back to Australia.

One of Marge’s brothers had also served in the Second World War and had been a PoW on the Thai-Burma Railway.

“Dad never talked about his time in the first war,” Marge said.

“None of them ever used to talk about it.”

They would move to Mackay in the 1970s.

“I loved it,” Janelle said.

“We lived in a caravan in North Mackay and we moved around because Dad was a caretaker at a mine on Peak Downs.

“It was probably one of the best times of my life, being out in the middle of nowhere, cows everywhere.”

Marge doing some Christmas shopping in December 2023.

Reflecting on her 100 years of life Marge said that she’s “done it tough”.

Marge lived through difficult circumstances, raised three children without the support of a partner and performed “back breaking” labour on a fruit farm.

“It was pretty hard on the women back then,” Janelle said.

Despite her hardships, Marge has been a supportive influence on the people in her life sending visitors off with food and always offering to help.

“I love my mum to death,” Janelle said.

Happy 100th birthday to Marjorie Joan Johnston from the team at the Mackay Daily Mercury.