Mary Maguire

With her inquisitive nature, flair for performance and strong sense of community, Mary Maguire was perfectly placed to become Broken Hill’s first female journalist and broadcaster. 

Born in Broken Hill in 1924, Mary Maguire was the second daughter to an English migrant father and locally born mother. Her father worked in the mines as a winder driver, operating the mechanism that hauls the ore up mining shafts from underground. Mary and her older sister Grace attended Morgan Street Primary School and North Broken Hill Primary School, then Broken Hill High School.  

Mary’s first job, which paid ten shillings a week, was delivering goods from Mr Dry’s grocery store on her bicycle. Mary’s bicycle delivery service had many customers and took her to every part of the town. She soon discovered that she lived in a unique and diverse community of many nationalities and backgrounds. 

Mary and Grace were both keen on amateur dramatics and loved the theatre. They joined the Broken Hill Repertory Society which was under the direction of Victor A. Bindley, the Australian writer and director, best known for his film 'The Devils’ Playground'. Bindley had recently moved from Sydney to Broken Hill, where he stayed until the end of his life. This formative experience would eventually lead to Mary Maguire’s later career in radio.  

Mary’s second job was working as a shop assistant for Wendt's Jewellers on Argent Street, which allowed her to later move to Adelaide where she continued to work for Wendt’s whilst becoming involved in the Adelaide theatre scene. Here she met and was tutored by the Australian actor and ABC radio presenter Jack Hume, which led to her being cast in several ABC Adelaide radio productions. 

On a holiday trip home in the late 1940s, Mary met her future husband and returned to live in Broken Hill where she soon began her career in local radio. Mary Maguire was one of the first women presenters at the ABC Local Radio Broken Hill. She presented and worked on many and varied programs for the 30 years that she was with the ABC. Amongst these were West Darling Magazine and the Silver City Interlude. On the Today program she interviewed high profile visitors to Broken Hill, residents, and members of local communities. She sourced regional and human interest stories for ABC Radio National and produced a Broken Hill segment for the women's program. But in Broken Hill she was perhaps best remembered as the voice of the 1950s current affairs program Coffee Break 

From 1982 she presented A Touch of Silver at 2NB in Broken Hill, focusing on issues relating to elderly citizens. Mary Maguire’s commitment and service to the Broken Hill community did not waver from her first job delivering groceries on her bicycle until, after a long illness, she died in 2011. 

Audio transcript available.