Dianne Wolfer, Soaring with the Sugarbird Lady, Fremantle Press, March 2025, 160 pp., RRP $17.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760995270
Dianne Wolfer is well known for her historical books set in World Wars I and II, including those based around the light horse regiments. Here she has written a biography about a woman whose name is not immediately familiar but who achieved an incredible amount in her short life.
Robin Miller was born into a talented family. Her father was a former pilot in World War I and the co-founder of MacRobertson Miller Airlines. Her mother was the writer Mary Durack. Robin loved her father’s planes and flying with him. However, women were not expected to be pilots in the 1950s so she trained as a nurse, hoping to work with the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
Encouraged by a friend, Robin paid for flying lessons and gained her private licence. She then earned a scholarship to pay for the training necessary to obtain her commercial licence. She talked the Western Australian Department of Health into allowing her to deliver and administer polio vaccines to regional and remote communities – something nurses could do which would free up doctors. They agreed if she provided her own plane! This is how Robin got her nickname because the Sabin vaccine was given in sugarcubes.
This informative middle-grade story educates young readers about a lesser-known Australian heroine who achieved a lot in preventing a polio epidemic in country Western Australia, as well as delivering first aid and medical help in a time when women were not supposed to fly. Unfortunately, she died of cancer at the age of only 35. She received several awards, including the 1970 Nancy Bird Award for outstanding Australian Woman Pilot and there is a plaque to her at Royal Perth Hospital.
Congratulations to Dianne Wolfer for bringing Robin Miller’s story to life in a well-written book for young readers.
Reviewed by Lynne Babbage
