Marie Elizabeth Josephine PittPrint Page

The plaque commemorates the birth of Marie Elizabeth Josephine Pitt (1869 - 1948), who was a journalist and poet. 

Marie Pitt was born in the gold-mining town of Bullumwaal in Gippsland region of the Australian state of Victoria, north of the town of Bairnsdale. Her early childhood was mostly spent in Wy Yung, a tiny settlement near Bairnsdale, where she laboured on her parents' "selection" or small farm. After failing to qualify as a teacher she found work in Bairnsdale as a photographic retoucher in 1887. 

Marie Elizabeth Josephine Pitt was an Australian poet and socialist activist, also journalist and Unitarian. Pitt wrote very highly coloured nature poetry, once much anthologised; and also wrote poetry in support of the socialist and labour movements. Marie Pitt was the companion of fellow poet and socialist Bernard O'Dowd. Pitt won the Australian Broadcasting Commission national song writing competition in 1944 with her entry Ave, Australia.

Mrs Marie Elizabeth Josephine Pitt, of Clarke st, Northcote, writer of many lyrics and ballads of the bush, in which she spent many years of her life, died in a private hospital yesterday, aged 78. She was the daughter of pioneers of Bulumwaal district, near Bairnsdale. Early this month a commemorative plaque was unveiled in Bairnsdale Mechanics' Hall. Perhaps her greatest achievement was to win the Good Words (English) competition for A Song of Empire in 1902. She published three volumes of poems, the first, entitled Horses of the Hills, in 1911, a second in 1925, and the third, Selected Poems, more recently.
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic), 21 May 1948. 

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