Healey, Kara Moana   (1904 - 2006)

She was born Kara Moana Elizabeth Vernon on 23 June 1904 in Kawhia, New Zealand;
she died on 10 June 2006 at Cobden, formerly of Yarram, Victoria (aged 101).

Kara Moana was named after a Maori nurse present at Kara's birth (it is said to mean 'Rippling Waters').

Kara's parents, William John Vernon (a Boiler Maker) and Mary Vernon (née Dunstone), were Australians working in New Zealand on a saw mill project. In 1906, they moved back to Australia and settled in Mysia, north-west of Bendigo.

After an unsuccessful first marriage, in 1948 she married Jim Healey.

Jim was the park ranger for Tarra Valley National Park and lived in a small rough cottage then on the edge of the park, perched high on a spur overlooking gullies of giant ferns and old growth forest.

Jim was a kind and gentle man and his sudden death three years later in 1952 was a sad blow for Kara. Not wishing to leave the place she later described as the 'love of her life', she took on the role of park ranger and was the first woman in Victoria to be appointed to such a position. PHOTO

Kara Healey's contribution to mainstream scientific research started when she responded to an advertisement placed by the CSIRO seeking out voluntary collectors of fungi across Australia to aid them in their research work.

Of the 150 or so collectors who joined the program, Kara was later remembered as being "easily the best", sending in a constant and abundant stream of samples allied to the names of the trees or bushes from which they were taken.

By 1961 she had collected 160 types of toadstool and over 80 types of moss.

In 1954 her scientific immortality was assured when she discovered two unknown fungi both of which were then named after her. These are: Poria healeyi and Lambertella healeyi. Though the fungal world may have been her main passion, Kara's interests extended across all aspects of the park's wildlife.

Whilst collecting, Kara created pencil sketches and pastel drawings of the specimens. She also took numerous photos of fungi, ferns, and other plants thriving within the park. Kara's collections and displays have since been donated to Parks Victoria.

Her time as the park ranger came to an end when she married again in 1963 (to Tom McKean, a widower who died in 1986) and moved to Yarram. She turned down lucrative offers from timber companies wishing to buy her 46 ha home and sold it to the Bird Observers Club 'for a song' in order that it be eventually donated to the park.

In 1995 she became a resident of the Heytesbury Lodge nursing home at Cobden.

She died at Cobden 13 days before her 102nd birthday.

Source: Extracted from:
https://friendsoftarrabulga.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/tribute.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara_Moana_Healey
The Ryerson Index, McKEAN, Kara Moana Elizabeth (Kiri)
Portrait Photo: 1950's preparing specimens
https://www.parks.vic.gov.au/news/2022/03/02/22/53/meet-victorias-first-female-park-ranger
(Source: Friends of Tarra-Bulga National Park)