Who is Mary Parker?

LIFE is as pleasant as it can be in her lofty perch above the lake. Though, when we paid her a visit, the water was low and the lake bed was parched, the sky was blue, the sun was bright and the birds were breaking into song. A hot day, king parrots and black cockatoos sought sanctuary in the cool under the shelter of her deck. And nearby, somewhere out of sight, a currawong chirruped its cheerful song. “He’s been coming here since he was just a baby,” Mary Parker smiled, her eyes lighting up with the warmth of one who has just seen an old friend after an extended period of absence. As she sipped her coffee surrounded by the rich timber of the house that she and her late husband built in 1984, life was as temperate and as pleasant as can be. One would be forgiven for thinking Mary Parker might have slipped into comfort and contentment, living a slow and simple life she enjoys so thoroughly. But Mary Parker is not content. For her family and her friends, for the people of Mansfield Shire and, ultimately, for herself. She wants better. And she will not be silenced until we all get it. The good news is, stories of her persuasive go back deep quite into the last century. “We spent time on the Lake in ‘79, we fell in love with it,” she told the Courier the story of how she came to live in Mansfield Shire. “We saw a plot of land for sale and I told Jim we just had to buy it. “He bought me an ice cream instead. “The entire trip back to Fawkner, our home at the time, he kept saying no. “But we came back the next weekend, we bought the plot and we built our home. “Life was slower here than in the city and simpler too. “There was less traffic and more peace. “We came to the lake and we never looked back.” And then there is the history of advocacy as evidenced by her fight against 'the pipeline'. "When they put it in, the lake water was at five per cent, we were in the middle of a drought. "There was no water, it was ridiculous. "We went on rallies, we took the bus to Spring Street with all the farmers. "We wrote letters that got into the national papers. "It was a lot of fun." Seventy-nine. That’s how many letters Mary Parker has sent to the Mansfield Courier since 2022. She has covered a broad spectrum of topics that, when stitched together, create an elaborate tapestry that tells a vivid tale of day to day life in Mansfield Shire in the 2020s. While the matters that Mary turns her attention to are varied, the articulate flair with which she expresses herself never does. In 2025, her contribution to the paper is near enough a constant and some weeks she sends in more than one letter. On the odd occasion that her letters do not feature, they are missed. A persistent rumour suggests that when an edition of the Courier was published without a Mary Parker letter, a high ranking local government official contacted the paper to find out where the letter was. She has a fanbase and it is growing. Her voice speaks for many and the passion and the acerbic critical thinking skills she writes with are hard to ignore. But who is Mary Parker and how did she come to master the letter to the editor? “I was schooled by nuns in Bentleigh," she said. “They taught me the English language and writing. “They were more than a bit strict, poor women - I feel sorry for them now.” Schooled by nuns. It paints an image of a bygone time but Mary Parker is anything but a relic. “I might be turning 89 this year but I'm not a decrepit old, lady, you know,” she said with a twinkle in her eyes. There is undoubtedly a good deal of life and mischief left in Mary Parker. “The new fire services levy…” she said, bringing up the Allan Labor Government’s proposed Fire Services and Volunteers Fund, the topic of her latest letter to the editor. “It is a rip-off.” "These farmers are trying to make a living in the dry with the threat of bushfires and the state government wants our council to take their money and send it down to Melbourne. “It’s unfair.” The first of the 79 letters came in 2022 as the result of a meeting with a property developer, who will remain nameless. “We were all sitting in the council offices on a frosty morning in August and he started telling us how good his high rise, three on a block, development would be. “‘What about our facilities, our infrastructure?’ people asked. “He wasn’t interested in any of that, he swept it under the carpet. “It’s just no good taking money out of the area and giving nothing back. “I feel very passionate about it because I can see where we're going. “Mansfield is growing, is anything going to be done about the town’s infrastructure? “I’ve had to put off going to the doctor because I cannot park at the hospital. “The district nurse comes out to see me, that is a great service for older people in the shire. “And you can get home help, which is good but they have to come from further afield as the service is not available in Mansfield. “They come from Wangaratta, that's an hour and 20 minutes plus the cost of fuel.” It was unsurprising that Mary mentioned in-home assistance to the elderly. Mary Parker knows what people in Mansfield Shire are talking about. The council’s decision to give away the responsibility of the service has been criticised upon the community’s online noticeboards. And though Mary knows of social media, it’s not where she draws her inspiration for her letters. Her method of keeping her finger on the pulse is through good old fashioned chatter amongst friends. “About 10 or 12 of us are in a walking group and we go for coffee together. “We used to walk but we are past all of that now. “So, instead we sit and we have coffee and talk. “I hear all about what’s going on.” Filled with ideas and inspiration, she can be selective about what her letters focus on. She says she stays away from politics and contentious matters, instead she chooses to look at what affects her in her day to day life and what affects those around her. Her next letter, she promises, will focus on Mansfield Shire’s lack of a heated swimming pool, matter often discussed by concerned ratepayers. “Winter has come and the outdoor pool is shut, where can people go? "Where is the heated pool we have been promised over and over." The young currawong keeps singing. The blue sky keeps shimmering. But there's an empty chair on the veranda. The indomitable Mary Parker keeps on keeping on.