The Sugarbird Lady: Famous RFDS nurse’s restored plane to land in Broome

As WA battled a polio outbreak in the late 1960s, Robin Miller-Dicks took to the skies, flying solo across the North West to deliver thousands of vaccines to remote communities, helping eradicate the disease.

To disguise the bitter taste, she handed each child a sugar cube with the vaccine, earning her the name the Sugarbird Lady.

Now, nearly 50 years after her premature death, the plane she once flew is being restored and is set to land in Broome on August 14.

Although the polio vaccine had been available for over a decade in 1967, administering it in remote communities in WA’s North West had become a major challenge for the WA Government.

Armed with her newly obtained commercial pilot’s licence and a bold idea, 27-year-old Miller-Dicks went to the Health Department with an extraordinary offer they couldn’t refuse — she would fly her personal plane solo, administering the vaccine to remote communities.

Borrowing the money to buy a second-hand Cessna 182, Ms Miller-Dicks then spent the next two years flying around the Kimberley and Pilbara doing exactly as she promised — administering more than 37,000 doses of the life-saving drug entirely by herself.

“You keep long hours, eat any time, and land on some pretty rocky old strips, but I love the work,” she told Australian Women’s Weekly in September 1967.

“I always wear slacks or a dress. If I appear in a white uniform and veil, the children get frightened and think I’m going to hurt them. It’s hopeless, anyway, trying to keep a white uniform clean with all that red dust about.”

After completing the immunisation program in 1969 and with more than 69,200 air kilometres of experience under her belt, Ms Miller-Dicks was offered a position with the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

But the Sugarbird Lady’s story doesn’t end there, with the pioneer servicing the region for years to come.

One remarkable account of her daring endeavours involves Ms Miller-Dicks delivered a baby — once again single-handed — in mid-air between the Great Sandy Desert and Marble Bar.

“We weren’t in the air for more than a quarter of an hour when there was a shrill scream from the rear seat. I looked around and there was the baby’s head already showing,” she told Walkabout magazine in July 1972.

“I set the Baron on to automatic pilot, grabbed linen and plastic sheets, and a few other things, tilted back the rear seat, and prepared the frightened little girl for delivery.”

Another time she flew a plane from Paris to Perth but was jailed in Saudi Arabia and put under armed guard for violating the country’s air space.

“The main reason they gaoled us was that I was a woman pilot, something hitherto unheard of in their country. Highly suspicious, they thought. Also, my naked body didn’t help, either,” she told Walkabout of that madcap adventure.

According to Ms Miller-Dicks, her choice of attire, a mini-skirt, was the equivalent of wearing a birthday suit to the Saudis.

“Consequently, I was not even to be looked upon by their women, who really cover themselves.”

After spending three nights locked up, the group she was with was given the all clear to leave the country. But she was then told the Emir wanted her for his personal harem.

“Tell him to go to hell,” she was reported to say by Walkabout.

Luckily, it was just a distasteful April Fool’s joke and Ms Miller-Dicks was allowed to leave and return to Perth.

In 1971 she published her autobiography, Flying Nurse, detailing her trailblazing career up to that point.

In 1973 she finished sixth in the famous transcontinental Powder Puff Derby women’s air race in the United States, after marrying Harold Dicks, with whom she worked with at the RFDS, earlier that year.

She also won numerous awards and accolades throughout her life, receiving the Nancy Bird (Walton) award as Australia’s woman pilot of the year in 1970 and a diploma of merit by the Associazione Nazionale Infermieri in Italy in 1969.

But Ms Miller-Dicks’ incredible and service-driven life was cut short in 1975 by cancer at just 35.

She was buried in Broome where she spent her early schooldays and where her parents — author Mary Durack and aviator Horrie Miller — had a winter home.

In 1976, she was posthumously awarded the Paul Tissandier diploma by the Fédération Aeronautique Internationale and the Brabazon cup by the Women Pilots’ Association of Great Britain.

The Beech Baron aircraft that Ms Miller-Dicks flew with the RFDS is now being restored at the Aviation Heritage Museum by volunteers Brian Jones and Clive Green and is due to fly in to Broome on August 14.

The Broome Lions Club will do a wreath-laying at Ms Miller-Dicks gravesite the following day.

Even though Ms Miller-Dicks died 50 years ago, her legacy can still be felt throughout the State.

This year the inaugural Sugarbird Lady award will be presented to a nursing student at Notre Dame Broome Campus who intends to undertake placement in the Kimberley and Pilbara.

There is another award in her name, the Robin Miller award for nursing students at Notre Dame in Fremantle who intend to undertake placement with the RFDS.

Displays commemorating Ms Miller-Dicks’ work can also be found across the State including at Jandakot Airport, Perth Airport, Royal Perth Hospital’s memorial room, the WA State Museum and the Aviation Heritage Museum.

In April, award-winning WA author Dianne Wolfer also published a book on Ms Miller-Dicks’ exploits, titled, Soaring with the Sugarbird Lady.

“Robin Miller Dicks was a trailblazer who dedicated her life to the service of others and her remarkable achievements deserve to be honoured,” RFDS WA director of community relations Rebecca Maddern said.

“As a nurse and pilot, she made 450 visits to remote towns and communities in the Kimberley to administer more than 37,000 polio vaccine doses on sugar cubes.”

“Robin’s legacy lives on in the primary health programs that continue to be delivered by the RFDS in regional WA.”

Ms Miller-Dicks is remembered not only as the Sugarbird Lady but as a pioneer for women in Australian aviation.

“I feel I am one of the few lucky females in the world who enjoys doing her job. I like flying, and it’s something to know that I’m also doing a worthwhile job . . . It’s my whole life,” she told Walkabout magazine in 1972.

The Sugarbird Lady is long gone, but her legacy is still flying high.