Heather Bonner
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Heather Bonner (1923–2004) was an Australian Indigenous rights activist, the wife of the first Australian Indigenous Senator, Neville Bonner.
Heather Ray Trotter (later Bonner) was born on 3 September 1923 in Ipswich, Queensland, the daughter of Richard Trotter and his wife Lucinda. Her grandfather Hugh Sinclair had been a Queensland politician and Manager of the Queensland Farmers Cooperative Association Factory in Booval. She attended Silkstone State School and Ipswich Girls Grammar School. She worked as a book keeper in the Brisbane Markets in Roma Street, Brisbane after she completed her schooling and was active in the Ipswich Scouting movement.
War service and war bride
In 1942, Heather Trotter joined the Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS).[1][2] She served as a Confidential Secretary to General Durrant in the army's Victoria Barracks. She married USN Petty Officer Robert Harrison in 1944[3] and sailed as a war bride[4] to California where their daughter was born. The family moved to naval bases in Florida where her husband died following a car accident. She married another naval officer, David Ryan some years later and their two children were born. After suffering from spousal abuse, Heather divorced her husband and she and her children left Florida and they returned to Australia in 1957 to live with her father. She had become close friends with a couple who were First Nation Americans while she lived in Washington state.[5]