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Roads on the Eyre
Peninsula were little more than horse tracks before World War II, not particularly suited to a motor bus of the time. Birdseye had a reputation for driving skill and toughness. She wore overalls, changed her own tyres, performed most of the maintenance and repairs and waded creek
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bus. She found that driving the buses was more appealing than office work after learning to drive with Alfred's daughter Gladys. Three years later she obtained a licence to drive a passenger vehicle, the first woman in South
Australia to do so. On 23 October 1923, she married Alfred's son Sydney
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crossings to ensure the bus could cross safely. Sylvia continued to operate the service after her husband's death in 1954, and was preparing for a service to Port
Lincoln when she suffered a stroke in 1962, and died the next day. The
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Alick
Birdseye, her first dancing partner in Port Augusta. After his father sold the Mannum service in 1926, Sydney and Sylvia began a bus service between Adelaide and Port Augusta. They later extended services to
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on 26 January 1902. She was the daughter of
Charles De Witt and Elizabeth Ann Merrill. Her father was a station-hand. She moved to
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is named in her honour. It was the first highway in South
Australia to be named for a woman.
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105:Operating the first overland bus service to the
247:"Birdseye, Sylvia Jessie Catherine (1902–1962)"
178:in 1921 to work in the office of family friend
153:Sylvia Jessie Catherine Birdseye (née Merrill)
408:20th-century Australian women public servants
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255:. Canberra: National Centre of Biography,
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218:In 1946, her bus became bogged south of
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366:National Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame
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358:"BIRDSEYE, Sylvia Jessie Catherine"
252:Australian Dictionary of Biography
207:across the Eyre Peninsula between
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304:"Birdseye Highway & Memorial"
27:Australian bus driver (1902–1962)
337:History Trust of South Australia
18:Sylvia Jessie Catherine Birdseye
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46:Sylvia Jessie Catherine Merrill
257:Australian National University
170:Sylvia Merrill was born near
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135:; died 1954)
393:People from South Australia
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327:Bolognese, Michelangelo.
329:"Sylvia Birdseye"
266:978-0-522-84459-7
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369:. Retrieved
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189:Port Lincoln
172:Port Augusta
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73:(1962-08-09)
61:Port Augusta
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413:Bus drivers
403:1962 deaths
398:1902 births
193:Streaky Bay
387:Categories
226:References
89:Bus driver
86:Occupation
52:1902-01-26
275:1833-7538
167:in 1928.
97:1928–1962
79:Woodville
283:70677943
245:(1993).
213:Elliston
176:Adelaide
163:and the
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220:Whyalla
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279:OCLC
271:ISSN
261:ISBN
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68:Died
42:Born
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