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8 - Cooroy Rag, 20 October 2021
O Sh PE o w PU N T ro B O om LI T C HE
In addition to over 100 models in our Double Sided, Domestic Mattress Range we also have Ensemble Bases, and Adjustable Bed Bases that include a massage feature as well
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Remembering former Cooroy Rag owner, Margaret Chinn OVER its 60 years of publishing, the Cooroy Rag has had other names and many owners. But one of the most memorable is Margaret Chinn. A formidable character, Margaret was well-known for going above and beyond for the community she loved, right up until the day she sadly passed away after battling cancer. The Cooroy Rag spoke to Margaret’s daughter Marianne White, about Margaret and her time as owner of The Review / Cooroy Rag from 1984-1996. “Mum was great at shorthand and she used this skill to find work as she was a single mum with four young children in Sydney. "Later, she married again to Michael Chinn, a Master Mariner from Yorkshire, and after they moved to Cooroy, Mum did a stint at The Review - and bought it not long after.” During her ownership, Margaret renamed The Review as the Cooroy Rag during the early 90s. “Mum was a force of nature. "She would work so hard and never rest enough. "There were not enough hours in the day. "She wanted to be involved in the community she loved so much. “She would prepare the paper with all her gathered stories, cut and paste and then drive to Gympie to the printers - then gather all the paper bundles and drive literally, all around the area, delivering them out. “I worked with Mum on the Review / Rag when I lived with her for nine months with my 18-month-old after returning from Devon in the UK. It wore me out.” Marianne said after returning from the UK, bizarrely she didn’t exist in the Australian Government’s
Margaret Chinn purchased The Review in 1984 and later changed the name of the paper back to the Cooroy Rag. Photographer: Ian Murray. Courtesy of Noosa Council Heritage. Noosa.
system. “Mum helped me prove who I was as my Australian passport had just run out and I wanted my husband to follow me out from England. “Apparently, I didn’t exist, which was so bizarre. "After nine months of drama, Mum wrote to Bob Hawke (former Prime Minister of Australia), who sorted it straight away. She was funny and fearless really.” As well as the Rag, Margaret grew strawberries in Eumundi and was involved in several volunteer organisations. “I remember she organised an SES training session once, and it was a mock fire rescue from a train carriage with pretend dead and wounded. "My son and I were rescued from the roof of the carriage and one man (missing his hand in real life) was dressed with makeup as though he had lost it. My son found it so exciting. “She loved the Volunteer Coast Guard. Her Coast Guard pals called her “teabag” because they rescued
her once from a line from a helicopter. That was crazy but lucky. “Mum was always a super strong swimmer. She and her twin sister, Barbara, who still lives in Sydney, were both born with issues. Mum had diphtheria and Barbara had polio, so Grandma used to take them swimming as therapy. They both recovered to become very strong, healthy women. “Mum also joined in Clean Up Australia only two weeks before she passed away.” Margaret battled cancer on and off during her time as owner of the Rag, even having chemo from the local doctor at home and then going in to work on the paper. She sadly passed away in 2000, the same year Judy Painter and Deb Boyle restarted the Cooroy Rag as the community-owned newspaper that it is today. Margaret donated all of her Cooroy Rag photographs from 1984-1996 to the Cooroy-Noosa Genealogical & Historical Research Group Inc. in Emerald Street where they can be viewed.
