Kara Moana Healey

Kara died 13 days short of her 102nd birthday. A service was held in Yarram attended by hundreds of people including members from Parks Victoria including Craig Campbell, the current Ranger at Tarra Valley, who spoke to the congregation.

Milestone birthdays were celebrated with her family, including her 100th birthday, at Timboon, which was attended by over 100 friends and family.

In 2007 a special ceremony was held at Tarra Valley Park, now part of Tarra-Bulga National Park, as part of the centennial celebrations, to unveil a special tribute to the first woman park ranger and the contribution she made to the understanding of the ecology of the valley known as Tarra Valley.

In 1995 Kara became a resident of the Heytesbury Lodge nursing home at Cobden which was close to other members of the family.

In 1963, Kara married Tom McKean, a widower. They made residence Yarram. Kara continued her contact with an active role with the Red Cross, the Yarram Hospital and the Save the Children’s fund. Tom McKean died in 1986.

Over ten years Kara collected specimens. Exploring, alone, deep into the Tarra Valley vegetation and frequently into dangerous areas where the best-unspoilt specimens were and the egg laying nests of the lyrebird could be found. Kara became one with the natural environment around her. By 1961 Kara had collected over 160 specimens which included types of toadstool and fungi. Significantly, two new types of fungi were named after her – Poria healeyi and Lambertella healeyi. Poria healeyi, which was a previously unidentified fungus causing yellow straw rot in Mountain Ash, and the second, Lambertella healeyi was a fungus growing on another fungus. Further, Kara collected animal and insect specimens using dead animals that she found and forwarded those as well. In total over 500 specimens were collected which also included 80 species of moss. Subsequently Tarra Valley is the most thoroughly studied and recorded area in Australia at the time.

Kara sought work at the Yarram Hospital as a cook. After some time Kara met Jim Healey, the caretaker at Tarra Valley National Park. Kara and Jim Healey married in 1948. Jim Healey died in 1952

Kara was awarded a certificate of merit for outstanding support by the Save the Children Australia. Her daughters attended with her in a special ceremony held in Melbourne 30/11/1995. Kara was always keen to raise money for and support charities that helped the less fortunate such as Save the Children Fund, the Red Cross and The Yarram Hospital .

Kara was awarded a scholarship to attend Bendigo High School. After finishing school Kara became a teacher’s assistant at Stuart Mill State School near St Arnaud, Victoria until she met and married William Stanley McGreevy (known as Stan) in 1925. Stan joined the army at the outbreak of World War 2. Stan served four years in the army and saw action in the Middle East. Stan was affected by his war experiences and declining health, Stan returned to Melbourne and the couple divorced in 1946.

Kara’s family (William John Vernon and Mary Vernon née Dunstone) were Australian and had moved to New Zealand for a few years for work. Her father was a blacksmith, however was in New Zealand working for the Timber industry installing boilers to power saw mills. Two years after Kara’s birth the family returned to Australia (1906) and settled in Mysia, north west of Bendigo.

Kara Moana Healey (23 June 1904 – 10 June 2006) was a field collector, conservationist, preservationist and naturalist and the first female National Park Ranger in Victoria, Australia.