Ethel Wilson, nee Wilkinson, was born at Coomandook, the fifth of eight children. Ethel's mother was an untrained midwife. Her father, a shearer and labourer, took the family to Bordertown in about 1915 and then in about 1924 went on to the land at Yumali. However the first venture, a share farm, soon failed and the second could not support the family as the poor seasons of the 1920s continued. Ethel began school at Bordertown, continued at Coomandook and finished at Coonalpyn (travelling to school on the passing goods or passenger trains). After getting her QC Ethel stayed at home to help her mother for about two years until the family moved to Murray Bridge in about 1929 where Ethel began domestic work. Later in 1930s the family lived on Hindmarsh Island where Ethel's brothers had a stone-crushing contract and the women ran a boarding house for barrage labourers. Mrs Wilson married in 1940 and had four children.

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