Rachel Cleland

Rachel Cleland

Dame Rachel Cleland, DBE (19 January 1906 – 18 April 2002), born Rachel Evans, was an Australian expatriate community and social welfare worker in Papua New Guinea.

Born in Perth, Australia in 1906, the eldest of six children, Rachel Cleland lived an active life which was centred around politics and community organisations. She was a niece of the West Australian feminist, Bessie Wishworth

Rachel Cleland's background and her later training and work as a kindergarten teacher stood her in good stead for the expatriate life she eventually embarked on in Papua New Guinea. Her husband, Sir Donald Cleland, was Administrator of Papua New Guinea from 1951 until 1966. Donald Cleland was one of the founding members of the Australian Liberal Party.

Rachel Cleland contributed to organisations such as the Red Cross, Girl Guides Association of Papua New Guinea, Country Women's Association, and Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) as well as the integral role she played in establishing pre-schools throughout Papua New Guinea. Sir Donald died in 1975, two weeks before Papua New Guinea's independence ceremonies. Rachel stayed for a further three years before eventually returning to Australia.

In her later years Dame Rachel was very vocal on her opposition to the logging of old-growth forests.

By then she had lived in Papua New Guinea for 27 years. She continued to make trips from Australia to Papua New Guinea for almost the rest of her life, making a total of eight visits between 1979 and 2000.