Trailblazing aviator Robin ‘Sugarbird Lady’ Miller’s grave to be restored

The Lions Club of Broome is calling for donations to help them restore the Sugarbird Lady’s and her father’s gravesite at Broome Cemetery.

Robin Miller, also known as the Sugarbird Lady, earned her famous nickname name in the late ‘60s for flying solo across regional WA administering the polio vaccines to remote communities.

Local Aboriginal children dubbed her the Sugarbird Lady as she would swoop down from the skies in her aeroplane and deliver the oral polio vaccine on sugar cubes to hide its bitter taste.

Ms Miller died at the young age of 35 in 1975 following a short battle with cancer.

Her father Horrie Miller — who she is buried alongside — was also a pioneering aviator, having flown for the Australian Flying Corps in World War I as a fighter pilot and co-founding the now defunct MacRobertson Miller Airlines.

The father and daughter are buried at Broome Cemetery, alongside her siblings Julianna Rowney and Andrew Miller. Over the years the gravesite has deteriorated and is in need of some tender love and care.

Lions Club of Broome secretary Brian Pernich, who is leading the effort to restore the gravesite, said it was about honouring Ms Miller and her family’s legacy and making sure people can commemorate them for years to come.

“We think that is something that for the community, and the Miller’s deserve recognition. Cemeteries are about history, and that’s a piece of history that should be there that people can see,” he said.

The club has raised $22,000 of the estimated $31,000 needed to carry out the restoration works and is looking to local businesses, organisations and the broader community for donations to fill the gap.

Rio Tinto and the Broome International Airport have donated a combined total of $7000.

Mr Pernich said the club hoped to have the restoration completed as soon as possible.

“There’s probably a lot people in the local community who would also like to help, and we hope they would do, because we want to start the project very shortly,” he said.

Donations can be made to the project by contacting the Broome Lions Club.