Marie Byles

20th century Australian lawyer, explorer and conservationist

Marie Beuzeville Byles (8 April 1900 – 21 November 1979) was an Australian conservationist, pacifist, the first practising female solicitor in New South Wales (NSW), mountaineer, explorer and avid bushwalker, feminist, journalist, and an original member of the Buddhist Society in New South Wales. She was also a travel and non fiction writer. in Ashton upon Mersey in what was then Cheshire, England, to progressive minded parents. Her younger brothers were David John Byles and Baldur Unwin Byles (1904–1975). Her parents were Unitarian Universalists, Fabian socialists and pacifists. Her mother Ida Margaret, née Unwin, In England he involved his children in campaigns against fences that prevented public access for recreational walks. In 1932 she joined The Women's Club, which was created in Sydney in 1901 to provide a place where women "interested in public, professional, scientific and artistic work" could meet. Byles was raised as a strict vegetarian by her mother, and in 1957 commented that she had never eaten meat.

Byles was one of a small number of women to attend the University of Sydney. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1921 and in 1924 she completed a Bachelor of Laws degree and became the first woman to be admitted as a solicitor in New South Wales. Although Ada Evans had graduated in law in 1902, it had been illegal for a woman to practise law in Australia until 1918. After clerking for four years, in 1929 Byles set up a legal practice, the first woman to do so in New South Wales. Byles operated two law practices – one in Eastwood and the other in the central Sydney. She worked mainly on conveyancing and probate, and also to ensure just divorce settlements for female clients. From 1927 to 1936 she had the position of legal correspondent for the Australian Women's Mirror. She wrote articles against women changing their name on marriage, so as to protect their financial assets. As legal correspondent she brought attention to laws and court practices that discriminated against women. Over the next five years, with the support of the Federation of Sydney Bushwalkers Clubs, Byles successfully campaigned in the press for the area to be placed under public ownership. The creation of Bouddi Natural Park in 1935 was a landmark achievement for the early conservationists. The Lands Department set aside an even larger area than Byles had proposed.

In 1927–28, Byles had saved enough money from working for four years as a law clerk to take a year off to travel. Over the following years Byles spent a year in India, including the Himalayas, and made three trips to Burma and two trips to Japan. In 1960 she formed a meditation group, inviting interested people from any religion or none to meet on Saturday afternoons to study meditation techniques. She named it 'Ahimsa' after the term used by Gandhi meaning "harmlessness". The four room simple cottage is built of fibro and sandstone, and the large north facing verandah is primarily where Byles slept and lived in preference to the interior rooms. In addition to the house, she wanted to have a place on her land for groups to meet for discussions and meditation. By 1949, the 'Hut of Happy Omen' was complete, designed as an open sleepout with bunks and a large sandstone fireplace. She had another small house built next to 'Ahimsa' in 1975, called 'Sentosa' (a Malay language word meaning peace and tranquility). In 1970 Byles bequeathed her property to The National Trust of Australia (NSW), which she had helped in 1946 when she was the consulting solicitor who drafted the organisation's constitution. Her papers (1923–1982) are held in the State Library of New South Wales. Byles Creek near her home is named in her honour, as are Byles Place, in the Canberra suburb of Chisholm, and the Marie Byles Lookout in Killcare Heights, N. S. W.