By Ashley Blair
Early life and travels, start of the world tour.
The first of a six-part series recounting the incredible story of the New Zealand midwife who rode a 150cc Bantam Major around the world alone.
Homemade panniers, homemade sleeping bag, no stove, no tent (but a groundsheet), slept under the stars (except in India and Sri Lanka) no helmet, rode in a tweed skirt and travelled through 32 countries covering 54,000 miles.
Joy McKean had an unconventional childhood on a farm at Rangiwahia 40 miles north of Feilding in the Manawatu, New Zealand. Her mother had no medicine in the house and neither she nor her children ever visited a doctor but there was an extensive library of nature cures in the house. Raw food was the basis of their health and Joy became a life-long vegetarian. Her real name was Naomi Margaret McKean but she was, “Always called Joy because I was a joy compared to my overactive brother”.
Joy had what she later called “haphazard schooling” with only three years formal education from age 14 when she was a boarder at the Seventh Day Adventist School at Longburn. There she had a good grounding in English, anatomy, physiology and music but missed out on mathematics and science.
At 18 Joy left New Zealand with a round-the-world ticket from her mother. Her older brother Rawhiti accompanied her as they visited relatives in the United States and Canada before arriving at Southampton on the Empress of Britain in September 1937. The Second World War meant she could not travel further and in 1941 she began four years nursing training at University College Hospital, London enduring the Blitz in the process. On 23 June 1944 she became a State Registered Nurse before qualifying as a midwife at Simpson Memorial Hospital, Edinburgh. During her training in London Joy bought a Rudge-Whitworth bicycle for five pounds nineteen shillings and six pence and used this to explore much of the United Kingdom and Ireland. She rode from Edinburgh to London through snow to take up a job as a District Midwife at Plaistow Maternity Hospital in East London, a very challenging area to work in following the war.
Joy McKean cycled 18,000 miles in the UK, Australia and New Zealand before she bought a D1 Bantam. Photo Steve Ede.
After almost ten years away Joy returned to New Zealand. She arrived in Wellington in October 1946 and thought New Zealand was “old fashioned.” She worked at Waiuku Hospital for seven months but was uncomfortable with the small hospital techniques and enrolled for Plunket training in Dunedin. After qualifying she cycled from Dunedin to her bonded job in Pukekohe and made the most of the trip by deviating to Milford Sound. The Homer Tunnel then was just a rough hole through rock littered with abandoned equipment. With water up to her ankles and dripping from the roof she walked through the tunnel to Milford and back the same day. She later recalled this as one of the most frightening things she had done in her life. She pushed her bike over the 3530-foot Crown Range and found the Lindis Pass road very rough although she liked eating the wild gooseberries growing near the road. From Christchurch she rode over the Lewis Pass to Reefton and later in the North Island visited her brother at Rangiwahia.
Joy wanted to see more of the world and moved to Brisbane where her sister Patience was living. Before leaving for Australia she cycled around East Cape and back to Waiuku through Waikaremoana. In April 1949 she began work at Brisbane Women’s Hospital. Joy really enjoyed her time there and said it was a “tremendous experience because of the number of babies born.” The medical superintendent was “marvellous” and the matron very good to her – possibly because she gave Joy time off for traveling. In August 1950 Joy set off on a cycling tour which took her to Mt Isa, Darwin, Alice Springs, Adelaide and Tasmania. She had no tent, slept out under the stars and cooked over a fire. This style of travel she carried on into her later motorcycle travels.
Joy arrived back in Brisbane on 23 December 1950 after cycling 9,000 miles. She had lost a lot of weight and was very thin. Her brother-in-law, a keen motorcyclist, said, “You should have a motorbike. There are plenty of little ones around that would suit you fine.” After further urging from her brother-in-law Joy recalled, “I bought this little BSA – only 125cc, the smallest that they made.” The Bantam D1 was an ideal choice for a person used to bicycle touring. BSA advertising at the time noted it was, “Attractive in appearance and amazingly economical, the BSA Bantam has a brilliant performance, is comfortable to ride and easy to handle. In every way the perfect lightweight.” After cycling a total of 18,000 miles in the UK, Australia and New Zealand Joy became a motorcyclist. When Joy bought the Bantam her mother, assuming Joy wore trousers while riding, wrote her a worried letter saying it was very wrong and immoral to wear trousers. However, Joy always wore a tweed skirt while riding and assured her mother that she had never worn trousers.
Joy McKean with her first BSA D1 Bantam. Photo Steve Ede.
On 1 October 1951, after owning the Bantam for only a short time, she left Brisbane on a motorcycle tour of Australia. The destination was Perth via Bourke, Wilcannia, Broken Hill, Port Augusta, Ceduna and Penong. Even today with satellite phones, GPS and detailed information for riders, crossing the Nullarbor is a significant ride. The Rough Guide to Australia warns “do not underestimate the rigours of the journey in your own vehicle. Carry reserves of fuel, and water, take rests every two or three hours and beware of kangaroos and other wildlife”. Joy called in at sheep and cattle stations to get petrol, a gallon a time, and only saw about 12 vehicles each day. At Eucla she stayed with Mrs Gurney who kept the telegraph station and then went on to Norseman, down to Esperance on the coast, back up to Kalgoorlie and through to Perth where she arrived 29 days after leaving Brisbane. At Mortlock Brothers, the BSA agents in Hay Street, she asked for a service, casually mentioning that she had just ridden across from Brisbane. She was told she was only the second woman known to have ridden solo across the Nullarbor Plain.
Joy in Brisbane starting her ride to Perth. This photo was in the Brisbane Courier-Mail on 2 October 1951. Photo Geoff Clarke
Next it was north for 550 miles to Carnarvon then back south before turning inland in a move she soon regretted. The road was well formed but not sealed and the corrugations were “absolutely terrible”. The frame of the Bantam broke and the engine “dropped down. Fortunately I was near a railway line and only had to push the bike three or four hundred yards to a station siding where I waited.” A train came along and stopped to pick up Joy and the Bantam. She travelled in the guard’s van with a guard who was an avid bird watcher and who entertained her by describing all the birds they passed. At Northam she had to change trains before arriving back at Mortlock Brothers who welded the frame. The repair completed, she rode to Cape Leeuwin the most south-westerly point of Australia before heading back east.
Her second crossing of the Nullarbor Plain Joy later described as “horrible”. The wind from the north was “like a furnace” and the movement of the Bantam was not enough to cool her down. She tried to get water from an underground tank covered with corrugated iron but the rope on her tin was not long enough. Desperate for water she climbed down a very spindly ladder. She realised afterwards that this had been most unwise. She tried to eat an apple but with both her water bottles now empty her mouth was too dry. She took off all her clothes, except for petticoat and undies, and lay beside the bike for four hours until she heard a car coming from the east. The driver gave her water which she was grateful for even though it tasted “muddy”. They talked for about 15 minutes until clouds came over and there were spots of rain. Later back at Eucla, Mrs Gurney told her the temperature had reached almost 50 degrees.
The BSA agents in the cities were a great help to Joy and in Adelaide the agent even took her sightseeing around the city and surrounding district. Back home in Brisbane, after ten weeks away, Joy noted she had ridden 10,031 miles. As she never rode faster than 30 miles per hour her fuel consumption was an amazing 189 miles per gallon. Her longest day’s ride was 264 miles. The rear tyre was replaced in Adelaide as it had signs of wear and the spark plug needed to be changed only once. Joy said in a newspaper article the Bantam was an excellent machine and, “It gave me very little trouble, has been most satisfactory, and the engine has all the power I need”. It was no surprise that Skeates & White, the New Zealand BSA agents and Mortlocks, the Perth BSA agents, both used the tour to promote Bantams with this advertisement:
10,031 miles Brisbane to Perth and Back Again on the world’s most popular 125cc motor cycle, the invincible BSA Bantam.
Three days after securing her driving licence, Nurse McKean left Brisbane on her 125cc BSA Spring Frame Bantam for what she termed a See-Australia tour. Traveling via many a sight-seeing detour, she eventually reached Perth, had a look through our South-West and then turned for home, which she reached after covering 10,031 miles. The Bantam took every road hazard in its stride, deep water, sand, rough tracks and at the end of the 10,031 miles was going better than ever. No wonder Nurse McKean is enthusiastic. No wonder thousands of Bantam users acclaim this remarkable BSA as the best of the 125cc machines, and with good cause, for it is built with the inherent BSA qualities of unrivalled dependability and unparalleled durability.
Joy returned to work at Brisbane Women’s Hospital until July 1952 when she rode to Sydney and sailed back to New Zealand. She headed for Te Puke where her mother lived, crossing the Kaimai Ranges about midnight. The road, under construction, was just mud. A truck driver stopped and asked if she was all right to which Joy replied, “I think so – when I get out of this”.
Joy worked for a short time at Te Puke Hospital but preferred large hospitals. In March 1953 she began work at the Campbell Johnstone Maternity Ward of Waikato Hospital. She was very happy there and became an active member of the Nurses Association, now The New Zealand Nurses Organisation. She remembered a doctor coming in during a delivery to announce that Edmund Hillary had climbed Mount Everest and what wonderful news it was right after the coronation.
During her time at Waikato Hospital Joy began thinking about a motorcycle tour around the world. Planning took a whole year and during this time she upgraded to a BSA Bantam Major. Advertised by BSA as the “Bantam’s big hearted brother” the Major was an improvement on her first BSA Bantam with a 150cc engine compared to the previous D1 at 125cc. The twenty percent increase in power and corresponding top speed did not change Joy’s usual cruising speed of 30 miles per hour.
On 28 July 1955 Joy, the Bantam and her gear left Auckland for Sydney on the Wanganella. She was met at Sydney by Mr Meyers, the Sales Manager for Bennett & Wood, BSA Motorcycle Agents in Sydney. On her second day, and only 250 miles from Sydney a noise developed in the rear hub. She could not find the cause so loosened the chain and carried on to a motorcycle shop in Macksville where the owner, Mr Peterkin, found the rear wheel bearings had been installed without any grease! He telegraphed to Sydney for replacements to be sent on the overnight train and gave Joy a meal and bed for the night. The bearings did not arrive the next day but Peterkin scoured the town, found replacements and sent Joy on her way.
About to set off from her sister Patience’s home in Brisbane 6 August 1955. Photo Geoff Clarke.
She rode across the north of Australia heading first to Rockhampton where she met her sister and family before heading west. Between Duaringa and Blackwater, while riding on the edge of the road to avoid corrugations, Joy ran into sand and had a spill landing on her head and right shoulder. She was quite shaken – her shoulder was painful for another six months – and the glass on the Bantam headlight was broken.
Some of the creeks and rivers were unbridged and Joy walked alongside the Bantam with the motorcycle in low gear. Only once, going over large and slippery rocks, did she drop the machine. Joy had arranged for a new headlight glass to be sent to Mt Isa but none of the garages there would install it for her and she was directed to the Mt Isa mining barracks where there were “bikies” who did the installation for her.
Filling up at Banka Banka Station Northern Territory, 14 August 1955. Photo Geoff Clarke.
The road was familiar to Joy as she had cycled that way five years earlier. She called in at Banka Banka Station north of Tennant Creek to visit Mrs Ward who had shown great hospitality to Joy on her cycle tour. At Elliot she changed the gearbox oil and decarbonized the engine. Joy had become a very competent motorcycle mechanic and was able to mend punctures, adjust the chain, check the timing, dismantle and clean the carburettor, adjust the carburettor needle setting, change the gearbox oil as well as decarbonize the engine. She also carried a range of spare parts. The “road” was now a sandy track and Joy talked to drovers about the conditions she would encounter. Just before Top Springs there was a noise from the back wheel. With the help of a ute driver who turned up she found the connecting link in the chain damaged but was soon on her way again with a spare installed.
An extract from Joy’s diary of Wednesday 17 August 1955 gives an indication of the conditions she was experiencing:
Hot. Away at the usual time. Twelve miles of rough going brought me to the Victoria River, here not running, but looking very pretty where a long stretch of water and lovely gums marked its course. The crossing was on stones but the approach sandy. Immediately up the other side was the Wave Hill police station. The policeman was at Katherine but an Aborigine tended the garden and across the road were his wireless and women folk, together with the usual collection of children and aged. I had mistaken the ‘road’ but he soon put me right. Continuing, at times I was in open country, grass or spinifex, sandy or black soil. On this section there are quite a number of ridges and distant barren hills. Some areas of the ground were devoid of vegetation and had been swept clean by floods. Inverary Station was 123 miles away, only one bore marked, but I was told I would find sites holding water. I moved slowly, at times in low gear over rough rocks and along creek beds. Some of the billabongs were very pretty. I reached a bore by midday – found I had lost a cardigan. Through the trees I could see a truck stopped and several people lunching. Before long, Joe the German truck driver from Vestey’s came over for a talk. He was giving a family from No. 3 bore, and a hitchhiker, a lift.
Two days later she had engine problems which were not cured by changing the spark plug and cleaning out the carburettor. The Bantam would run for 10 or 20 miles then stop and could only be restarted after it had cooled and the plug changed. The next day she met a mechanic who thought there may have been dirt in the petrol tank but draining the tank and straining the petrol made no difference. That evening a Bantam-owning missionary went over the motorcycle with Joy and the next day it was running properly.
Just after Broome there was very heavy going through sand. Some of the river beds were dry but others carried water with hidden rocks. Cattle drovers she met laughed and said, “Wait till you have to climb the stairs.” She wondered what they meant until she came across a hundred-yard incline covered with rocks eight to ten inches high looking just like a giant set of stairs. Joy had to stop, put the Bantam into bottom gear, lift the front wheel onto the rock, let out the clutch and move up to the next rock. She climbed the whole incline in that manner.
Saying good bye to Ray Mortlock before sailing on the Oronsay, 3 September 1955. Photo Geoff Clarke.
Just under 300 miles southwest of Broome, Joy decided that the Pardoo Sands would be quite impossible to cross with the Bantam and reluctantly accepted a lift on a cattle truck to Port Hedland. From there it was easy going to Perth – except that she had developed mumps. She had caught them from her 14-year-old niece at Rockhampton, even though she tried not to get too close to her. Joy had written ahead to Mortlock Brothers as she “wanted them to give the bike a good overhaul before I put it on the Oronsay for Ceylon”. The Bantam, found to be “full of sand”, was given a rebore and had several parts replaced.
Joy had ridden 5489 miles from Sydney.
Extracts from Joy McKean’s diaries of her 1955 to 1957 world trip, as compiled by her niece Catharine A. McKean and following Joy’s death, have been included with the permission of Catharine A. McKean’s estate and Julian K. McKean as the trustee of Joy McKean’s will. These diaries reflect the views and impressions of Joy McKean only and the language is that in use at the time her diaries were written.
Acknowledgements
Suzanne Barnaby
Geoff Clarke
Annice Collett, Vintage Motor Cycle Club
Steve Foden, BSA Owners Club librarian
Lynda Goulden
J. McKean
Bernard Kerr
Liz Robertson
Jane Skayman
Heather Woods, New Zealand Nurses Organisation
References
McKean, C. Midwife on World Safari. Privately printed for the McKean family.
Interview with Naomi Margaret (Joy) McKean, Date 21 May, 10 July 1984. Ref OHA-2175. Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand.
The Motor Cycle.
Trove. https://trove.nla.gov.au/