May Mundt a Biography

Chapter Three Life is too short and delicate to live in shame. Mitta Xinindlu Breaking Free

Monday 17 th April 2023 1a am A .303 rifle was just one of the many incentives to leave her life, her husband and four of her five precious children. James Mundt husband carried the rifle with him constantly, as if he needed it to protect what one does not know. But a loaded rifle has far- reaching, and possibly devastating consequences. Even though her neighbours helped as much as they could by keeping watch on James and his erratic behaviours, inevitably, May would be on her own facing up to a jealous husband with a gun and a penchant for violence against women. In addition, in 1945, May’s family “shot through” to Brisbane and left the 20 year ‘old’ newly married girl – woman at the mercy of James Mundt. And yet she preserved for 14 years. In 1960, at the age of 34, sometime after the birth of her fifth and last child, May walked out on James. Walking out on your husband was simply not something that happened in 1960 in regional Australia. May would be left to face the far-reaching consequences of that decision even up to just a few years ago. May took just one child (collected a bit later from her home) with her, the youngest girl Betty, who now lives on the Gold Coast. Betty is now 74 years of age. Why just one child one is tempted to ask? The way May tells it is this; “A woman with no means, in a society that felt that women should stay with their husbands even if the situation was intolerable, was always going to be judged harshly”. It would not be an exaggeration to say that it was either walk out and be subject to the prejudices of 1960’s Queensland or stay and risk further

15