Tamie Fraser AO

Tamara ‘Tamie’ Fraser ao (b. 1936), widow of the 22nd prime minister of Australia, Malcolm Fraser ac ch gcl, is patron of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and a tireless advocate for refugees. Born into a grazing family in western Victoria, in girlhood she began her decades of volunteering for the Red Cross. Malcolm Fraser, also born into a grazing family, graduated from Oxford before returning to work on his parents’ property Nareen in 1952. In late 1955 Fraser won the seat of Wannon; married a year later, the couple duly moved to Canberra. Here, Tamie Fraser raised four children and established an auxiliary committee to support people with disabilities at Koomarri. Over time, she became chair of the fundraising committee for the Hamilton Hospital, raising over a million dollars. In 1978 she initiated the Australiana Fund, raising funds for and acquiring items of historical importance for Admiralty House, Kirribilli House, Government House and The Lodge. She has since raised funds for the National Stroke Foundation, and is now a supporter of the Florey Neuroscience Institute. President of Australia’s Open Garden Scheme between 1992 and 2015, in this portrait Tamie Fraser appears in the garden she and the late Malcolm Fraser created at their property Thurulgoona on the Mornington Peninsula.