Freda Du Faur

Emmeline Freda Du Faur (16 September 1882 – 11 September 1935) was the first female mountaineer to climb New Zealand's tallest mountain, Aoraki / Mount Cook.

Early life

Du Faur was born in Croydon, Sydney. She was the daughter of Frederick Eccleston Du Faur, a stock, station and land agent, and patron of the arts, and his second wife, Blanche Mary Elizabeth Woolley (daughter of professor John Woolley).

She was educated at Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar School. Du Faur probably developed her passion for mountaineering when she lived with her family near the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. As a young woman, she explored the area and taught herself to rock-climb. She did not finish nursing training due to the stress and demands of the work. Due to the interests of her parents, and an inheritance from an aunt, Emmeline Woolley, she had an independent income that enabled her to travel and climb.

Encountering Mount Cook

Freda Du Faur summered in New Zealand, but did not visit the South Island until she journeyed there in late 1906. At the time, she saw photographs of Mount Cook at the New Zealand International Exhibition in Christchurch. This experience inspired her to travel to the Hermitage where she decided that she wanted to climb to the summits of the Southern Alps of the South Island. She visited the area twice. On her second visit in 1908, she investigated the mountains in more detail, and met the chief guide at the Hermitage, Peter Graham.