Background
Dallas was born in Invercargill, the daughter of Frank and Minnie Mumford.
Dallas was born in Invercargill, the daughter of Frank and Minnie Mumford.
She became blind in one eye at 15, then spent three years at the Southland Technical College and was engaged at 19. But her fiance broke off the engagement to serve in Great Britain during World World War World War II During the war she worked at an army office and as a milk tester. Her first book of poetry, Country Road was published in 1953.
In 1954 she moved to Dunedin, where she lived for most of her life.
Her poetry was influenced by William Wordsworth and the southern New Zealand landscape. Two of her most notable pieces of poetry, "Photographs of Pioneer Woman" and "Pioneer Woman with Ferrets" were both written to show the inequality and sexist stereotypes of the time and to also give these pioneer women a voice.
She was awarded the 1968 Robert Burns Fellowship by the University of Otago, which she used to launch a series of children"s books, beginning with The Children in the Bush. In 1989, she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to literature.
Dallas died in 2008 in hospital in Dunedin after suffering a fall in her home.
Her ashes were buried in Andersons Bay Cemetery.