Born Margaret Dwyer on 16 October 1859 (or 1861 or 1863) in Ireland. By the time Dwyer emigrated to Australia in November 1884 she had changed her first name to Daisy May. Daisy Bates lived from 1912 to 1945 amongst the Aboriginal peoples of South Australia, firstly at Eucla on the edge of the Nullabor Plain, and then at Ooldea. Initially her interest in Aboriginal people was anthropological, and she was appointed by the Western Australian government from 1904 to 1912 to research the tribes of the state. But this interest broadened to a concern for the welfare of the peoples with whom she lived, and she wrote many articles about them. Some of her views were very controversial. She died on 18 April 1951 in Adelaide, South Australia.