Cathie came to the Northern Territory in 1949. She was sent by the Methodist Overseas Missions to Yirrkala in Arnhem Land to deal with a measles epidemic which had spread eastwards from Darwin. She moved to Elcho Island where she was the first fully-trained nursing sister. For the next ten years she was responsible for the health of the community as there was no resident doctor. The only contact with health authorities in Darwin was through the daily radio schedule.
Cathie was on call 24 hours her duties included delivering babies, dressing burns, pulling teeth and coping with epidemics. The outside world was only accessible by a long boat trip or a flight by a slow plane there were no telephones and the conditions were harsh.
In 1961 Cathie married Gordon Sweeney a missionary who, with his first wife, the late Olive Ann Sweeney had previously worked on Elcho Island. Cathie has two step daughters and one step-son. She spent a year relieving the nursing sister at the Goulburn Island mission and in 1962 retired to Adelaide and was an Elder in the Dernancourt Uniting Church which she had helped to establish. Source: Northern Territory Women's Register 1948-1988. Darwin: Northern Territory Women's Advisory Council.1991. p.120.,