[4]: 15–16 By 1900, Britain was at war with the Boer republics, resulting in financial difficulty for London businesses, including The Scotch House and Charles Carter's.

[4]: 17–18 [7] In 1900, at the age of 23, Carter sailed with her sister Daisy to Moreton Bay in Queensland, Australia, on Jumna, arriving on 20 November.

Two years after Carter took over management of the hotel the licensee left town as a result of police investigation into family cruelty.

On the passage across the Great Australian Bight Daisy suffered from severe sea sickness, and on the advice of the ship's doctor they abandoned the voyage, disembarking at Fremantle in 1904.

Mary supplemented their farming income by running a small boarding house in nearby Mornington Mills.

As well as the financial difficulties they faced, the Thomases' relationship was strained by William's increasing consumption of alcohol – a problem that had existed since their courtship – and in 1911 Mary returned to Perth, moving into a house that she had bought before the marriage.

[2][4]: 33–37 After returning to Perth in 1911 Mary Thomas took up work as a barmaid again, while continuing to buy and sell (always for a profit) property.

[4]: 37–39  She ran the Bon Ton Cafe for eight years, while simultaneously expanding her investment in real estate, including a row of houses in East Perth.

The business did well, having a virtual monopoly catering to the recently constructed, nearby RAAF Base Pearce, but the distance from Perth made direct supervision difficult, so she surrendered the lease after two years and restricted her hotel businesses to areas closer to the city.

The ban was lifted a week later, after Thomas wrote to Prime Minister John Curtin and Western Australian Senator Dorothy Tangney.

[1][2] In the mid-1950s, the University of Western Australia launched an appeal for funds to create a medical school, and the Raines were approached directly for a contribution.

[1][2] In 1957 Raine made a new will, leaving small amounts to some friends and family – she had no children of her own – with the bulk of her estate to go to the university, for the purposes of finding a cure for the illness that killed Joe.

[3][4]: 177–179  At the time of her death, the estate was worth about £1,000,000, making it one of the largest private donations ever made to an Australian university.

[22][4]: viii After Joe's death, Raine's health deteriorated, and the University of Western Australia took over management of her hotels.