Harriett Brims - photographer

I am currently moving all my content from my Women of the North blog across to North Queensland History blog. This article was first published by Trisha Fielding on 15 May 2018.

Harriett Brims ran the Britannia photographic studio in Ingham, North Queensland, at the end of the nineteenth century. Harriett Pettifore Elliott was born near Toowoomba, Queensland, in 1864. In 1881 she married Donald Gray Brims, a contractor and coach builder. In the early years of their marriage, the Brims' made their way to Townsville, where Donald worked as a contractor, and from there they went to Cardwell, where Donald became involved in steam ploughing and sawmilling. By the time the family moved to Ingham in 1894, Harriett and Donald had five children, however, this did not stop Harriett from establishing herself as a professional photographer there.

Harriett Brims' photographic studio, inland from Ingham. Photo courtesy State Library of Queensland.

Harriett is listed in Pugh's Trade Directory as proprietor of the Britannia Studio at Ingham in 1902 (pictured below). Harriett transferred her studio to Mareeba in 1904, and carried on successfully for another ten years. She also worked as a visiting photographer in Chillagoe, Irvinebank, and Watsonville, near Herberton. When Donald sold his interest in a joinery works in Mareeba in 1914, the family moved to Brisbane, and Harriett appears to have given up professional photography at this time.

Harriett Brims' Britannia Studio, Ingham, c. 1902. Photo courtesy State Library of Queensland.

According to the Australian Women's Register, during her time as a professional photographer, Harriett became quite skilled and well known for her work.

Brims was highly regarded for the time and care she put into producing her photographs: 'many interesting accounts of the labour involved [in] producing photographic plates, [and] devising schemes of processing, etc [sic] give ample evidence of her skill' (The Telegraph 1938). Her husband, who was also a keen operator, made the dry-plate cameras she used out of maple wood, the carrying cases out of cow hide and the camera shutters out of sheet brass that he salvaged from discarded opium tins.

Brims documented the reality of everyday life in these Queensland towns, capturing early forms of transportation (airplanes and bullock teams), the copper smelters of Chillagoe, local events such as the aftermath of a cyclone, the activities of Melanesian labourers (who both worked and lived in the North Queensland cane fields), social gatherings, local landmarks, as well as some portraiture.

Her photographs were featured in the North Queensland Herald (1907) and the Australasian Photographic Review (1902), the latter in which she was described as 'the first lady photographer who ever dared, single handed, to face the "stronger sex" in fair and open competition.'

Harriett Brims - c. 1890. Photo courtesy State Library of Queensland.

Sources: Cairns Post, 11 November 1939, p. 3; The Telegraph (Brisbane), 26 October 1939, p. 16; Australian Women's Register (for website link, see above).

For further reading, see also: Interpreting Ingham History blog 

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Sarah Wheelhouse - midwife

I am currently moving all my content from my Women of the North blog across to North Queensland History blog. This article was first published by Trisha Fielding on 3 March 2018.

When Sarah Wheelhouse was 89 years old, she told a reporter from the Bowen Independent newspaper that during her time as a midwife she had probably delivered as many as 500 children, “and most of them without the assistance of a doctor”. This was 1950 - three years before her death. Sarah gave the reporter enough first-hand information to write more than 1,600 words on her life, and with it, an incredible account of Bowen dating back to the mid-1860s.

Bowen Independent, 3 March 1917.

Sarah Ann Mottershead was born in 1861 in Manchester, England, to parents William Mottershead and Jane Gibson. When Sarah was four years old, the family emigrated to Australia, arriving in Bowen in 1865. In 1879 Sarah married a solicitor’s clerk named William Hicks Wheelhouse and by 1891 they had six children. In a pioneer settlement such as Bowen, when doctors were few and medical attention might be miles away, Sarah took an interest in nursing and midwifery and soon became matron of the Immigration Depot, a position she held for five years. In 1903 Sarah was listed on the electoral roll as a nurse, living in Dalrymple Street, Bowen.

Nurse Wheelhouse may have been untrained, but she was obviously highly skilled, because in 1898 she took an experienced Welsh-born nurse (who was later known as Mrs Brown) under her wing when the woman emigrated to Australia. Either the future Mrs Brown had a family connection to Nurse Wheelhouse, or else she was satisfied that the untrained midwife’s reputation was such that she could overlook her lack of formal qualifications.

By the time the Queensland Government enacted legislation to regulate the activities of nurses and midwives in 1912, Sarah may have been practising as a midwife for twenty years. Evidently she was experienced enough to satisfy the requirements for registration, as she is listed in the Register of Midwifery Nurses (held by Queensland State Archives), which shows she paid a registration fee of 10 shillings in December 1912.

The Bowen Independent reported on the efforts of Nurse Wheelhouse during her days as a midwife:

“Mrs. Wheelhouse… estimates that she brought five hundred children into the world, most of them without the assistance of a doctor, and never lost a case. Her home was often a nursing home for her patients, but in most cases she went into the mother’s home, and was nurse, housekeeper and nursemaid for the family until the mother was about. She travelled as far as the Elliott River to attend confinements, once camping with a fettler’s wife, doing the cooking, baking the bread, minding the other children, and even milking the goats. She has waded across Magazine Creek to attend cases at the Pilot Station, and walked to the Don to others. She attended the birth of five sets of twins.”

In 1916, Nurse Wheelhouse was advertising her lying-in hospital “Kia Ora”, in William Street, with “accouchement cases a specialty”. By this time, she was 55 years old. The last birth notice in the Bowen Independent to mention Nurse Wheelhouse in attendance was in 1919, though she may have continued to work as a midwife for some years after that. By the early 1930s, Sarah was reportedly an invalid, though she lived at William Street for the remainder of her life. Within the Bowen community, Sarah was deferentially referred to as “Nurse Wheelhouse” right up until her death in 1953, at the age of 92. In death, she was described as a “grand old lady” whose life was spent in the service of others. 

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Jean Devanny - author and political activist

I am currently moving all my content from my Women of the North blog across to North Queensland History blog. This article was first published by Trisha Fielding on 24 August 2020.

Jean Devanny was an author, political activist, feminist, socialist, and naturalist (and a whole lot more besides). She was born in New Zealand in 1894 and migrated to Australia with her husband and children in 1929. A member of the Communist Party, she was very active in the labour movement and often spoke at public rallies and meetings.

Author and activist, Jean Devanny, no date. Photo: James Cook University Special Collections NQID 13768. Used with permission.

Devanny was also a prolific author. She published around 20 books (both fiction and non-fiction), as well as many short stories and articles. Some of her novels were controversial because they were considered by the standards of the day to be too explicit, even 'indecent'. Her 1926 novel The Butcher Shop was banned in Australia for many years.

Jean Devanny speaking in Sydney, 1930s. Photo: James Cook University Special Collections NQID 13815. Used with permission.

Devanny saw her novels as a tool to convey her political views and one of her main concerns was the position of women (in society). Devanny's theme in The Butcher Shop highlighted the economic and sexual inequality of women within marriage. She believed only a socialist state could offer true independence for women. Another of her novels - Sugar Heaven (published in 1936) – looked at the role of women during a labour strike in the sugar-cane fields of North Queensland.

Devanny was extremely active in literary circles and was a friend and correspondent of writer and political activist, Miles Franklin. Franklin (whose best-known work was the book My Brilliant Career), left an endowment that provided for an annual literary award - the prestigious Miles Franklin Award. Other literary friends included Katharine Susannah Prichard, Marjorie Barnard, Mary Gilmore, and Nettie Palmer.

Before settling in Townsville in 1950, Devanny had spent time living and working in north Queensland (particularly in and around the Cairns area) at various times in the 1930s and 1940s, and had developed a friendship with Cairns doctor and naturalist - Hugo Flecker - who introduced her to the North Queensland Naturalists' Club. She spent some time living on Green Island in a makeshift camp, investigating the flora and fauna of the Great Barrier Reef. And in late 1944, Devanny accompanied Flecker, and ornithologist Stanley White, on a three-day trip to Woody Island, off Port Douglas, to observe the abundant bird life. (As an aside, the scientific name for the box jellyfish - Chironex fleckeri - was named after Flecker, and the Flecker Botanic Gardens, in Cairns, also bears his name.)

L-R: Stanley White, Dr Hugo Flecker, Jean Devanny, on Woody Island, 1944. Photographer: Michael Sharland. Photo courtesy James Cook University Special Collections NQID 13965. Used with permission.

James Cook University Library holds the Jean Devanny Archive. Donated to the library in 1969 by Devanny's daughter, the archive contains personal letters and papers, lectures and speech notes. It also includes an unpublished, typewritten manuscript by Devanny, entitled ‘Life on a Barrier Reef Island’ or ‘Island Interlude’. It was written in the 1950s, when Devanny spent some time living on Magnetic Island. (She spent several months in 1950 and 1951 there.) It’s essentially a memoir, in which she vividly describes Island life – the rugged landscape, the diverse vegetation, the wildlife, and the people she befriends.

Jean Devanny (at right) with a friend, on Magnetic Island, no date. Photo: James Cook University Special Collections NQID 13796. Used with permission.

The manuscript is different to her other books because Devanny writes so joyfully about the Island, and of the people she encountered. Perhaps it’s her description of place that makes this manuscript so fascinating. When she first set foot on the island, she was struck by the 'massive blocks of jagged granite, plinth-like, rounded or squarish, many of them certainly hundreds of tons in weight', piled high, one on top of the other.

But even more thrilling to Devanny, than the 'magnificence of rock formation' and the 'lavishness of vegetation', was the abundance of bird life. She wrote:

Currawongs, sulphur-crested cockatoos, friar birds and peewits, united in cacophonous cawing, screeching, guggling, piercing, piping and whistling... The eye took in dozens of them in one sweep.

Whereas Devanny's published books (her novels at least) are full of conflict and angst, and she herself was described as fiery and agitational, 'Life on a Barrier Reef Island' or 'Island Interlude', celebrates the sheer pleasure she found in the gloriously abundant natural setting of Magnetic Island.

Jean Devanny died in Townsville in 1962.

Portrait of Jean Devanny as a young woman, no date. Photo: James Cook University Special Collections NQID 13767. Used with permission.

Sources and further reading:

• Life on a Barrier Reef Island or Island Interlude. Unpublished manuscript by Jean Devanny. © Deborah Hurd, Digital version 2020. Available at: https://nqheritage.jcu.edu.au/756/
• https://jculibrarynews.blogspot.com/2020/05/50-treasures-life-on-barrier-reef.html
• https://jculibrarynews.blogspot.com/2018/02/special-collections-fossickings-50.html
• Ferrier, Carole, Jean Devanny: Romantic Revolutionary, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 1999
• Devanny, Jean, Point of Departure: the autobiography of Jean Devanny, edited by Carole Ferrier, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Qld., 1986
• Store, Ron, 'Devanny, Jane (Jean) (1894–1962)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1981, accessed online 13 August 2020 http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/devanny-jane-jean-5968

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Mary Jane Derrer - M.M.

I am currently moving all my content from my Women of the North blog across to North Queensland History blog. This article was first published by Trisha Fielding on 11 November 2018.

Late in the evening of 22 July 1917, four Australian nurses were working at the 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station, in Trois Arbes, France, when it was bombed by enemy aircraft. In an act of great bravery, Sisters Mary Jane Derrer, Clare Deacon, Dorothy Cawood and Alice Ross-King heroically rescued patients trapped in burning hospital tents. Witness accounts describe nurses running to tents shattered by bombs to rescue patients, either carrying them to safety or placing tables over patients' beds in an effort to protect them. All four women were subsequently awarded the Military Medal for their heroism. It was the first time the British award for 'bravery and devotion under fire' had been bestowed on nurses in any theatre of war.

Sister Mary Jane Derrer, M.M. Photo: © Imperial War Museum (WWC D4-1-14)

Commanding Officer, Lt. Col. J. Ramsay Webb, recorded the basic details of the incident in an Appendix to the unit's official War Diary.

I have to report the following incident at this Station. On the 22nd instant at about 10.25pm an enemy aeroplane flying low over the Station dropped two bombs. The first fell at the rear of Ward C.5 blowing a hole in the ground about 15ft in diameter and 6ft deep in the centre. Ward C.5 was made up of 4 small hospital marquees arranged in a square. Of these one was completely destroyed and the three others rendered unfit for service. Some equipment was destroyed. The mortuary is also wrecked, the roof and two sides being blown out. Two patients and two orderlies were killed and many of the men were wounded. The second bomb dropped outside the southern boundary of the Camp near the Cemetery. The total casualties were 4 killed and 15 wounded. - Lt. Col. J. Ramsay Webb

Sister Alice Ross-King recorded a personal account of the bombing in her diary, which provides us with an insight into what Sister Mary Derrer may have experienced on the night of the bombing. Here, Sister Ross-King describes running along the 'duckboards' towards one of the hospital tents, which contained a patient named Gilmore, who was suffering from pneumonia.

I raced on and the next thing I knew I went over into a bomb crater. I shall never forget the awful climb on hands & feet out of that hole about 5ft deep greasy clay & blood tho I did not then know that it was blood. It was right in front of Gilmore's tent - which was 3 marquees joined together, with about 46 stretcher cases in it. The tent had collapsed and though I shouted nobody answered me or I could hear nothing for the roar of planes and Archies - I seemed to be the only living thing about. - Sister Alice Ross-King

Sister Mary Jane Derrer, of the 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station. Photo: Australian War Memorial

Mackay-born Mary Jane Derrer trained as a nurse at the Mackay General Hospital between 1910 and 1913. In 1915, at the age of 24, she enlisted for the war effort and saw service in Egypt, England and France. She returned to Australia in September 1917 and was discharged in December.  She re-enlisted in March 1918 and subsequently saw service in India. She returned to Australia in November 1919 and for a short time nursed at the Kangaroo Point Military Hospital. She continued her profession as a nurse in Mackay at the Lister Private Hospital.

References:

• Unit Diary - No. 2 Australian Casualty Clearing Station - July 1917, Australian War Memorial
• WWI Diaries of Sister Alice Ross-King, Australian War Memorial
• Service Record of Mary Jane Derrer, National Archives of Australia
• Queensland Times, 2 February 1918, p. 8

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The Lambton Ladies

I am currently moving all my content from my Women of the North blog across to North Queensland History blog. This article was first published by Trisha Fielding on 5 June 2019.

The youngest of ten children, Elsie Idrea Lambton, was a professional photographer who ran her own studio in Townsville in the 1920s. Trained by the photographer Ada Driver at the Ada Driver Studios in Brisbane, in 1921 Elsie opened a studio in Townsville after working for W. J. Laurie, taking over a studio in the Municipal Buildings in Flinders Street. In 1923 she opened the Elsie Lambton Studio and advertised her specialisation in "the very latest in portraiture". By 1927 she had opened another studio, The Townsville City Studio, in the new City Buildings, with the photographer Jack Biehl. As well as being a talented "artistic" photographer, Elsie was an accomplished violinist and organist. In 1937 she married the Revd. Canon J.A. Cue.

Self portrait of Elsie Lambton, photographer and violinist. Elsie Lambton Studio. Photo source: James Cook University Special Collections (used with permission).

Elsie's older sister, Edith Mary Lambton, trained as a nurse at the Charters Towers District Hospital, and later trained as a midwife in Sydney. When she returned to Charters Towers she worked as a private midwife from her home in Mary Street for several years before setting up a private hospital in Townsville.

In 1903 Edith was working at the Charters Towers District Hospital when an outbreak of typhoid fever struck the city. In February, there were more than 50 typhoid patients at the hospital, and by April many of the nurses had fallen ill too. Of the 22 nurses on staff, seven of those were away due to sickness. Nurse Lambton contracted typhoid fever while nursing patients at the hospital and became seriously ill. When her condition deteriorated to critical, there were fears for her life, but by late May she had recovered enough to be able to go home.

Around 1914, Edith set up St. Monica's Private Hospital at the corner of Oxley Street and The Strand in Townsville. As Matron Lambton, she appears to have run St. Monica's in conjunction with two other private midwives - sisters Kath Terry and Lillian Terry. Edith retired from nursing after her marriage to Cecil Homan in Townsville in 1916.

Nellie Lambton, c.1919. Photo: State Library of Queensland.

Another sister, Nellie Doriel Lambton, was also a trained nurse. She trained at the Townsville General Hospital, successfully completing an examination there in 1918. The following year Nellie married Doctor Anton Breinl, the Director of the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine. During the First World War, Breinl also served as the Superintendent of the Townsville Hospital. Nellie and Anton are said to have met through a shared love of music. Nellie was an excellent pianist who often accompanied Anton, a gifted violinist. There were three sons from the marriage and two went on to become doctors.

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Myra Rendle Mackenzie - dentist

I am currently moving all my content from my Women of the North blog across to North Queensland History blog. This article was first published by Trisha Fielding on 26 June 2018.

When Myra Rendle was 14 years old she began an apprenticeship with a Brisbane dentist named Robert Thomason. After completing her training four years later she opened her own practice, which was situated on the corner of Queen and Edward Streets, Brisbane. This might seem unremarkable if it weren't for the fact that Myra opened her practice in 1899. She was 18 years old, and she was the first female dentist in Queensland.

Portrait of Myra Rendle, 1911. Photo: CityLibraries Townsville Local History Collection.

The Brisbane Courier considered it a sign of progress for Brisbane:

The profession of dentistry has been practised for some time past by women dentists in America, and there are also several practising successfully in Melbourne. Brisbane is now following suit, and will add the name of Miss Myra Rendle to the list of dental practitioners. Miss Rendle is a daughter of the well-known physician, Dr R. Rendle, M.D. of this town, and she is a pupil of the late Dr R.B. Thomason.

Undoubtedly Myra's father, Richard, was an important influence in her choice of career. He recognised his daughter's 'above average mental capacity' and evidently saw no barriers to his daughter - a woman - taking up dentistry. Indeed, Miss Rendle attended the inaugural meeting of the Academy of Stomatology¹ in her father's consulting rooms, along with 25 other Brisbane dentists or dental students in 1896. Although it would have been unusual at this time to have a woman present at such a meeting, this does not seem to have deterred Miss Rendle.

In January 1901, after completing a 'professional tour' of Normanton, Croydon and Burketown, Myra Rendle opened a practice in Flinders Street, Townsville. During the next fifteen years in Townsville, Myra was very active in a number of sports, including golf, sailing and rowing.

Myra Rendle and friends rowing on Ross Creek, Townsville, c. 1905. Photo: CityLibraries Townsville Local History Collection.

In 1916, Myra married William Seaforth Mackenzie in Wellington, New Zealand. Mackenzie was from the Lower Burdekin, but had obtained work as a lithographer in New Zealand. They had a son together the following year, but tragically in 1918 her husband William was killed in action in France in World War I. Myra returned to Australia with her son, but did not practice dentistry again, except for a brief stint as a locum in Brisbane.

 

¹ Stomatology - a branch of medical science dealing with the mouth and its diseases.

Selected Sources:

• Brisbane Courier, 9 March 1899, pp. 4 & 6; 30 November 1900, p. 2.
• Townsville Daily Bulletin, 3 April 1916, p. 4; 6 February 1915, p. 1.
• Courier Mail, 12 May 1954, p. 2.
• Romaniuk, Kon, 'Pioneer Woman of Dentistry Myra Rendle Mackenzie', ADA News Bulletin, September 1994, pp. 32-35.

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Matron Margaret Monaghan

I am currently moving all my content from my Women of the North blog across to North Queensland History blog. This article was first published by Trisha Fielding on 24 March 2018.

Margaret Monaghan set up and ran Bay View Private Hospital, one of the most successful and longest-running private hospitals in Townsville in the first half of the twentieth century. Margaret was a popular and well-respected woman, who deservedly enjoyed a revered position within the Townsville community.

The staff of Bay View Private Hospital, c.1930. Matron Monaghan is seated in the centre. Photo courtesy of Townsville Museum and Historical Society.

Margaret Jane Lewis Monaghan was born in Durham, England, in 1883 and later migrated to Australia with her family – arriving in early 1890. In May 1912, Margaret qualified for a certificate in midwifery from the Lady Bowen Hospital, in Brisbane. In December that year, she paid the required fee of 10 shillings to register with the State as a midwife. For some years after this, Margaret appears to have been a private midwife, possibly operating from her home in Wills Street, as well as attending women in their own homes.

By the early 1920s, she had set up “Tauntonia” Private Hospital, in Walker Street, near the Technical College. This hospital catered for both general and maternity patients, who were attended by local doctors, including Dr Mason and Dr O’Neill. Tauntonia’s professional staff consisted of two day-nurses plus a Sister, and Matron Monaghan herself. She may have also employed domestic staff, such as a cook and a kitchen maid.

In late 1925, Matron Monaghan re-located Tauntonia to Hale Street, on Stanton Hill. This site, opposite the Christian Brothers’ School, had commanding views over Cleveland Bay. In March 1927, after completing “extensive and up-to-date alterations”, she renamed her private hospital “Bay View”, in keeping with its location. At this time, Margaret would have been in direct competition with several local doctors who also ran their own private hospitals, but in spite of the competition, together Tauntonia and Bay View ran for almost two decades. The longevity of Matron Monaghan’s establishments is testament to her skill as a businesswoman, as well as a nurse and midwife.

Bay View Private Hospital, Stanton Hill, Townsville. Photo: City Libraries Townsville Local History Collection.

In 1941, with a view to retiring, Matron placed Bay View up for sale. An advertisement for the sale of the property notes that the private hospital was registered with the Health Department and contained two operating theatres. Included in the sale of equipment and fittings were 17 surgical beds and 4 eye beds. The property had accommodation for 8 nursing staff and 4 domestic staff as well as adjoining quarters for the matron. It is clear from this advertisement that Bay View Private Hospital was a sizeable, professionally-run hospital that provided employment for at least 12 people.

Sometime in the early 1940s, Margaret retired to her Magnetic Island home - “Rookery Nook” - situated on the eastern heights of Alma Bay. She was frequently visited by mainland friends, where she was well-known for her superb hospitality. An article in the Townsville Daily Bulletin in late 1945 described a party at Rookery Nook to celebrate the end of the war, and to honour an old friend’s birthday:

“Culinary delights which the matron just knows how to conjure loaded the table, and bowls of pink and white frangipani clusters added fragrance and rich artistry to the large, two-tiered square birthday cake.”

Taking into consideration her years as a private midwife, as well as her time as matron of Tauntonia and Bay View, Margaret Monaghan served the Townsville community for at least thirty years. Around 1953 she moved to Eventide, at Charters Towers, where she lived out the remaining six years of her life.

Matron Monaghan is featured in my 2019 book Neither Mischievous nor Meddlesome.

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The Clever Mrs Cameron - Orpheus Studio

I am currently moving all my content from my Women of the North blog across to North Queensland History blog. This article was first published by Trisha Fielding on 9 July 2018.

Charlotte Cameron was an artist and musician who ran the Orpheus Studio, in Flinders Street, Townsville, between 1916 and 1923. On a number of occasions she was commissioned to produce illuminated addresses* or albums for high-profile Queensland dignitaries and other notable citizens, and she also composed many pieces of music for commemorative purposes, including the 'Townsville Waltz' and the 'Canberra Waltz'.

Sheet music for Townsville Waltz, composed by Charlotte Cameron. Photo: City Libraries Townsville Local History Collection.

Charlotte, the director and business manager of the Orpheus Studio, was capably assisted by several of her remarkably talented daughters. Eldest daughter, Leone Cameron (b. 1890), was a milliner and costumier. Together with her mother she taught classes in pencil and crayon drawing, watercolour and oil painting, stencilling and pen painting, metalwork and wood carving. Leone also conducted a dressmaking and millinery business in rooms adjoining the Orpheus Studio. Her second daughter, Audien Cameron (b. 1891), held a teacher's diploma from the London College of Music and in partnership with her mother taught violin, pianoforte, mandolin, viola, theory, harmony, counterpoint and analyses of form, at the Orpheus Studio. Her third daughter, Vera Cameron (b. 1895), taught typing and shorthand to schoolchildren on Saturday afternoons from the studio.

Charlotte Cameron's Orpheus Studio was located on the upper floor of this building, at the corner of Flinders and Stanley Streets, Townsville (note sign at right). This photo dates to around 1918. Photo: James Cook University Library North Queensland Photographic Collection, NQID: 2201.

In 1910 Charlotte was commissioned by the Townsville city council to prepare an illuminated address of welcome for the visit of Queensland Governor, Sir William MacGregor, to Townsville in June. Charlotte quoted £10, 10 shillings to produce an illuminated album for the occasion. She advised the council that the materials to produce the album only amounted to about £2, however the labour involved was quite considerable. When queried, she advised that she had worked on the album for 84 hours, and her daughter had spent 40 hours on it.

Charlotte also produced an illuminated album for Sir Robert Philp, who had twice been Premier of Queensland. The album was presented to Philp from the people of Townsville upon the occasion of his retirement. It contains photographs depicting Townsville scenes and each image is bordered by exquisitely hand-drawn and coloured artwork by Charlotte Cameron.

One of the pages from the illuminated album presented to Sir Robert Philp, with artwork by Charlotte Cameron. Photo: State Library of Queensland.

Charlotte's musical compositions survive to this day, with the score of her Townsville Waltz held by both James Cook University Library and City Libraries Townsville. The latter has an audio version of the waltz available for download on its catalogue. The piece appears to have been written to commemorate Townsville's 50th anniversary. Another waltz, the Canberra Waltz, was dedicated to Lord Denman, Governor General of Australia. This score is held by the State Library of Queensland. They also hold other compositions by Charlotte, including Our Land, Australia (words and music by Mrs Rod Cameron), a souvenir edition of which was issued to celebrate victory in the Pacific; and Welcome to our Queen, written for the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II's visit to Australia in 1954.

Canberra Waltz, by Charlotte Cameron. Photo: State Library of Queensland.

In January 1924, the Telegraph noted that Mrs Cameron had arranged to transfer her activities to Brisbane and with the assistance of two daughters, would open the Orpheus Studio in Leichhardt Street in February. A Miss Eileen Burns took over the Orpheus Studio in Townsville from Charlotte Cameron in December 1923.

 

* Illuminated addresses were once a popular way to thank prominent people for outstanding service, or to celebrate or mark a special event.

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The Darling of the Press — Phoebe Lewis

I am currently moving all my content from my Women of the North blog across to North Queensland History blog. This article was first published by Trisha Fielding on 6 September 2022.

When Miss Phoebe Ailsa Lewis — Australia's first female Linotype operator — entered into the male-dominated world of newspapers at the age of 14, she was considered to be something of an oddity. Born in Muttaburra in Central Queensland in 1882, she was taught by a private tutor until the family moved to Townsville; after which time she completed a primary school education at Central State School. Around 1896, Phoebe applied for a position with the Townsville Daily Bulletin newspaper as a Linotype operator.

Phoebe Lewis (pictured on the left), with Miss Duffield, both members of the Ladies’ Commercial Rowing Club. Photo: State Library of Queensland

The Linotype machine (a type-setting machine invented and patented by German-American Ottmar Mergenthaler in Baltimore in 1886) revolutionised the newspaper industry by speeding up the printing process and therefore reducing costs. After installing three Linotype machines in the 1890s, the management of the Townsville Newspaper Company came to the conclusion that operating the intricate keyboard was "women's work", so they advertised for "young lasses" to apply to be tested for a trial position as an operator of one of the Linotype machines.

Ottmar Mergenthaler’s 2nd Linotype machine.
Harris & Ewing Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Phoebe Lewis not only tested for the position and was appointed, but she went on to excel at the work and was offered a permanent position. By 1914 she was fully qualified, and she went on to work at the newspaper for more than 60 years.

Despite the fact that she was held in high regard by her fellow tradesmen (all male), a woman in this particular field of the printing industry at this time was not only unheard of but also considered "strictly taboo".

Phoebe (who later supervised many apprentices at the newspaper during her long career) rose to such fame as a printer, that when she went on international holidays she was invited to inspect printing firms in those locations. According to Phoebe, the manager of a newspaper in Hong Kong didn't believe that she could actually operate a Linotype machine — so she sat down and proved it to him.

The manager... asked that I prove to him what I claimed to be, by sitting down and operating. He had never heard of a lady Linotype operator before. I was later informed by the foreman that the Chinese workers who had gathered around were horrified to see that a female could equal the males in their work.

Phoebe Lewis, 1969.

A composed line, with matrices and spacebands, in a Linotype machine.
From Linotype Machine Principles, published by Mergenthaler Linotype Company, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1940

While travelling in England and France, Phoebe inspected factories where Linotypes were made and was reportedly invited to lunch with power-brokers of the Press. She visited a printing museum in Antwerp and was intrigued to find that the Linotype machines on display had each been given their own names, such as Diamond, Pearl and Ruby. A representative of the Intertype Corporation, which by this time had produced a typecasting machine that closely resembled the Linotype machine, is said to have offered her a 12-month, all-expenses-paid trip to the United States; and a tour of all Intertype factories.

Miss Phoebe Lewis, in 1969, pictured beside a portrait of her younger self. Source: Australian Women’s Weekly.

A well-travelled, active woman, Phoebe was a member of a local bushwalking club, a coach of a swimming club, and Treasurer of Townsville’s Ladies’ Commercial Rowing Club. At the age of 75, after spending seven months in hospital with glaucoma (which resulted in permanent blindness) Phoebe retired from the Townsville Daily Bulletin. Known throughout the trade by the nickname, “the Fledgling of the Press”, Miss Phoebe Lewis lived to the age of 102. She died in Townsville in September 1984.

Sources:

• Australian Women’s Weekly, 1 January 1969.
• Townsville Daily Bulletin, 9 December 1908.
• Belgian Gardens Cemetery Register.
• Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Ottmar Mergenthaler”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 7 May, 2022.

Original banner from Women of the North blog, by Ashley Fielding, BNewMediaArts (JCU)

What happened to Caroline Landsborough's children?

I am currently moving all my content from my Women of the North blog across to North Queensland History blog. This article was first published by Trisha Fielding on 11 October 2021.

The Letters of Caroline Landsborough (Part Two): What happened to Carry's children? Since the publication of Part One of this blog on the John Oxley library Blog I've had a few people ask me the question: what happened to Caroline Landsborough's children? What was their fate, after the death of their mother? 

Let’s back-track to where we left things…

Caroline (Carry) Landsborough, wife of the explorer William Landsborough, died from Tuberculosis in Sydney in August 1869. Carry had left Sweers Island, in the Gulf of Carpentaria the previous year, and was cared for by her sister Mrs Elizabeth (Lizzie) Caird. We know that when she left the Gulf, Carry left her three children in the care of a woman named Mrs Campbell. We also know that by the time Mrs Campbell arrived in Sydney with the Landsborough children, Carry had died.

William Landsborough pictured with two of his daughters, ca. 1870. 
Photo: State Library of Queensland. 
(Author's note: this caption was supplied with the image)

So, what happened to the Landsborough children?

From a letter written by Mrs Campbell to William Landsborough on 3 November 1869, we know that William had decided his children should be sent to Brisbane. But after having been cared for by Mrs Campbell for more than a year, this was not going to be an easy separation. Mrs Campbell had grown very fond of the children, and told William: 

‘I shall feel very much at parting with them, and I am sure they will miss me too, though not more than I shall them. Maria* is to travel to Brisbane with them, so they will not feel so lonely poor little things. They often talk about “dear Papa” and wonder when they shall see him again.’

Mrs Campbell — Mary Ann Campbell — would have felt the impending departure of the children far more deeply than her words in this letter describe. Mary had suffered the loss of her own three children back home in the Gulf. Two of her children, Flora (4 yrs) and Donald (6 wks), died within a month of each other in 1866 from a fever, probably the same illness (known at that time as Gulf Fever) that prompted the evacuation of the residents of Burketown to Sweers Island that year. The following year Mary gave birth to another son, Henry, who was born in Burketown, but he only lived for two days.

The remote gulf township of Burketown, Queensland, 2021. 
Photo: © Trisha Fielding.

 

It’s not known how Mary Campbell and Caroline Landsborough knew each other, but Mary Campbell was a witness at the birth of Caroline and William’s daughter Sweersena, on Sweers Island in February 1868.** It is possible that William Landsborough had made the acquaintance of the Campbells — Mary and Murdoch — when passing through their Gulf station, Sorgham Downs. When Carry left the Gulf, she entrusted Mary Campbell with the care of her three daughters, safe in the knowledge that her friend, who had only recently suffered the devastating loss of her own children, would look after her daughters as though they were her own. It’s a testament to the way women in those remote communities supported each other: through childbirth, illnesses, and tragedy. Their lives were inextricably linked by their reliance on each other for survival, in a landscape that was not only remote, but also harsh — in so many ways.

An inset from an 1868 map of Queensland, showing Burketown, Sweers Island, and the Campbells' Sorgham Downs Station (located on an anabranch of the Cloncurry River) 
Source: National Library of Australia.

Undoubtedly Mary Campbell's heart was breaking at the thought of having to part with Carry's children. But if Mary's words to William where measured (despite her anguish), the same cannot be said for Carry’ sister, Lizzie Caird. Lizzie did not hold back when she wrote to William to tell him that she had not sent the children to Brisbane as he had wished.

‘…how can you have the heart to send these children to strangers? Do you not think it only right they should have some of their relations to look after them and only think how [?] you have gone to all your wife’s wishes… At present the children are at Mrs Stafford’s in the Bay. They are dear little things. Baby is very pretty and Mrs Campbell is indeed seen as mother to them. She is going to take Baby with her — I cannot help if you are [?] with what I have said or done for the children.’***

Lizzie made it clear that she thought the children should stay (probably with her) in Sydney, but then added that Mrs Campbell was ‘going to take Baby with her’. The baby referred to is Sweersena, though it’s not clear where Mrs Campbell was intending to go with the baby. 

It’s worth noting here that although William wanted his children to be moved to Brisbane, he had no intention of being there to look after them himself. As might be expected from a man in his position, his work and his responsibilities back in the Gulf country were his priority. Because of their tender ages, it would have been unusual at that time for a widower to have his children live with him without assistance from a woman (whether a companion or servant). He had arranged for his children to be cared for by his friends, Jessie and Robert Smellie. The Smellie’s only son Willie had died the previous year when just two years old. It’s impossible to know for sure, of course, but William may have chosen Jessie Smellie as a guardian for his daughters as a favour to his friend Robert; and there’s no doubt that Brisbane was at least a lot closer to Burketown and the Gulf country that William oversaw, than Sydney was.

Despite her impassioned protestations, Lizzie Caird must have soon agreed to send her sister’s children to Brisbane, because only a week later, on 13 November 1869, Lizzie Landsborough and Jeanie Landsborough departed Sydney for Brisbane aboard the steamer City of Brisbane. However, it does not appear as though Sweersena made the journey with them.

Evidence to support this theory lies in a letter that Jessie Smellie wrote to William Landsborough in March 1870. In this letter Mrs Smellie discusses both Lizzie and Jeanie, but not Sweersena. She indicates that the two little girls are ‘happy and contented’, but that they often talk of Sweers Island and ‘dear little Ena’. This was the shortened name by which their sister Sweersena was known. In a poignant line reminding William Landsborough that his daughters were pining for their family, Mrs Smellie wrote: 

‘they say Ena and Papa must come and see them some day.’

Sadly, the Landsborough children were to suffer yet another blow, when Jessie Smellie died in April 1871. The following year William Landsborough was appointed as an inspector of cattle brands in the Moreton District, which probably meant that he and his daughters (Lizzie and Jeanie) were reunited. In March 1873 he married a widow named Maria Carr, and they went on to have three sons together. 

At some point little Ena must have been re-united with her family, however I have not yet been able to unravel how or when this happened, nor exactly where she was or who cared for her in those intervening years. 

Remarkably, all three of Caroline Landsborough’s daughters lived to adulthood, married and had children of their own; and all three remained in Queensland for the rest of their lives. I consider it remarkable that they each lived to adulthood because of the circumstances of their upbringing, and in spite of the era in which they lived. Their mother died from Tuberculosis. Their dear Aunt Lizzie Caird also died from Tuberculosis — in 1875. 

A deadly lung disease, Tuberculosis (also known as consumption or phthisis) was, and still is, spread from person to person via micro-droplets carried through the air upon coughing. Because it so often appeared in multiple members of a family, it was originally thought to be a hereditary disease. In 1882 it was discovered to be caused by a bacterial organism, however, it wasn’t until the 1940s that antibiotics were successfully used to treat Tuberculosis.

Perhaps when Caroline left her three little girls behind in the Gulf of Carpentaria, she effectively saved their lives? If she had taken them with her to Sydney, it is possible that they may have contracted Tuberculosis from her, with (most likely) fatal results. 

Selected sources:

• William Landsborough Papers, 1856-1908, held by State Library of Queensland.
• Various Birth, Death and Marriage Certificates.
• Various newspaper articles, including shipping departures and arrivals etc., via Trove
• Trundle, Gwen, 'Landsborough, William (1825–1886)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/landsborough-william-3984/text6299, published first in hardcopy 1974, accessed online.
• Patrick, Ross A History of Health & Medicine in Queensland, 1824-1960, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1987.
• Holmes, MJ ‘Tuberculosis in Australia’, Medical Journal of Australia, Vol. II, No. 19, 6 November 1937.
• District of the Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Queensland 1868 [cartographic material] : shewing position of Carnarvon, Norman & Burke towns, with mail routes, squatting stations ... / Compiled by Thomas Ham, Chief Engraver, Government Engraving Office Brisbane, held by National Library of Australia. Available online at https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1517624 

---

* According to shipping information, Maria was a servant.

**  As an aside, Mary Ann Campbell was also a witness at the birth of my Great-Great-Grandmother on Sweers Island in 1868. [More to come on that in future blogs!]

***  Note: this (and the other) letters are extremely difficult to decipher. The two words missing in this paragraph that are marked with a question mark, could not be translated with any certainty, so to avoid a possible incorrect interpretation, I have left these words out.

Original banner from Women of the North blog, by Ashley Fielding, BNewMediaArts (JCU)

Female Publicans

I am currently moving all my content from my Women of the North blog across to North Queensland History blog. This article was first published by Trisha Fielding on 31 March 2018.

In 1909 almost half of Townsville's 43 hotels were run by women. It was a similar story in other North Queensland towns too. In Ingham, 46 per cent of the hotels were run by women, while in Charters Towers, 41 per cent of pubs had female licensees. Of Bowen's 11 hotels, 7 were run by women and in Cairns, a third of the city's 30 hotels had women publicans. Some women briefly took over a hotel license after the death of their husband and soon moved on, but many appear to have been astute businesswomen, who saw the potential for good earnings in providing accommodation and sustenance to thirsty workers in these towns.

Chart compiled by Trisha Fielding using statistics in Queensland Government Gazette.

The Delaneys - Imperial Hotel, Ravenswood

Anne Delaney took over the license of the Imperial Hotel in Ravenswood after the death of her husband Jim in 1902. The following year, Ravenswood's population hit its peak of 4,700 after which time, the gold mining town began to decline. Despite the town's demise, Anne, together with her daughters, Tess and Jo, went on to run the Imperial Hotel for close to 90 years, and in the process, turned it into one of the most iconic pubs in Australia. The hotel's dining room was apparently beautifully appointed, as one Ravenswood local told ABC local radio in 2009:

It was full of old silverware with the great dome meat trays and tea pots and white ironed table cloths... They starched table cloths and polished the silver, it was all elegant and very, very nice.

Imperial Hotel, Ravenswood, 2009. Photo: Trisha Fielding

Annie Shanahan - Royal Oak Hotel, Townsville

Annie Shanahan was another long-running North Queensland female publican. According to her obituary, Annie ran the Royal Oak Hotel, Charters Towers Road, for over 40 years, until her death in 1950 at the age of 85. When Annie took over the license at the Royal Oak in 1909, it was still a modest, single-storeyed timber building. In 1927, Annie commissioned J.G. Rooney to design a new, two-storey brick hotel for her on the block in front of the old hotel. Although the original hotel remained standing for many more decades, the new hotel, which cost £5,000 to build, took the name Royal Oak. After Annie's death, her daughter Mary Ellen took over the license and ran the hotel until her own death just over two years later, in September 1952. The Royal Oak Hotel stood until the 1990s.

Royal Oak Hotel, Townsville, 1883. Photo: City Libraries Townsville. Annie Shanahan took over the license here in 1909. In 1927 she built a new Royal Oak Hotel on the block in front of the old one.

 

Isabella Fitzpatrick - Hotel Rollingstone, Rollingstone

Isabella Fitzpatrick (nee Wyatt) was born in Townsville in 1874. Her father, Charles Wyatt, was the licensee of the Court House Hotel, in Sturt Street, between 1887 and 1904. In 1907 the hotel was in the hands of Wyatt's son-in-law, John Fitzpatrick. In 1912, after having changed the name of the hotel to Herbert in 1910, John transferred the license to his wife, Isabella. In 1913 Isabella purchased the hotel at Armidale (later known as Rollingstone), although it appears that initially, family members ran the hotel for her. In the early 1920s she took over the license. At some point she decided, quite shrewdly, to relocate the hotel to a site opposite the railway line. Isabella was also involved in civic affairs and agitating for a school at Rollingstone. She served as a councillor on the Thuringowa Shire Council in 1924, making her one of the first women to serve on a local government authority in Queensland. (The first woman to do so was Dr Ellen Kent Hughes Wilson, in 1923 in Kingaroy, Queensland).

Hotel Rollingstone, opening day, 1922. Photo source: Rollingstone Historical Society Inc.

Johanna Oldenburg - Empire Hotel, Townsville

Swedish-born Johanna Oldenburg (nee Johannson) emigrated to Australia in 1873 with her husband Anton and their two children. In 1885, Anton, who was a carpenter by trade, built the Great Britain Hotel on the corner of Dean and McIlwraith Streets in Townsville. He was a popular publican, and like others of that time, was very active in community affairs - in 1891-1892 he served as an Alderman of the Townsville Council. Johanna was probably involved in the day-to-day running of the hotel, because when Anton died in 1897, she took over the license and capably ran the hotel for the next two years before selling up. It is at this point that we might expect a publican's widow to bow out of the hotel business, but instead, Johanna commissioned architects to design a new hotel for her. Johanna's Empire Hotel opened in 1901 at the corner of McIlwraith and Plume Streets, South Townsville. She held the license until the following year and then after an absence of seven years, took over the hotel again in 1909, with a promise to "conduct the hotel in the manner which made her previous management so successful". In later years, the Empire was renamed Republic, and although the building has been vacant for many years now, it is still standing in 2018. [Note: Since the writing of this blog post, this hotel has been beautifully refurbished and is now trading once more as the Empire Hotel!]

The Republic (formerly Empire) Hotel, built for Joanna Oldenburg in 1901. Photo: Trisha Fielding, 2018.

Lucie Varley - Pacific Resort Hotel, Yorkey's Knob

Lucie Varley worked as a private nurse and midwife at Malanda, Mareeba and Kureen, in the Atherton Tablelands region of far north Queensland and from around 1920, ran the St. Helen's Private Hospital and Sanitorium in Cooktown. After inheriting a "considerable fortune" from a relative overseas, Lucie decided to diversify and by the mid-1920s she had built, and was running, the Pacific Resort Hotel at Yorkey's Knob, near Cairns. By this time she was actually Mrs L'Estrange, though she remained better known throughout the north as Matron Varley. Lucie and her husband bought up a large parcel of land at Yorkey's Knob, subdivided some of it for residential blocks, and built the hotel on the remaining land. Whilst conducting her hotel, she continued her nursing and midwifery. In 1929 Matron Varley performed CPR on a man who had collapsed from a suspected heart attack in shallow water on the beach near her hotel. Along with another bystander, Matron Varley worked for over an hour to try and revive the man, unfortunately without success. Varley Street in Yorkey's Knob, is named after Matron Varley.

Advertisement for Lucie Varley's Pacific Resort Hotel at Yorkey's Knob, from Cairns Post, December 1928.

Original banner from Women of the North blog, by Ashley Fielding, BNewMediaArts (JCU)