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- MINES:
Women
of the Goldfields
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- Winnecke
and Arltunga goldfields attracted a large
concentration of white, mainly single, male
Australians. However it is known that many local
aboriginal women were their co-workers and
companions but little else is known of
them.
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- At
the turn of the century a few married European
women lived at the goldfields which must have
been a lonely and tough existence. We know that
there were 3 European married women at the White
Range goldfield in 1904 – Mary Murphy,
Elizabeth (Betty O’Neil) and F. Sutherland
because they signed a petition for a polling
booth there. Mrs O’Neil had miners rights
registered in her name in 1907 and
1909.
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 - Lizzie
Nicker with her grandchildren William (died in
infancy) and Lizzie Hayes (Mrs
Milnes).
- Courtesy:
PWCNT
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- MRS
NICKER’S STORY
- In
1905 Elizabeth (Lizzie) arrived at Arltunga with
her 2nd husband Sam Nicker, 10-year-old daughter
Jane Doolan and baby Claude, born en
route at Quorn, SA. They had travelled 4000
km from Queensland in a 2-horse buggy. Their
numerous businesses included running a
hawkers’ van between Alice Springs and
Newcastle Waters while at Arltunga, Sam grew
fruit and vegetables and sold it to the miners.
Sons Eugene and Ben were born in the Arltunga
area while in 1909 Lizzie gave birth to her
daughter Margaret in their van in Alice Springs,
assisted only by her elder daughter and an
Aboriginal woman. Leasing a pastoral block at
Ryans Well, Lizzie was later the area's
unofficial nurse and midwife, travelling long
distances by horse and buggy. She died in Alice
Springs in 1951.
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 - Mr
and Mrs George Lines & child outside their
basic home on Winnecke Goldfield in
1905.
- Courtesy:
Bradshaw Collection
PWCNT
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- MRS
LINES' STORY
- Believed
to be called Mary, Mrs Lines lived with her
husband on the Winnecke goldfields, described as
a "calico village" in the early years of the
20th century. Their home consisted of two large
square tents, connected by a breezeway and
protected from the sun by brush walls and a
rubberoid roof. Rubber sheeting also covered the
floor while furniture was generally makeshift
with deckchairs on which to sit. The main
entertainment in this isolated area was evening
singsongs and the Lines were known to have a
small portable organ for accompanying such
events.
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 - Jane
and Benjamin Webb on their wedding day at Burra,
SA.
- Courtesy:
the late Marilyn Webb
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- MRS
WEBB’S STORY
- In
1908, Jane spent her honeymoon travelling by
train and thence horse and dray from Oodnadatta
with her husband and brother-in-law, to a new
life at remote Arltunga. Her wedding ring was
made from Arltunga gold studded with 3 Arltunga
garnets. One of 2 white women amongst nearly 500
men, Jane, a Methodist deaconess, tended the
sick and injured miners. She would have had a
lonely life, her husband being firstly a
prospector and later a teamster carting stores
and wood to the goldfields from Alice before
taking up a pastoral lease at Ramberana and then
Mount Riddock Station.
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