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- MISSIONS:
Missionaries’
and layworkers' wives
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- The
first white women to settle in Central Australia
were the missionaries’ wives at
Hermannsburg, 140 km west of Alice, a German
Lutheran mission established in
1877.
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- Dorothea
Queckenstedt and Wilhelmine Schulze were the
first to arrive in 1878. Leaving Germany the
previous year, they took 5 months to reach
Hermannsburg from Glenelg in South Australia.
Missionary Kempe and Miss Queckenstedt were
married en route, in a tent at Dalhousie
Springs. Miss Schulze married Missionary Kempe
on arrival at Hermannsburg. For 3 years they
were the only white women at the mission. By
1886/7 the number of white women had grown to
seven.
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- Following
the purchase of the mission by the Immanual
Synod of the Lutheran Church, a new group of
women arrived with their missionary husbands
including Frieda Keysser who married Carl
Strehlow in 1895. Frieda's contribution to life
at the mission has sometimes been
underestimated. She spoke fluent Arrente and was
committed to raising the status of aboriginal
women and childcare. She taught the children
sewing, mending and domestic work as well as
attending to their medical needs.
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- Apart
for supporting each other, the women at
Hermannsburg also offered assistance to other
white women in the area, on stations or in the
fledgling town of Stuart. During the 1880's to
early 1900's white women often travelled to the
mission for the birth of their babies although
there was often a language barrier since only
German and Arrente were spoken
there!
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 - Tilly
Johannsen & her eldest daughter, Elsa at
Bloods Creek near Hermannsburg, about
1910.
- Courtesy:
Mrs Mona Byrnes (née
Johannsen)
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- MRS
JOHANNSEN’S STORY
- Ottilie
(Tilly) Johannsen arrived at Hermannsburg from
the Barossa Valley in 1909 with husband,
Gerhardt, a Danish stonemason and builder and
daughter Elsa, aged 3. Gerhardt had been
contracted to help the Aboriginal men build
stockyards. Here they lived for 2 years - Tilly
fostered an Aboriginal child and helped the
women sew and keep house. Later they leased Deep
Well Station, 80 km south of Alice Springs
although they returned briefly to Hermannsburg
from 1922-24, where Tilly gave birth to Mona,
the 5th of their 6 surviving children. Later the
family lived in Alice although during WWII they
were forced out of town because of their German
connections and mined mica at Strangways. Mrs
Johannsen died in 1959.
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 - Minna
Albrecht and children, Helene and Ted at Palm
Valley, with their Aboriginal helper Marianna.
- Courtesy:
Mrs Minna Sitzler (née
Albrecht)
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- MRS
ALBRECHT’S STORY
- Minna
Gevers had sailed to Canada from Germany to
marry Friedrich Albrecht who was learning
English in preparation for his new job as
Superintendent at Hermannsburg, where they
arrived in 1926. Because of complications, Minna
was transported down south to have her first
child Helene later that year. Lying on a
mattress on the back of a buckboard, she was
driven the rough 640-km to Oodnadatta, followed
by a 3-day train journey. Minna looked after the
Aboriginal women and their children, teaching
them sewing and other crafts. Her Aboriginal
helper Marianna was like a second mother to both
Helene and her sister and 3 brothers. Mrs
Albrecht remained at Hermannsburg until retiring
to Alice in 1962. She died in Adelaide in
1983.
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 - Pastor
Liebler and his wife preparing to leave
Hermannsburg in 1913. The camels would have
transported all their worldly goods down to
Oodnadatta and thence by train down
south.
- Courtesy:
Lutheran Archives, SA
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- MRS
LIEBLER’S STORY
- Mrs
Liebler arrived on 1 May 1910 with her husband,
a newly graduated missionary. They were taking
the place of the Strehlows who had returned to
Germany for a year for health reasons. We can
assume Mrs Liebler’s life was a lonely one.
All provisions arrived twice a year by camel.
Mail arrived monthly and travel to Alice, for
example, would have taken 3 days. Mrs
Liebler’s ill health forced them to return
to Germany on 24 November 1913.
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