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- OPENING
UP THE LAND
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- The
first pastoral property to be established in
Central Australia was Undoolya Station in 1873.
Four years later the 21-year-old South
Australian William Benstead became its manager.
He resigned after 5 years for he was advised
that Central Australia was not a suitable
place to bring a white woman.
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- Undeterred
he married his fiancée Tryphena in 1881
and became manager of Barrow Creek Pastoral
Company at Anna's Reservoir, later setting up
home at Stirling Creek near the Barrow Creek
Telegraph Station. In 1885, Tryphena, their son
Bertie and her sister Cornelia joined William at
Stirling Creek, two of the first white women to
live on Central Australian pastoral
properties.
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- Looking
at Census Returns for the Alice Springs area
before World War II, it is clear to see the very
small number of women in relation to the male
managers and stockmen who lived on pastoral
properties. Wives, governesses, cooks - such
women's stories need to be researched and told.
Examples include: Lilian Bloomfield at Love's
Creek; Eleanor Cavenagh at Ambalindum; Vera
Draper and Alice Strange at Bond Springs; Ruby
Elliot at Horseshoe Bend; Charlotte Somerfield
at Old Crown Point; Bertha Rose Crook at
Wycliffe Well and Singleton; Doreen Braitling
(née Crook) at Mt Doreen; Cora Chalmers
at MacDonald Downs; Kate Huddleston and
Constance Patch at Lake Nash; Monica Kennedy and
Annie Kraft at Elkedra; Eleanor McDill at
Andado; Annie McDonald and Dorothy Spratt at
Avon Downs; Ethel Shaw and Ellen Burr at Austral
Downs; Eileen Stanes at Erldunda; Elsie Colson
at Aileron; Kathleen Coulthard at Kulgera; Elsa
Petrick (née Johannsen) at Mount Swan;
Beatrice Brumby at Ernabella.
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- Help
us flesh out their stories. Please
contact
us
if you can provide further information or
photographs.
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 - Mrs
Price and her children Pearl, Alf, Molly and Ron
standing in front of their first home, a bough
shed, Harpers Springs,
1927.
- Courtesy:
McRae-Powell Collection
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- MRS
PRICE’S STORY
- 18-year-old
Isobel Hesketh emigrated from England and
married Fred Price in Palmerston 3 years later.
He became postmaster at Alice Springs Telegraph
Station during WWI when there was a manpower
shortage and the 4 Price children did much of
the stock work. Fred took up the lease of
Harpers Springs Station, NE of Alice for his
retirement but died suddenly whilst on holiday.
However Isobel returned to work the station
herself with children Molly, Pearl, Alf and Ron,
aged 17 to 10 years. From Oodnadatta railhead
they journeyed to Harpers Springs by horse and
buggy, along with 200 sheep and 3 camels,
assisted solely by an Aboriginal man. Taking 8
weeks, they collected their goats from the
Telegraph Station and took a further 4 weeks to
reach Harpers Springs. Here they built their
first home, a simple bough shed and ran the
property, eventually moving to neighbouring
Woolla Downs in the 1930's.
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 - Mary
Hayes (senior).
- Courtesy:
National Trust (NT)
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- MRS
HAYES’ STORY
- Mary
Hayes arrived in Central Australia by bullock
wagon in 1884 with husband William and 5
children. William had been contracted by Sir
Thomas Elder to construct fencing and dams on
Owen Springs and Mount Burrell Stations, about
160 km south of Alice. They had a nomadic life
dam-sinking and working on various Central
Australian stations eventually leasing Deep Well
Station and later Mount Burrell, Undoolya and
Maryvale. Mary and daughters Mary and Elizabeth
were remarkable women doing their full share of
mustering, branding, droving, slaughtering and
building fences. On one occasion Mrs Hayes and
the girls drove a flock of 1000 sheep nearly 600
kms to Mount Burrell. Mary walked all the way
and despite big rains, causing the sheep to get
bogged and the loss of her boots, the flock was
brought home in-tact.
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 - Gertie
Elliott (later Mrs Turner) is seen here 4th from
the left with her young charges Mary, Jane and
Lizzie Hayes. She had arrived from Brisbane the
year previously to become governess to the Hayes
children at Undoolya
Station.
- Courtesy:
Laver Collection
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- MRS
TURNER’S STORY
- Leaving
her Brisbane home, 24 year old Gertie Elliot
arrived at Undoolya Station in December 1922 to
become governess to her cousin Jane Hayes'
children. The train journey had taken a month to
get to Oodnadatta via Sydney, Melbourne and
Adelaide, followed by an 8-day ride in an open
buggy with her cousin Claude Nicker, camping out
a night. Gertie used the SA correspondence
school to teach the Hayes’ five children
during her 4 years with the family. Lessons and
books were sent up by camel. Gertie married Jim
Turner of The Garden Station in 1927. Jim sent
£20 to his brother down south for a plain
wedding ring and to spend the change on records.
Gertie brought up 5 children at The Garden,
eventually moving into their town house which
became known as Turner House.
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 - Stella.
- Courtesy:
the late Marilyn Webb, Jane Webb's
granddaughter
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- STELLA'S
STORY
- Stella
was an Allowera woman who lived at Mount Riddock
Station with the Webb family for 18 years. She
helped with the housework and the rearing of the
5 Webb children who it is known could speak 4
Allowera languages but could not read or write
English until a male teacher stayed with them to
help them through correspondence lessons.
Stella's story is also told through a unique
radio play "Stella The Fugitive Lubra",
part of a series called "The Land and its
People" written by Marjorie Gartrell. A copy
of the original script is held in the NPWHF's
Herstory
archive.
Described as Jane's trusted and most beloved
friend, Stella later brought up Jane's youngest
daughter Joy who was still a little girl when
her mother died. Joy has fond memories of her
Aboriginal nanny.
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 - Jane
Sophia Webb.
- Courtesy:
the late Marilyn Webb, Jane Webb's
granddaughter
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- MRS
WEBB’S STORY
- Jane
had originally come from South Australia to the
goldfields with her prospector husband Ben Webb
and his brother. In 1910 Ben took up the
pastoral lease of Ramberana, Harts Range with
Louis Schaber and later moved to Mount Riddock
Station. They lived in a log cabin built of
native pine in 1925 by Ben. It still stands and
is a heritage-listed building. Here Jane brought
up her 5 children. She went to Oodnadatta to
have her eldest son but the younger children
were all born at the station, being tended only
by her husband and Stella, her loyal Aboriginal
friend. The children were tutored using
correspondence lessons and Jane rarely saw
another European woman. She died at the station
in 1933 after a long illness.
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 - Home
for Fanny Ross at Crown Point Station with the
notably all male station
hands.
- Courtesy:
Mrs Jill Braithwaite
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- MRS
ROSS’ STORY
- In
1885 Fanny came to live with her husband
Alexander, then manager of Undoolya Station. She
had her piano transported from South Australia
by bullock wagon, which took 3 months and cost
£100 in freight. Her son Alexander junior
was born the following year at Hermannsburg, a
3-day journey away. When the baby was about 6
months old, the station was sold and the family
left for Adelaide, returning 3 years later to
Crown Point Station, south of Alice Springs, an
8-day buggy journey from Oodnadatta. Alexander
left for a muster the next day leaving Fanny,
who “with a couple of lubras set to work
to clean and make the new home
comfortable“. Fanny decorated the
homestead with huge jars of gumtips, spending
her leisure hours reading.
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