Visit AustralianFamilyHistory.netAustralian Quotes and Notes
1770-2008
A 280,000-word timeline of events from the European discovery and settlement of Australia to the present day.
Edited by John Larkins
Kevin Rudd, a convict's proud descendant and Labor Prime Minister from November, 2007, has some liquidly lucid political forebears ... e.g. name the Aussie PM, who, when asked by an opponent about his great, wobbling belly, said: 'It's all piss and wind; I'll name it after you.' Check our exclusive Potted PM Profiles, under keywords 'the good, the bad and the bloody devious' (1901-1950). It's the good oil on all of them.
Nicholas Chevalier, a Swiss wandering artist, gave this watercolour (right) to the young Lady Anna Maria Barkly, aged 22, new second wife of the widowed Sir Henry Barkly, 45, Governor of Victoria, after their nuptials in Melbourne in 1860. The fashion design is a bold attempt at the golden Colony of Victoria's first national dress ... a coat trimmed with quartz nuggets, languid mountain ferns, a fan resembling a lyre bird's tail, a tangled tiara of Aussie scrub and a glowing gown redolent of the colours of a goldfields mullock heap. Lady Barkly must have been inspired by Chevalier's work ('from her most humble servant') ... later in the Barklys' Empire travels, she wrote A Revised List of Ferns of South Africa, 1875 and became a Fellow of the Royal Society in Britain. Her collection is held today by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (UK). More under 'Nicholas Chevalier' (1850-1901'). Painting courtesy of the National Library of Australia (Rex Nan Kivell NK 559).
And while we're discussing Victorian era doings in the Colony of Victoria, we've been told by Professor George P. Landow, of the mighty Ivy League Brown University in the U.S. that we've been linked to his Victorian Web's (www.victorianweb.org) Postcolonial site (one million page views a month). The Victorian Web has 14 million page views or so (welcome into our humble Aussie bark hut, George).
Hey, family history buffs! We've a new website just for you ... www.australianfamilyhistory.net. It's free. Just register and you can join in the forum. Talk about any family history matter that you like ... you might be looking for a forebear from the Scotland, the Isle of Man, India, China, Timbuktu ... anywhere.
First Fleet Females ...
(1) Misfortunes of future Sydney social butterfly!
William Garrow, a handsome, 26-year-old lawyer, rescued from the gallows the beguiling, beautiful, bewitching, unmarried, shamelessly pregnant, 15-year-old, doe-eyed (phew!) milliner, Esther Abrahams, charged on 30 August, 1786 with shoplifting 24 yards of black lace.
Later, he was the legal authority credited with introducing the concept of 'innocent until proven guilty'. As Sir William Garrow, he became Solicitor-General, Attorney-General, and a judge. His 'presumption of innocence' is said to be British justice's gift to the world.
But first, he had to rescue Esther Abrahams! The full text of the trial is under 'Ancient Times until 1850', keywords 'Esther Abrahams'.
(Hint: She came to Sydney, married very well, indeed, and has 400 honest descendants, at the very least).
(2) Gallows to Glory!
In the autumn of 1820, the wealthy ex-convict, Ann Inett (Robinson), aged in her sixties, boarded the Admiral Cockburn in Sydney to return to England where, 34 years earlier, she had been sentenced to death. Did she hope to meet the children separated from her for so long? And the two sons of the future Governor born while she was in convict slavery? Her extraordinary story is under the keywords 'Ann Inett' ('Ancient Times to 1850').
Tragedy at sea
'Within seconds, the German had hauled down her Dutch flag, dropped the doors concealing her guns, and opened fire on the Australian ship. Von Malapert recalled that Kormoran's shooting, especially at Sydney's bridge, was murderous, and he admired the bravery of the Australians who ran across the deck to man the Sydney's unshielded 4-inch guns.' - Obituary, London Daily Telegraph, 21 June, 2007, of Kapitan-Leutnant Reinhold von Malapert, signals officer on the German raider, Kormoran, Indian Ocean, 1941. All 645 crew of HMAS Sydney were lost and the wreckage has never been found.
See keyword 'Kormoran', under '1900 to 1950'. The Australian National Archive(www.naa.gov.au) has a complete record of the disaster.
Some more quotes from the 2000 in this chronology ...
'She could only receive six, as she fainted away, it is a thousand pities that she is an abandoned woman, for she is in figure a fine woman, and has a handsome face.' An officer's lament that a bare-breasted convict girl couldn't endure the full 25 lashes. Her crime? Going to town without permission, Norfolk Island, 6 June, 1791.
'I will not hang you; it is too gentle a death, but I will cut you to pieces.' Notorious ship's captain, Thomas Dennott, convict ship, Britannia, 1797.
Read the horse thief-turned-Sydney-businesswomen Mary Reibey's solemn assurances to the folks in Olde England that she used two violent emus in Sydney's CBD instead of guard dogs.
First fair dinkum fish finger ... 'A human finger was discovered on April 26 in the stomach of a flathead bought by a woman at Northcote (Vic).' Australasian Sketcher, 17 May, 1873.
We have detailed reports from people who were actually there at the goldminers' bloody uprising against their British oppressors, Ballarat, 1854. See keywords 'Eureka Stockade'.
'As the bodies of the felons that were gibbeted on Hunter's Hill were close to the place where the wharf is erected, and have become objects of disgust, especially to the female sex, they have been removed (by order of the Lieutenant-Governor) to a point of land near Queenborough, which will in future be the place of execution.' - Hobart Town Gazette, 8 June, 1816.