“ I’ve lived here since 1996 so I guess I’m just beginning to be a local. I moved here because my parents had lived here for 45 years and I have a sister here. I moved up from Sydney with my 2 sons, one of whom is still here and my youngest son is a Criminal Lawyer In Sydney. I was an educator who supported students with special needs including disabilities and learning difficulties but also students who were gifted and talented. It was demanding but very satisfying work.
I worked At Trinity and retired 2 years ago because my father was beginning to ail and I wanted to spend more time with him. He died last November. I also have a son with a disability and I wanted to spend more time with him as well which I did but then I wanted to study my real passion which is Australian History.
I’m just putting the finishing touches on my Masters thesis which is on Australian History, convict women specifically. I have looked at 61 convict women who arrived here in 1790 aboard a ship that was called the Hell Ship because so many people died. It was captained by a man who captained slave ships and because so many convicts died aboard the ship it gained the reputation as the hell ship.
These 61 women survived that horrible trip and established themselves in the colony. One third stayed in Sydney, one third went to Norfolk Island and a third went to Rosehill which is now called Parramatta. They were the only three settlements at the time in 1790. It was only 2 years after first fleet. There was no infrastructure so the first thing was to find somewhere to sleep. There were no prisons, no chain gangs, none of those things we associate with convicts. The women had to build a hut. A number of the women married first fleet convicts and others married second fleet convicts. It was all about survival. To arrive in a country so different from England and having to carve out a home and feed themselves, they were starving. They weren’t very good at growing food as the conditions were so different and there had been a severe drought so there was a famine for 4 years. They had to survive and learn to farm straight away so they were taking land, possessing it and of course displacing the Aboriginal people. I looked at those women and their lives as I’ve been a Genealogist and a family historian for 42 years so I delved deeply into their lives and the contribution they made to the colonisation process and sadly the dispossession of our first peoples land. That has been a very interesting couple of years researching and putting it together. I’ve loved every minute of it.
I’m ready to move on now to my PhD which I’m looking at a range of documents called Memorials that were written by anybody within the colony from 1810 to 1826. Anyone during those years could write to the Governor asking for anything, land or convicts to work their land or for their freedom or for whatever. I’m looking at 165 Memorials (petitions really) and I think I will be analysing them for what they can show about the social and personal history within the colony. Nobody else has looked at these documents and they are incredibly valuable because the petitioners themselves wrote them. They tell us a lot about the people themselves but they also tell about the state of their lives and the colony at the time.
I’ve been student of Southern Cross and I love it. Adele Wessell has been my Supervisor and I’ve really enjoyed working with her. I can’t do my PhD through SCU sadly, I have to do it through Armidale but I’ve loved SCU. The facilities are so great. The Library is amazing.
I love gardening and I have a lovely dog (coming to Dogs of Lismore). She and I walk a lot. I’m an avid reader and I belong to a book club. Life is good and the North Coast is such a beautiful place with beautiful people. People are so friendly here.”