Matilda Wallace
Matilda Wallace was a 19th century pioneer Australian pastoralist. Born in High Ham, Somerset, England to Sarah and George Hill. She emigrated to Australia departing Liverpool on 31 October 1858, joining members of her family in Coromandel Valley, in the Colony of South Australia. She was a twenty-year old sponsored by brother, Robert Hill. Wallace and her husband Abraham were for many years frontier sheep and cattle farmers, which she documented in a memoir.Her account provides a view into the place of women in society at the time, the hardships of frontier settlers and their interactions with Indigenous people.
Her early life and journey to Australia
Matilda Hill's family lived in the hamlet of Henley in the Parish of High Ham, Somerset. High Ham is surrounded by small farms and has a temperate maritime climate with mild, damp winters and warm, changeable summer. January is the coldest month, with mean minimum temperatures generally between 1°C and 2°C. July is usually the warmest month with temperatures occasionally reaching above 30°C. Annual rainfall is 725mm spread evenly through the year.George Hill married local woman Sarah Meaker on 13 January 1827 at St Andrews Church, High Ham. They had five children the youngest being Matilda. Matilda was baptised in St Andrew’s Church of England at High Ham on 11 November 1838 a short time after her birth. She attended the village school attached to St Andrew’s Church until the age of 11 and, at the age of 12, she was employed as a glove maker, or glover. According to the 1841 census, all five of George Hill’s children were living at Henley. In 1851 only Robert, scholar 16, and Matilda 12, glover, were at home with George and Sarah at the time of the census. Robert Hill, baptised 26/10/1834 at High Ham, stayed at school until he was 16, and then worked on the land. Matilda led a sheltered life on the farm and helped with milking. When Matilda emigrated, she was described on the passenger list as a dairy maid.
Young people from rural Somerset were affected by the repeal of the Corn Laws and the increase in farm size, resulting from consolidation, decreased the number of small landholders and led to substantial poverty and a reduction in the need for farm labourers. Many were destined for Australasia as was the case for members of Matilda's family.
When Matilda was born her siblings were Mary 13, Susan 12, Robert 4 and Jeffrey 1. Matilda kept in touch by post with her three siblings, Mary, Robert and Jeffrey, who had emigrated to Australia. Matilda knew why her three siblings had left Somerset and how they fared in the Colony of South Australia and decided to follow them and knew what that entailed. When Matilda emigrated the cost of an assisted passage was £5.
Matilda’s sister, Mary Elliot Hill, married Samuel Bartlett, a farm labourer. They emigrated on the ship Himalaya to the Colony of South Australia on 1 August 1849 from Southampton. The passenger list includes Samuel 29, Mary 23 and their daughter Emma, aged two, and a baby son, Arthur. They settled at St Mary's Coromandel Valley in the Adelaide Hills.
Once Mary and Samuel Bartlett had settled in the colony other members of the family also decided to emigrate from Somerset. Samuel’s brother, James Bartlett, married Elizabeth Culiford of High Ham on 9/3/1852 also emigrated. They arrived later on the Sultana on 7 October 1852 from Plymouth. Matilda’s brother, Robert Hill, and Mary Allen from nearby Puriton, married at St Mary Magdalene, Taunton on 29/5/1855. They travelled on the Nimroud, arriving in February 1856 He was listed as an ag labourer 20 and Mary 35. In 1857 Matilda’s other brother, Jeffrey Hill 19 farm labourer, and his wife Mary 23 sailed from Liverpool on the Tantivy to join them The families all settled in Coromandel Valley, less than 20 km from the centre of Adelaide, then a town of about 15,000. Robert and Jeffrey both spent time as sheep farmers.In 1874 Robert was described as a market gardener at Scott's Creek.
As a nominated emigrant, Matilda's passage in steerage was subsidised. Subsidies were used to encourage migrants and thus provide much needed labour. Of the 156 young women on the passenger list, 10 from Somerset, most were domestic servants in their early twenties, so Matilda had companions with a similar background.For steerage passengers, life aboard ship, was characterised by poor hygiene and a lack of privacy for ablutions with limited access to fresh water and toilet facilities. Washing facilities were also communal and basic, often involving buckets of seawater and limited access to fresh water. During severe storms in the Southern Ocean passengers were confined below, sometimes for days, sick and tossed around, often in complete darkness, and fearing for their lives, as water swept across the decks. Anne Grafton, who migrated from England in the same year as Matilda, wrote: Our water barrels were rolling from side to side and our cans, teapots and cooking utensils were adding to the confusion by bouncing one after the other down the area between the bunks.
The barque North, owned by Boyd and Company, was built in Quebec in 1855. Its first voyage from Liverpool to Adelaide was chartered by the Emigration Commissioners, who facilitated emigration within the British Empire, to sail with Government emigrants. It departed from Liverpool on 1 November 1858 and carried passengers in cabins and government-assisted emigrants in the steerage. The "North" arrived in Adelaide on 28 January 1859.The 1,238 tons North carried a full complement of 417 passengers, including 51 young married couples with 34 boys and 49 girls including 15 babies, five of whom were born on ship, 74 single men, 156 single women. Matilda was fortunate as passengers were generally satisfied 'with the conduct of officers and crew, as well as the quality and quantity of provisions served out.'
Early Years in Australia
Matilda Elliot Hill arrived in Port Adelaide on 28 January 1859 and was met by her brother, Robert, and travelled via Adelaide to Coromandel Valley to meet her sister Mary, brother-in-law Samuel, and her nieces, Ann Matilda and Mary Elliot. She stayed with her sister Mary and brother Robert. She later recalled: Matilda later reflected on her arrival in the colony: 'I, then a girl of twenty-one, having left my native land, father and mother. What for? I used often to ask myself'.While in Coromandel Valley, Matilda became acquainted with Australian farming on the sheep runs associated with Robert and Jeffrey. Matilda travelled around the colony for about two and a half years staying with friends and relations in almost every inhabited part of South Australia, and finally settled in Mt Gambier in early 1861 where she met her future husband.
Abraham Wallace, the youngest son of Jeremiah and Anne Wallace, was born in 1828. At the age of sixteen he emigrated from Ireland with his parents and two brothers, Jeremiah, and John, arriving in Australia on 24 November 1850 on the Joseph Somes from Plymouth. The Wallaces kept a shop and were well known in Mt Gambier.
Abraham first settled at Mt Gambier but went to the Victorian goldfields, where he engaged in hawking goods. He returned to the Southeast where he met Matilda. Matilda and Abraham were married at Weshill, the residence of Anne Wallace, on 9 December 1861 by the Reverend J. Sheldon. The couple stayed in Mt Gambier for 18 months. During that time Matilda helped in the Wallace’s shop and the couple suffered the loss of their first child, a boy..
The couple left for Queensland equipped thus: a waggon and pair of horses, bedding and provisions. They travelled up the Darling River to Mount Murcheson, the only place above flood level. Matilda wrote: "I not being strong enough to travel, we stayed here and opened a store. After sending to Adelaide for goods, my husband then applied to the New South Wales Government for land to purchase; in four months' time we received an answer that we could buy land, and that a surveyor had instructions to survey it, in the meantime my husband put up a house 28 by 18, divided into two rooms, in which we had to pack our stores as well as ourselves, but as the surveyor never made his appearance, of course we could not open a store. My husband got discontented having nothing to do, and started hawking to dispose of his goods." Matilda was still frail when Abraham left her to dispose of the stock. Not Long after he left, "24 blackfellows appeared at the house, but Mrs Wallace put on a bold front, and made friends with them. They brought her much game and a lot of eggs.The second child, a boy, of the marriage was born here but did not survive.""Upon his wife's recovery, Mr Wallace left her alone again for another month, and at the end of that period decided that hawking was not his forte, and that he would continue the journey to Queensland. The remaining stores were sold to a pioneer from the Paroo, and the waggon was headed into Queensland. After having travelled 200 miles beyond the border it was learned that the government would not allow stock to cross from any other colony, and so a return was made to Mount Murchison.On his return it was resolved to proceed to Adelaide via the Barrier Ranges.This was breaking new ground, and everybody at Menindie said the Wallaces were mad to face the perils involved."
However, they did get through, risking death from thirst on what would have been a hot dry journey to Mingary,80 miles over the South Australian border. From there pushed on to Adelaide.
In her later years, Matilda reflected that during her overland trips she was filled with both fear and trepidation.
Late in 1863, they returned with 25
horses, 1,400 sheep, 18 months'
provisions, and two men in order to
settle on some country on the other
side of the ranges, travelling via Boolcoomatta Station. From there they probably went north along the border area between the colonies of South Australia and New South Wales, crossing the Barrier Ranges near Byjerkerno in early January 1864.
Local Aborigines showed them a waterhole in the creek where they camped. The Wallaces were on land to the north east of Boolcoomatta and became squatters. They were now at the remote front
of European settlement in a locality named Sturt's Meadows in honour of Sturt's 1844-5 journey in which he followed the Darling River to the point that gave the shortest plains crossing to the southern end of the Barrier Range.
Once settlers arrived at the frontier of white settlement, they "squatted" on Aboriginal land, became pastoralists, grew food, selected land - later applying for leases, built homesteads, fences and watering points. These early settlers relied on each other for support far from the jurisdiction of the law. Matilda’s memoir seems to indicate that she and Abraham did not see themselves as invaders of another’s land, but as hard-working pioneers in a land yet to be developed, a view promulgated
by governments at the time.
The British government had sought to occupy Australia exclusively without any agreement or treaty. All land was declared to be owned by the Crown. Reynolds has stated:
It is of course equally possible that they did know what they were doing! Early European accounts of frontier settlement did not include recognition and reflection on the conflict and violence committed against Indigenous people, initially by the British, then by pastoralists, then by police, and then by Aboriginal militia, conflicts that are now recognised as frontier wars in which Indigenous people battled to defend their country.
Becoming Settlers
Once the Wallaces had decided to settle, they entered a nomadic phase, shepherding their sheep throughout the Fowlers Gap area to meet their need for water and feed. Early properties were not fenced, and it was the job of the shepherds to prevent stock fromwandering, being lost and ensuring they were safe and had adequate shade, food and water. Finding
water was often difficult in arid areas of the Barrier region. The Wallaces were often helped in shepherding by Aboriginal people as they moved from one place to another.
Stockmen usually relied on horses and sheep dogs for shepherding sheep. Horses were essential for moving large flocks across large distances, while sheep dogs were crucial for mustering, controlling, and managing the sheep. Matilda recalled in her memoir that when in full charge of men, sheep, horses, and home, a shepherd came back
The first station in the Barrier region was Mt Gipps, established around 1865, followed shortly after by Poolamacca Station and then Sturt’s Meadows The latter property was formally leased in September 1869 and the prior occupant, squatter George Raines, displaced. He was a landless bushman who roamed about with his stock, squatting on the unfenced runs wherever he found good feed. Within 'ten years the property had increased to an area of, about 251,000 acres.'
The Wallaces depended on local Aboriginal knowledge of the land and sources of water and feed for their stock.The teenage Blore brothers, Fred and George, also gave assistance to Matilda. Frederick Blore and family had migrated from England in 1851 and were among the first to move to the Barrier Region and often visited the Cobham Lake area. The main water source at Sturt's Meadows was Caloola Creek. In this semi-arid area creeks are intermittent and cease to flow for months or, in some cases, years. They are fed by local rainfall and from the catchment areas to the north. Some of this water is stored in the sands below the creek bed and becomes a soak, an important source of water in drought years. The Wallaces had to frequently relocate during droughts, seeking water at locations such as Cobham Lake, returning to their old camp after it rained. Matilda recalled one trip.
Matilda managed the property independently during her husband's frequent absences, relying on Aboriginal people, men as stockmen and women for home help, to source local food and as midwives. Dame Mary Jean Gilmore in later life recalled: "In our beginnings, the black woman was always the stand-by of the interiors as nurse and midwife. I remember two of the most trusted nurses in Wagga Wagga who told my mother that what made them so successful was that they had learned from the blacks. Indeed, one said that she had to teach the doctor, as he had come to the town a surgeon, but not an accoucheur ". Views of white women settlers of Indigenous peoples in the mid-19th century were often negative, shaped in part by the patriarchal mindset that limited their own rights and contemporary racial stereotypes.They generally believed their own culture and race were superior. However, positive interactions over time often led settler women to see Indigenous people in another light, challenging these views. This seems to be true for Matilda even though she did use some nineteenth and early twentieth-century words, and phrases considered offensive by today’s standards as did Gilmore when referring to Aboriginal people as blacks. At Sturt's Meadow, Matilda had more contact with Aboriginal people than Europeans. Fortunately some of the Indigenous people she met 'could speak English and understand it. I, of course, then was perfectly ignorant of their 'lingo'.'Over time Matilda becomes familiar with terms such as 'mob' to refer to a group of Aboriginal people, "lubra" to refer to a girl or woman and wadie, a multi-purpose wooden club. She could understand what was said, for example, `Bel more pull away allabout yarra man tumble down', she interpreted as meaning 'the country was so rough we could go no further.'
The carrying capacity of Sturts Meadows was lower than expected when the Wallaces first settled. The vegetation is mainly saltbush and bluebush with scattered mulga and belah, river red gums along ephemeral creeks and a variety of low growing grasses. The climate is typical of an arid region with fairly mild winters and hot summers and low and variable rainfall, averaging about 10 inches per annum.The Fowlers Gap area can be very hot and exceed 49°C in summer.
Matilda's brother, Robert, left his eldest son, Tom, with the Wallaces. Tom was only ten years old, when he was left at Sturt's Meadows.Tom is frequently mentioned in Matilda’s memoir as both a companion and helper at Sturt’s Meadows He showed an interest in the hand prints at Mootwingee and the engravings on the red-brown rocks found at Sturt’s Meadows. These rocks were used for buildings on the property.
Several Aboriginal groups are recognised as having an association with Mootwingee, a sheep station run at one time by George Raines who had previously squatted at Sturt’s Meadows. Their forebears lived and travelled along the length of the Darling River. Matilda commented on this as most people in Somerset seldom ventured outside the boundaries of the County.
Matilda faced many hardships and challenges. The environment at Sturt’s Meadows as depicted in her memoir, seemed uninviting in comparison to the green and well-watered pastures of Somerset. Flies, mosquitoes, rats, loneliness, isolation and shortages of water and fodder for stock were a constant battle. Some hardships were minor and short-lived. After a flood she wrote 'I must here tell you the air at night and day was black with mosquitos, preventing me from reading or writing unless I smoked to keep them away.’ Other hardships became enduring battles. Loneliness is a recurring theme in Matilda’s memoir. She recalls an Aboriginal man ‘making me understand it was very wrong of big one white fellow no good leave you along y'rself, black fellow no leave min lubra.’ Matilda was destined to have a much-interrupted married life with Abraham. She recalled when a visitor appeared ‘this was quite “a red- letter day”, as I had not seen a stranger for eleven months’. Near the end of her memoir she wrote 'I should not have said I was left alone, for I had my dear little baby, and you can imagine, dear reader, what a great comfort my baby was to me after so many years of loneliness. I often prayed fervently to the Lord to spare my darling to me'.
Although she had resolved that ‘for weal or woe’ she would go with her husband and ‘share the same fate’ whenever possible, she was left alone for weeks-on-end. She records being left ‘to look after one thousand eight hundred sheep to lamb’ for ten weeks while he took sheep for sale to Adelaide where he got 25 shillings per head for them. Matilda found it hard work. ‘With the help of Tom and an old lubra I looked after them, sending him with them first thing in the morning, and I went out afterwards to gather up the lambs, for if any were left out the dogs would eat them. Many a time I have sat on the sand hills and had a good cry, and then thought how very wrong it was of me, as all went so well this time.’Dingoes were a serious threat to sheep owned by the Wallaces. Dingoes target the outliers from the
flock, chasing, panicking and killing them. In his reminiscences of life on stations west of the
Darling, Brougham included this passage:
Out of a belt of mulga, their flanks heaving, their heads out-thrust stumbling, bleating,
panic in their eyes, raced a mob of sheep, a score of more. "They'll run until they drop," he said, "and then they'll die". "What has happened to them?" I asked. "A dingo has panicked
them," he answered. "They may have been running half the night".
Grazing had a significant impact on creeks, soaks, and waterholes as a result of extensive trampling and fouling by stock. The fundamental unsuitability of the land for such intensive grazing should have been evident from the outset. Other challenges that Matilda reported facing included extreme heat, droughts, plagues of rabbits and rats, dust storms and floods. Some of these hardships were described in detail in Matilda’s memoir which, in later years, recorded only those incidents that seemed significant and were sometimes cryptic. For example, ‘ at our destination in 1868, New Year’s Day. Got a stone house put up. February had a little son, which we buried the end of April.’
The Darling River largely flows through plains and relatively flat land, having an average gradient of just 16 mm per kilometre.
After significant rainfalls it becomes flooded, and the floodwaters recede slowly. Matilda describes a downpour in which they lost most of their sheep as they did not move them to higher ground. At another time their home overlooking Eight Mile Creek was flooded, so they built a new one on higher ground. It is now in ruins.At Sturt’s Meadows Matilda was often left on her own to manage the sheep, horses, and staff. She endured much hardship, and while shepherding their sheep to prevent wild dog attacks, she remembered wearing out ‘nine pairs of the very best kid boots’ in the harsh country. She later used her leatherwork skills to replace her boots with some hard cattle hide leather tanned by Abraham. She was a good horsewoman and could round up lost sheep and work dogs.At one time she and Abraham were entrusted to protect a number of Aboriginal women from men from another tribe at the request of their husbands. After the women were guarded overnight ‘the Murray blacks went away next morning and the husbands returned and performed Corrobborees for some days after’ to express their thanks.
Matilda was almost certainly the first white woman in the Barrier area and soon made friends with the local Aboriginal people. They brought her game and eggs, worked as stockmen, helped in the
house, and acted as midwives. However, it was not always smooth sailing. Some knew Matilda had supplies in her storeroom. She had to keep them safe as she could not afford to lose stores as supplies infrequently arrived from Menindee or Wilcannia and were often late. Sidney Kidman knew Matilda and when he was interviewed in 1935 by Ion Idriess for his book The Cattle King, he recalled that when Cheeky Jacky tried to break into the Wallace homestead storeroom he was foiled by Matilda who scared him off ‘with a gun and savage dogs’
Wool
In the early days of sheep farming in Australia, 'shearing was done out in the open which is less than ideal. As their sheep numbers increased, the Wallaces needed a woolshed to provide a better environment for both the sheep and the shearers. Corrugated iron was used extensively for constructing woolsheds in Australia from the mid 19th century due to its strength, light weight, and cost and was a crucial material in the expansion of the wool industry, especially in frontier regions.Each year shearers came to Sturt's Meadows to shear the sheep by blade. When Abraham was away, Matilda not only fed but also supervised the shearers. At one shearing the menfolk sustained injuries and so Matilda, despite her diminutive stature, ‘shore the last five sheep herself’, a physically demanding task that involves catching and positioning a 50 kg sheep, then skillfully removing its wool using hand shears.
In the Barrier region most stations were leased from the Crown. In 1880 rentals were raised placing the individual squatter without capital at a considerable disadvantage. Many of them left the newly occupied areas in the dry years after 1865, particularly during the period of depressed wool prices from 1868-70. The Wallaces from Sturt’s Meadows were among them. In the 1880’s large company holdings began consolidating small pastoral runs. Parts of Sturt’s Meadows and Cobham Station then became part of what is now Fowler’s Gap Station. In 1884 most of western New South Wales was made up of vast Pastoral Holdings, each Holding being divided into runs. Sturt’s Meadows Station was divided into four leasehold areas or runs.
The Sydney Morning Herald, Fri 4 November 1870, reported that a parcel of greasy wool had reached a high of 12d/lb or about £32 /bale.In her memoir, Matilda recalled scouring her wool before it was sent for sale. As greasy wool
contains as much as 50 percent dirt and other matter, woolgrowers could save on freight by having
their wool scoured before being sent for export. By that time Australia had become the world’s largest producer of wool. In that year Sturt’s Meadows is reputed to have produced in the order of 250 bales. The first river boat travelled up the Darling in 1859.
These steamers had an immediate effect, making settlement more attractive by reducing the cost of transport.Transport by paddle steamer increased in those years when the Darling was navigable.However, the river dried up on no fewer than forty-five occasions between 1885 and 1960.It is estimated that by 1870 the Wallaces had a wool clip of up to 30 tons and used the river port of Menindee, as an alternative to land transport. Bullock teams were used to bring wool to load on to barges towed by paddle steamers. Boats were regarded as quicker and much cheaper than bullock trains. However, the paddle steamers were often unable to travel on the Darling during floods or droughts when the river was very low. The wool travelled down the Darling River to Wentworth, at the junction of the Darling and Murray Rivers, and by 1870 Wentworth had become a bustling port with paddle steamers carrying goods to and from towns on the Darling and Murray Rivers and the outside world. In 1895,485 vessels passed through this port. Large barges of wool were often moored at the wharf.
Sheep graziers became prosperous during the 1880s and this period is often called the Golden Age
of Wool. Demand was driven by the textile industry in Europe, particularly England, which relied
heavily on Australian wool to produce fabrics and garments. This led to high wool prices, creating a
profitable market for Australian wool producers. Wool was a major export contributing to Australia’s economy and helped establish a wealthy class of sheep graziers, built on land which is now considered to have been illegally taken from the Indigenous owners.Prosperous woolgrowers often constructed imposing and architecturally significant station homesteads, many of which are now heritage-listed. These grand residences reflected the immense wealth generated by the colonial wool industry, particularly during the 19th and early 20th centuries. This prosperity was often also reflected in the lives they led. Many residences had ballrooms that were central to the social life of the time and designed for hosting large events, dances, and receptions. Examples of Historic Australian Homesteads include Glengallan Homestead, a significant residence near Warwick. This building is a testament to the wealth and architectural ambitions of the era's graziers.
However, the golden age did not last long in the Fowlers Gap district. Its pastoral history, 'until the turn of the century, was largely one of increasing land degradation and ecological and financial disaster. Both settlers and governments grossly over estimated the long term stocking capacity. By the 1890s conditions were critical and this led to the Royal Commission of 1901 by New South Wales “to enquire into the position of Crown tenants in the Western Division”. The Commission recognised that the region was unsuited for close settlement and made changes to land tenure. The assessed carrying capacity was halved to about a sheep per 10 ha and rents were also lowered.' After Matilda had begun to manage Sturt's Meadows She would have experienced the downturn, described above, before she eventually sold the property. 'Drought at Sturts Meadow, with sheep dying in thousands on all northern properties, coupled with poor management, meant that Matilda had to mortgage her Sturt's Meadows property to the Australian Land and Finance Company' after Abraham died.
A New Home
In 1871 a start was made on substantial homestead above flood level at Sturt’s Meadowsusing local stone as was common in the Colony of South Australia. The homestead and stock were to be
supplied with water from a permanent well sunk on the creek near their original camp, sited with
the help of local Aboriginal people. By 1883, a flock of 18,000 sheep occupied the run and, as
substantial improvements to the property had been made, it was referred to as a station. Further improvements were made by the
time the property was advertised for sale again.A description of Sturt’s Meadows in the Barrier Miner on Thursday 27th Nov 1890, p. 2 includes
some important details including a realistic estimate of its sheep-carrying capacity. Sturt's Meadows
has leasehold area of 109,720 acres, about 54 miles from Broken Hill; loamy soil with slate; level and undulating country; with ranges of stony country running through; gums along water courses; stock on holding, including resumed area, 37,000 sheep; inspector's estimate, 54 acres per sheep; rainfall average for 5 years, 11.46in; water supply afforded by soakage in Caloola Creek, in which two bottomless tanks are sunk to keep back sand, fit to water 5,000 sheep in 24 hours; wells near station afford unlimited supply, and tanks have cubic capacity of 20,000 yards; rabbits numerous on watercourse and thicker than in any place in the district.
Birth of Annie
Matilda was several hours from Menindee, so she gave birth to her four sons athome with the help of Aboriginal midwives, whose care and hygiene she regarded highly. Even so,
when she was due to give birth in late 1870, Matilda left home by buggy to go about 150 km to Menindee with
her husband. This was one of the few times Matilda left Sturt’s Meadows. In her memoir she later
wrote: ‘this was the first-time I had seen civilisation in its entirety for seven years.’ Menindee was in fact a small township at that time.
On 28 January
1871, her daughter Mary Ann Sarah Wallace was born at Menindee.After returning home Matilda took her three-week old baby to their old camp."In the morning my husband said he had something wonderful to show me, and when I went out he pointed out the ground covered' with rat tracks. The rats had passed in thousands during the night, all travelling south... I may mention this rat invasion happened in March, 1871. My husband is now started for Adelaide with some fat sheep, leaving me and my little baby alone. He was to have been away ten weeks; but it's quite three months before he arrives back. In July 1872, I arrived at what was to be my permanent home. We had splendid rains, and a very good supply of good stock water in the new well."
Later years
"After getting my home nicely arranged, in about four months I started with my little daughter for Adelaide, which is the first visit I had paid that city for twelve years." Pregnant again, after having lost five sons, one at Mt Gambier, one on the way to Paroo and three buried at Sturt's Meadows Matiilda travelled to Adelaide late in 1872 for family support, giving birth to Alfred Abey Tom Whitfield Wallace, on 24 January 1873.The name ‘Abey’ was an affectionate name that Matilda called her husband, and Whitfield was the maiden name of Abraham’s mother. Both children were baptized at Holy Trinity Church, the first Anglican Church in Adelaide. After her sixth son died in early infancy, she began writing her memoir, "Twelve Years' Life in Australia, from 1859 to 1871". She concluded her memoir: ‘I have now recorded the most stirring incidents of my life in the bush, so I will say good-bye to my readers. She never returned to Sturt's Meadows or to England.On 21 January 1880, Abraham Wallace set out from Sturt's Meadows for the Northern Territory where he had secured a lease for a cattle-run leaving Matilda’s nephew, Arthur Samuel Bartlett, to manage Sturt’s Meadow while he was away. Abraham travelled from Sturt's Meadows with several wagons and about 100 horses. The route was via Blackall and Aramac, where 2,700 head of cattle were purchased, then by way of the Flinders, Leichardt and Albert Rivers to Bourke and on to the Nicholson River. He established Elsey Station in 1881, having travelled about 3200 km in the 18-month journey. Elsey Station was founded in partnership with his nephews, Jeremiah and John Wallace, and John Henry Palmer. Shortly after arriving, Abraham returned to Sturt's Meadows, leaving John Palmer as manager of Elsey Station. By 1882. Sturt's Meadow Station shore
32,000 sheep, so the Wallaces at last were doing well. However, Abraham Wallace, like all the other
pastoralists who ventured into the Territory during the first wave of pastoral settlement, threw it all
away in the north. Elsey was small with only about 1,500 cattle and was a marginal business proposition that became a drain on Abraham’s finances. The first Elsey Station homestead was built soon after at Warlock Ponds and transported to Red Lily Lagoon in 1909. The lagoon was the site of a massacre after Duncan Campbell, who had been appointed first head stockman in June 1881, was murdered on Elsey Station on 15 July 1882.There were many other negative interactions with local Indigenous people.
After retiring in 1884, Wallace re-joined his wife and bought a substantial home at Reynella, The Braes, designed by the eminent Adelaide architect, Sir Charles S Kingston, and built in 1868.It was constructed of rendered stone with slate roof and was heritage listed in 1984.
Proximity of The Braes to Coromandel Valley, ten miles away, was one of the main reasons the Wallaces chose to retire here so as to be close to the Hill and Bartlett families, and to receive their
support for her daughter. Matilda’s account, Twelve Years Life in Australia, demonstrates that she could write competently, in contrast to her parents, who signed with a cross. This is not surprising as in 1840, 33 percent of men and 50 percent of women in England were illiterate. Matilda anticipated Annie would go to school in Coromandel Valley, but her name does not appear on a list of
enrolled students in 1877. She would have been only six at that
time, and so may not have started school.
Shortly after, Abraham died by his own hand after an accident. His buggy had collided with a hay van when returning from Adelaide. This lefthim with serious head injuries, melancholy, and derangement. On
27 April 1884 his coachman found him lying with his throat cut six weeks later. At his inquest it
was found that he had committed suicide while in an unsound state of mind. His death was to be merely the first of many tragic and premature ends for people associated with Elsey Station. At the inquest, presided over by Walter Reynell, Mrs Wllace was reported as saying ' "Oh, Abie, what have you done?" when the deceased replied, " I did it myself: will you forgive me? I hope God will forgive me." Mrs. Wallace said, "What did you do it for?" the reply of deceased was, "I am tired of the world, and the world is tired of me."
Abraham had died intestate and Matilda was appointed administratrix. Matilda carried out her duties as administratrix and was left to oversee two properties, Elsey River Station and Sturt's Meadows, each having a resident manager. It was reported in the Evening Journal, Mon 29 Sept 1884,that there were significant losses in connection with these properties at the time of Abraham's death. Matilda set about the task of returning her estate to profitability and stability after this period of volatility and losses.
It took a considerable time for Matilda to be granted ownership of both station properties. In the 1880s, Australian women had fewer rights than men and did not get the right to vote in SA until 1894. At the time it was uncommon for women to be managers but some did assume such roles out of necessity, rather than by choice, often a result of widowhood. Few had training, experience or skills in this role and had to learn to manage when cast in that role. For these reasons, the restoration of the finances of her estate was a significant challenge for Matilda. At the time Matilda also had to contend with legislative changes affecting land holdings. For example, Homestead Leases were introduced in 1885 to land holders within the Western Division. The holder of the lease was required to reside on the land for at least six months of every year for the first five years of the lease and to have fenced the external boundaries within two years. Later many of these Homestead Leases were converted into Western Land Leases with different obligations.
The Elsey property was sold several years after Abraham's death to Victorian investors: W H Osmond and J A Panton.. However, Matilda still owned property in NSW in 1891, Waverley No. 1 holding and Sturt's
Meadow holding No. 141.
Elsey River Station had several other owners before being purchased in 1901 by a group that included A Bennett, S V Copley and Aeneas Gunn. He managed the property until his death in March 1903. In 1908 Aeneas Gunn's wife, Jeannie published her autobiographical novel We of the Never Never, an account her experiences at Elsey Station.We of the Never Neverwas filmed at Elsey in 1882. In 1998, Elsey Land Claim No. 132, made under the provisions of the Aboriginal Land Rights
Act 1976, was upheld.
On 23 February 2000 the title deeds of the property were handed over in a formal ceremony at
Elsey to the traditional owners of the area, the Mangarrayi people.It is especially important
to note a condition of the original lease of 7 June 1883 of the All Saints Well block
on Elsey Creek. The parties to the lease were Her Majesty Queen Victoria and Sir William
Cleaver Francis Robinson and, of course,
Abraham Wallace. The condition reserves the right to ‘…Her Majesty, Her Heirs and
Successors for and on account of the present Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Province and their
descendants during the continuance of this demise full and free
right of ingress egress and regress into upon and over the said
Waste Lands of the Crown hereby demised and every part thereof
and in and to the springs and surface water thereon and to make
and erect such wurlies and other dwellings as the said Aboriginal
Natives have been heretofore accustomed to make and erect and to
take use for food birds and animals ferae naturae in such manner
as they would have been entitled to do if this demise had not been
made….’
The wheel has turned full circle declared William Henric Nicholas, Matilda’s great, great grandson who attended the ceremony.
In 1892, Matilda sold her home and moved to a rented cottage at Walker Street Port Adelaide to be closer to family.The clearing sale notice in the Adelaide Advertiser in 13 August 1992 included "a hooded buggy by Duncan & Fraser, pole and shafts, a lady’s side-saddle, 2 cows, 2 heifers, 1 steer,15 Southdown ewes and lambs, all in splendid condition." Following a period of illness, starting in 1896, she moved in with her daughter, living on the Esplanade Largs Bay, South Australia, where she died on 21 January 1898, at the age of 60. In the Chronicle deaths column she was referred to as relict of the late Abraham Wallace, of Sturt's
Meadows, New South Wales. She was buried in St. Jude's Cemetery, Brighton, with her husband and granddaughter in Section A, Grave No106. Probate for her substantial estate was granted in Melbourne on 15 August 1898. Her solicitor was Ernest E, Keep of Hopetoun Chambers. Matilda was a relatively wealthy woman despite the losses Abraham had at the time of his death. She left all her estate to her daughter Mary Ann Sarah Woodhead and authorised the bank of NSW to hold a fixed deposit for £1000
for her husband, William Henry Woodhead, to repay an advance that allowed him to continue in
business as stockbroker. After her death, Matilda’s typeset memoir found its way to the South Australian Public Library where it sat for years waiting to be discovered.
Recognition
Matilda is recognised as a Barrier region pioneer settler in a Matilda Wallace Barrier Ranges Lookout is located at Lat: -31.386975 Lng: 141.611988 and a silhouette statue near Sturts Meadows Station It is a feature on the Sturt’s StepsTouring Route that approximates the path taken by Charles Sturt
when his Inland Expedition came into the Corner Country in 1845. He reported that there was a wide plain on the other side of the Barrier
Range with good grass across the plains near the ranges and
cypress pine on the sandy country further to the east. It was this
plain that attracted settlers including
Abraham and Matilda.They are recognised as pastoral pioneers.
Ruth Sandow, OAM, was founder of the Milparinka Heritage and Tourism Association and instrumental in the formation of the Sturt Steps project. The touring route connects about 1100 kilometres of sealed and unsealed roads in an easy and safe to navigate circular route from Broken Hill to Packsaddle, Milparinka, Tibooburra and Cameron Corner. The project erected installations and signage along the route including a metal silhouette statue of
Matilda, the Milparinka town sign, a replica of Sturt’s whale boat, and Sturt’s Cairn on top of Mount Poole erected during the 1845 expedition when his party was stranded at a
waterhole on Preservation Creek at Depot Glen from January to July 1845.
Matilda is recognised at the Milparinka Heritage Precinct in the Pioneer Women's Room of the lives of pioneering women including Matilda Wallace
who was one of the earliest female pastoralists in the area and the first European woman to cross the Barrier Ranges. The room
features A portrait of a young woman and child, representing Matilda Wallace of Sturt’s Meadows Station, was painted by award-winning artist Jodi Daley together with the quote:
I was not truly alone, for I had my child. In those years of loneliness, my baby became a profound comfort. I often prayed earnestly that my child would be spared to me.
Matilda is recognised in the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame, located in Longreach, Queensland. She was placed on the Honour Roll of Unsung Heroes Certificate 110. An unsung hero is anyone who has lived and worked in the Australian outback and has left a legacy for their community or family. They may have overcome significant challenges or provided service to others and, in doing so, helped their community, family, or industry thrive in a challenging environment.
Memoir
In 1922 Alfred Thomas Saunders, an accountant and historian, wrote an article published in The Register drawing attention to a pamphlet, ‘Twelve Years’ Life in Australia. From 1859 to 1871’, which he had found in the Public Library:‘There is no date on the pamphlet, nor is the author's name given, and I have failed to trace her. The adventures she had quite rival those of Mr. Lewis, and show that
though she was a small woman, she was courageous.’ He recognised it as a valuable account of experiences in the outback in that time and appealed to the
public to help him identify the author, her husband, and the name of their property, noting clues from the text about its author, including that it was written by a woman who arrived 28 January 1859 as an emigrant on the ship North from Liverpool.
A week later the Hon John Lewis replied that
he thought that the author of the pamphlet was the late Mrs Alexander Wallace, who had gone with
her husband to NSW at the time mentioned by Mr Saunders and settled at Sturt’s Meadows. He had,
in fact, met Abraham and Matilda in 1867 at an eating house in Mingary when he was based at Burra. In a paragraph published in The Register on
Monday 5 June 1922, Saunders corrected the name of Matilda’s husband, Abraham, and indicated
that his research had:
‘discovered the author of the above good account of what a plucky young and small
'Pommy' woman did in South Australia and New South Wales in the early days. Her name
was Matilda Hill; she arrived here in the ship North, and her name is in The Register
passenger list, she being then under 21. Her history is well worth
reading, and the phonetic spelling of places is interesting.’
Mr Lewis also paid a tribute to the wonderful pluck
of the woman. 'It is a big thing to say, but it is questionable whether the annals of the Australian bush reveal a more courageous character among the women pioneers, than was Mrs Abraham Wallace. Her self-told story is indeed an inspiration.' Her memoir recounts her experiences since arriving in Australia and was retold and later reprinted in the Mt Gambier South Eastern Times in 1927. Like many other narratives written at that time, this retelling had an emphasis on the role of Abraham and down-played Matilda's role.
Matilda is remembered for the sacrifices she made, her resilience in the face of many hardships experienced in her adopted country. Initially, Matilda was regarded as a someone who needed looking after and in the first days after he arrival in Australia she noted: “The people I met at once decided I should never suit the Colony.” Her memoir recalls how she changed.
Abraham and Matilda, in their journey to Victoria and on to New South Wales experienced trying conditions. When they reached a lake not far from the Darling River, they camped there and a shepherd tending sheep there “looked on us as great curiosities,
having made our way through, and wanted to know where we
were bound for, He told my husband he had made a great
mistake in bringing his wife into such rough scenes and
country, that I was not at all suited for such a life as these
parts of the country offered.” Once they reached the Darling, they found “on its waters was a boat,
“ The Lady Daly.” It was a pretty sight after seven weeks’
travelling, though I was too ill to appreciate anything, suffering
from the impure water I drank the other side of the desert.” Later they stayed at Tarcoola Station and when Matilda “ got up to get breakfast, and
went out for some wood to light the fire. On my return to the
kitchen I fell in a faint on the floor; the noise brought my
husband in, and he carried me to our room and put me to bed
again, where I remained a week, at the end of which time I
begged him to take me away or I should die; so he put in the
horses, made up my bed most comfortably in the waggon, and
carried me out to it.” After crossing a creek later on their journey, they camped
overnight and Matilda recorded that “ this was my first experience of camping out with
nothing but the canopy of heaven over me.”
After Matilda’s home at Mt Murcheson caught on fire some wool washers came to her aid and “pulled down the remainder of the lining,
and by so doing the rest was saved—alas ! the debris. However,
it gave me occupation to put my little homestead in order
again ere my husband’s return, though I was very ill from the
fright the fire had given me. My husband returned at the end
of the month; then I was very ill indeed for three weeks, having
a little son and losing him.”
When Abraham and Matilda set out for Paroo to sell the stock from their Mt Murcheson store their trip was an eventful one. “The third day was very hot, and the roads being
heavy and sandy, the horses were soon knocked up.” They left the horses and decided to leave for the river. Next day they returned to find their water cask empty. “My husband insisted on my riding back to the
river, which I did, once again taking coffee, biscuits, and kettle.
I made a fire and had a most enjoyable meal. After my
repast, my first thought was how to take some water back to
my husband, so after washing out the kettle I filled it with water. The next difficulty was to
keep it cool, as the thermometer was 120 in the shade and a fear
fully hot wind was blowing. I wrapped the kettle up in a skirt;
that kept it from sun and wind. Now, how am I to mount
my steed with the said kettle.... and when fairly
settled in my saddle, I took it in front of me, and off we went
to meet my husband, which was not till I had ridden six
miles; he was then quite “knocked up” for the want of some
water... I then made a fire and gave him some
coffee, which quite refreshed him.”
The experiences Matilda described above in the earlier parts of her memoir, show how she began to adapt to and became more resilient in the new environment of her adopted country, an environment so very different from Somerset.
In her memoir, Matilda included many place name some of which are Indigenous. For example, Menindee, her closest town where her daughter was born. She spelled it as Minindie. In the mid-19th century Australia, there was a rise in the number of new settlements and surveyors in NSW were directed to suggest nice sounding Aboriginal names for these places if they were known. For example, Perry became Menindee in 1863 and Lake Cargelligo was named using the Wiradjuri word for lake, Cargellico. There was also a tendency to simplify these place names for easier English pronunciation and, in some cases, to replace Indigenous names altogether with English ones for a variety of reasons including as to make them sound more familiar, easier to pronounce or to honour someone for their achievements or commemorate their legacy. An example of the latter being Uluru named as Ayers Rock after South Australian politician Sir Henry Ayers.
Town name signage was uncommon in early colonial Australia. When Matilda arrived in a new settlement, she would not have been greeted by sign on its outskirts that revealed its name. She could only listen to the way locals spoke its name and attempt to represent the name in English, and so it is not surprising that A T Saunders commented on her phonetic spelling of place names. The first place name in her memoir that Matilda spelled phonetically was `Curri Mantel' Valley. It would seem "ro" was misheard as "ri" and the "del" ending mistaken for "tel". This is probably not unexpected when Matilda was still a very new arrival to Australia and was used to a Somerset accent.
Her biographical account has found a place in various collections. Matilda is included as Mrs Abraham Wallace, in the Australian Autobiographical
Narratives: An Annotated Bibliography, Volume 2. The authors recognised that the ‘revolutionary
event of coming to Australia’ inspired some immigrants to become autobiographers. Often the
primary reason for this was to explain to those left at home ‘the extraordinary differences of
Australia’ from their native land. Individually and collectively ‘these narratives form a remarkably
rich cultural resource, providing multiple perspectives on the early European settlement of
Australia. Given the specific details, such as dates, in her memoir, it seems likely that Matilda kept a diary during her years in the bush.
She is also recognised by her inclusion in the Settler Literature
Archive digital collection of the English Department of the University of North Dakota and cited in a number of other publications. In Barbara Dawson's
PhD thesis, In the Eye of the Beholder: Representations of
Australian Aborigines in the Published Works of
Colonial Women Writers, later published as a book in 2014 by ANU Press, she refers to Matilda's memoir in reference to Indigenous people helping or protecting
settlers and women’s ready access to guns.
The original booklet of Matilda's memoir is held at the Holdfast Bay History Centre, Brighton SA together with local history relating to Abraham and Matilda. Although Matilda attended school only until the age of eleven, her memoir is articulate. She wrote: ''Five days after we had a delightful thunderstorm and rain, which I may say saved our lives, for the extreme heat and privations were telling on us and our animals. The rain filled all the water holes, but was not sufficient to make the feed grow, though it freshened up the dry bushes.''