Sutherland Shire Libraries News

The Miles Franklin Award Long List, 2013 has been announced. It includes eight female authors, five first time novelists, four previously shortlisted authors and one former double Miles Franklin Literary Award winner (Thomas Keneally, 1967- Three cheers for the Paraclete & 1968- Bring Larks and Heroes)

 The 2013 Long List:

Floundering by Romy Ash 

Lola Bensky by Lily Brett 

Street to Street by Brian Castro 

Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser

The Beloved by Annah Faulkner 

The Daughters of Mars by Tom Keneally 

The mountain by Drusilla Modjeska 

The Light Between Oceans by M.L.Stedman 

Mateship with Birds by Carrie Tiffany 

Red Dirt Talking by Jacqueline Wright 

 Congratulations to all the Miles Franklin Award, 2013, Long Listed authors.  Request  a copy of any,  or all of these books from the Library! Look out for the Short List in April/May, and the announcement of the winner on 19 June, 2013. 

The first European women to reach Australia's shores were sent against their will. They did not have the support, nor the 'leisure' to fight for their rights, yet made the best of it. They helped where they could to make the fledgling colony of New South Wales to be a place that could be called home.

 Margaret Catchpole was one such woman. Despite having been sent out for life, (arriving December 1801) for horse stealing and escaping from prison, all for love, Margaret made herself very useful in the colony. She found work in the kitchens of the free settlers and became indispensable to the families she worked for, for her skill with nursing the sick. Once she was eventually pardoned she set herself up in a small store at Richmond and did nursing and midwifery as required. She was also a very good diarist, and it is her memoirs that chronicle the only knowledge of many early colonial events. She certainly stirred up local interest with newspaper articles  written in the early papers about her and a film made of her life. Scapegallows gives an account of her life.

Molly Morgan was a woman with character. She was transported to Australia in the second, gained her ticket of leave, escaped in the Resolution with other, still bound, convicts. Once she made it back she married in England but was then convicted by her husband for burning down their home, and so was transported a second time. She was given a free rein by her protector, but continued to fall foul of the authorities. Eventually she achieved a ticket of leave and was granted a small parcel of land at the new Wallis plains settlement (Maitland). Although reasonably successful as farmer, it was her wine shanty that set her on the road to security, eventually to the establishment of the Angel Inn in the centre of Maitland. The Australian on the 23^rd January 1928 named her as one of the regions largest landholder. Her background was in petty crime, immorality and self-indulgence and yet was known for her generosity and compassion for those less fortunate setting up a rough and ready hospital for the sick as well as a large donation towards the building of a school. She was a colourful pioneer of the Maitland district.

The Night Before St Patrick’s Day  by Natasha Wing

It's the night before St. Patrick's Day, and Tim and Maureen are wide awake setting traps to catch a leprechaun! When they wake the next morning to the sound of their dad playing the bagpipes and the smell of their mom cooking green eggs, they're shocked to find that they've actually caught a leprechaun. But will they be able to find his pot of gold? 

St. Patrick’s Day (touch and feel)  by Roger Priddy

  

This year Australia is highlighting, “Finding Founding Mothers”. The women who stood up for themselves and the ‘common’ folk, against the established order as it had been in England and in her colonies.

The Australian Women’s History Forum has pulled together some great stories on the theme of, ‘Finding Founding Mothers’, from the wealth of resources they have gathered on women’s history in Australia. Women from all the colonies are represented as the people struggle to create a nation, which will have equality for all.

Vida Goldstein was one such woman who had seen her mother’s , involvement with the Victorian Women’s Suffrage Society and at 19 took up the challenge to get signatures on the Women Suffrage Pettion. In 1891 it was handed to the Victorian parliament with 30,000 signatures. She went on to become the leader of the women’s reform movement in Victoria. Victorian women were the last to achieve the vote in 1908, 14 years after their sisters in South Australia (and by association Northern Territory!)

The Australian Dictionary of Biography or Women Australia are excellent places to find other great women from our past like Selina Sarah Elizabeth Anderson , was the first woman in Australia to contest an election. Selina supported the rights of women to become doctors, she promoted better conditions for tramway employees and objected to the importation of domestic servants! The Browse allows for searching by occupation, so one can find women from all walks of life. There’s a Poisoner, some Pro-conscriptionists and a Puppeteer as well as the Political Activists I was searching for.

Having a browse through some of these sites I have been reminded of how hard women fought for the many ‘rights’ we now take for granted. Have you found a favourite story of a woman from our past? 

There are books on display for borrowing at Sutherland Library, featuring important women from our past, titles similar to Trailblazers.