We Are the Rebels by Clare Wright Read Free Book Online Page A

pennyworth of peppermints helped.

THIS FEMININE EXODUS
    As early as March 1853, contemporary observers like James Bonwick were already commenting
that the diggings were attracting women like ants to honey. In just two days he counted one hundred and twenty ladies, going up either with or to their lords of the pick
and cradle .
    Bonwick called it a phenomenon, this feminine Exodus from our townships . He also
noted that some husbands have taken uncommon care to prepare for the coming of their
better halves by upgrading their accommodation: moving out of their tents and into
log cabins with stone chimneys and floor coverings and, in one case, an iron bedstead.
    The diggers’ wives accompanied them not just to keep families intact, or to avoid
being left behind, but also in a genuine spirit of exploration. When James Watson
determined to go to Ballarat, his wife Margaret, who had already survived several
trials with James and their children, decided that this was one more adventure for
her . Emily Skinner knew that her husband William would not go if I objected very
much, etc. but , she reasoned, what a much better chance we should have of getting
on [together]. After thinking and talking it over a little, the couple decided that
William would go on ahead, make enough money to build a comfortable tent home, then
send for Emily to join him. This all happened surprisingly quickly.
    There were hundreds of lone women, too, on the road to Ballarat, some joining (or
searching for) absent husbands or connecting with other family, some making their
own way in the world.
    Emily Skinner met two stout young women on her journey to the Ovens. They told me
that they had many offers of a place [in Melbourne], as it was hard to get servants ,
wrote Emily in her diary, but the girls were determined to go to the diggings, where
high wages and easy times awaited them .
    Mary Bristow, 42 and unmarried, was keen to go to the diggings as a kind of bivouac (or camping trip) and found three other young women to accompany her. The first night
the women slept in a covered dray, but it rained in torrents. I don’t think I closed
my eyes , wrote Mary. That first day, they walked 22 kilometres, the next nearly 40.
The women wore veils and large bonnets and never ventured out in the middle of the
day; it was too dangerous to expose [ourselves] to the sun’s burning rays. Other
people, however, were not a threat. Mary was relieved to note that there is always
due observance of respect from the men in their travelling company. Ladies could
walk or ride long distances unattended and have nothing to fear. I have never been
so happy or free from care , she wrote.
    Mrs Elizabeth Massey also found a change in herself on the road to Ballarat. Back
in England Mrs Massey had been married only a few weeks when her new husband unexpectedly
called on her to accompany him to Australia. Disgust , she wrote in her memoir eight
years later, indeed is not a word strong enough to express my feelings at the moment .
On arrival in Victoria, the Masseys went straight to the diggings to avoid the filth,
flies and expense of Melbourne.
    But on the road, Mrs Massey felt joyfully off the leash. What had initially settled
upon her as a black cloud of misery now seemed like a party of pleasure . In common
with other women who started out thinking they were on a highway to hell, she happily
discovered herself on a path to unexpected release.

MY GYPSY LIFE
    It is often said that escape—more than simple gold-lust—stimulated men’s rush to
the diggings. These were, as one writer put it, the days when men broke their bonds
and dreamed of marvellous things to come. And it is usually implied that the bonds
they wanted to break included nagging women and their bawling brats.
    But it’s clear that many women also harboured their own aspirations of escape, not
necessarily from spouses and children, but from the tedious restrictions of their
lives. In particular, many educated and