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Cover of Women and Empire, 1750-1939 Primary Sources on Gender and Anglo-Imperialism

Women and Empire, 1750-1939: Primary Sources on Gender and Anglo-Imperialism

Edited by Susan K. Martin; Caroline Daley; Elizabeth Dimock; Cheryl Cassidy; Cecily Devereux

  • Published: 26 Jan 2009
  • DOI: 10.4324/9780415310925
  • Set ISBN: 9780415310925

Set Contents


Australia was a European idea and colonial prospect before it became a colony. Like most colonial holdings it was in many ways produced by the imperial centre, while also contributing to the decentring of Britain (Hall 2005: 10). In particular, Australia was figured as a rich source for natural wonders, facilitating new empirical studies and classification of the people and places ‘discovered’ (Smith 1989; Miller 1996). At the same time it was a screen for the projection of fantasies of appropriation and ownership. Gendered notions of colonizing a welcoming feminine land, informed by Romantic aesthetic traditions, did not fully take hold in Australia, being quickly displaced by a dominant narrative in which the hostility of the landscape must be countered by masculine vigour or stolid, sometimes feminized, endurance. The timing of Australian settlement at the end of the eighteenth century meant that the tools and understandings brought to Australia’s ‘preindustrial’ landscape were industrial ones (Lines 1992: xvi) and ideas of noble savagery and sublime vistas were quite rapidly replaced by more utilitarian and evangelical approaches to the country and its people. Both were European frameworks, imposed on the existing understandings of place, time, and subjectivity carried by the indigenous people, and though the noble savage ideal was less overtly hostile to the Aboriginal people, dispossession was the end result (S. Ryan 1996: 101–27; Coleman 2005).

Volume Contents

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    Front Matter
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    Introduction By Susan K. Martin; Caroline Daley; Elizabeth Dimock; Cheryl Cassidy; Cecily Devereux
  • Imperial Views
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      1
      Report on Male and Female Convicts Sent from England and Ireland to New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land in 1828 and 1829, House of Commons Papers (1830), pp. 4–10.
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      2
      The Kangaroo Hunters; or, Adventures in the Bush (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1858), Preface, Ch. XVII, pp. 229–41. By Anne Bowman
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      3
      ‘Letter II’, Letters to Guy (London: Macmillan, 1885), pp. 15–27. By Mary Anne Barker
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      4
      ‘Lady Emigrants to Australia’, The Times, 24 Sept. 1853, p. 10.
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      5
      ‘Governesses for Australia’, The Times, 23 Apr. 1862, p. 6.
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      6
      Younâh: A Tasmanian Aboriginal Romance of the Cataract Gorge (Hobart, Tasmania: Mercury Office, 1894), pp. 36, 37, 40–2. By Mrs Thrower
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      7
      By Still Harder Fate (Melbourne: George Robertson & Co., 1898), Bk 2, Ch. 1, pp. 81–9. By Nancy Lloyd-Tayler
  • Ordering Disorderly Women
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      8
      ‘To the Editor of the Colonial Times’, Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser, 18 Nov. 1825, p. 3.
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      9
      ‘The Female Factory’, Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser, 16 June 1826, p. 3.
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      10
      Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser, 14 July 1826, p. 2 (editorial on Female Factory).
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      11
      ‘A Batchelor Settler, Macquarie River’, ‘Mr Editor’, Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser, 28 July 1826, p. 4.
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      12
      Rules and Regulations for the Management of the House of Correction for Females (Hobart Town: J. Ross, 1829) (Mitchell Library, SLNSW DSM/365/T), pp. 1–14, 20–26. By J. Ross
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      13
      The Moreton Bay Courier 1 (24), 28 Nov. 1846, p. 2 (Report of the Transportation Committee).
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      14
      ‘Dreadful Death’, The Moreton Bay Courier 1 (44), 17 Apr. 1847, p. 3.
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      15
      ‘Regulations for Female Convicts in the General Prison at Perth’ (with handwritten amendments), Prison Board 520, 16 Aug. 1860 (Mitchell Library, SLNSW, DSM/Q365/W).
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      16
      The Broad Arrow: Being Passages from the History of Maida Gwynnham, A Lifer (London: Richard Bentley, 1859), Bk 2, Ch. 1, pp. 1–7. By Eliza Winstanley
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      A Report of the Inquiry into the Management of the Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum, As Detailed in the Nine Days’ Trial of the Action for Libel Bowie v. Wilson (Melbourne: Wilson and Mackinnon, 1862), pp. 3, 7, 20–5, 56–7, 74–5, 82–3, 118–19. By Bowie V. Wilson
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      18
      ‘Female Pugilism – Ellen Story & Ellen Whewell’, Argus, 5 Oct. 1853, p. 5.
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      19
      ‘News and Notes’, Ballarat Star, 25 Apr. 1864, p. 2.
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      20
      ‘The Yarra Mystery’, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 Jan. 1899, p. 5.
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      21
      ‘An Alleged Unlawful Operation’, Sydney Morning Herald, 13 Jan. 1899, p. 3.
  • Femail Mobility, Immigration, and Work
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      22
      ‘To the Editor of the Colonial Times’, Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser, 1 Dec. 1826, p. 3 (gender ratios).
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      23
      ‘The Renewal of Transportation’, Moreton Bay Courier, 31 Oct. 1846, p. 2 (balancing men and women).   120
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      24
      ‘Mrs Chisholm’, Moreton Bay Courier, 25 Mar. 1848, p. 3.
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      25
      Three poems to Caroline Chisholm (one by Walter Savage Landor), 1846 and 1853 (Caroline Chisholm Papers, Mitchell Library, SLNSW, ML Ac 19-1/6).
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      26
      ‘Testimonial to Mrs Chisholm’, Times, 8 Aug. 1853 (Caroline Chisholm Papers, Mitchell Library, SLNSW, ML Ac 19-2/15).
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      27
      The Emigrant’s Guide to Australia: With a Memoir of Mrs Chisholm (London: Clarke, Beeton & Co. [1853]), frontispiece, title page, pp. 36–7, 102–7.
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      28
      Appendix to Emigration and Transportation Relatively Considered by Mrs Chisholm (London: John Olliver, 1847), pp. 22–8. By Caroline Chisholm
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      29
      ‘Female Immigrants’, Argus, 2 Feb. 1849, p. 2.
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      30
      ‘Orphan Immigration’, Argus, 4 Sept. 1849, p. 2.
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      31
      ‘Orphan Immigrants’, Argus, 29 Apr. 1850, p. 2.
  • Women Settlers
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      32
      ‘Narrow Escape’, Moreton Bay Courier, 3 Oct. 1846, pp. 2–3.
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      33
      Adventures in Australia or, the Wanderings of Captain Spencer in the Bush and the Wilds (London: Grant and Griffith, 1851), pp. 339–43, 359–60. By Mrs E. Lee
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      34
      Gertrude the Emigrant: A Tale of Colonial Life by an Australian Lady (Sydney: J. R. Clarke, 1857), pp. 21–9. By Louisa Atkinson
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      35
      What We Saw in Australia (London: Macmillan, 1875), pp. 243–5 (difficulties with servants). By Rosamund Hill; Florence Hill
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      36
      ‘An Australian Heroine’, The Dawn, 1 June 1893, pp. 12–13. By C. F. Searle
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      37
      Broad Outlines of Long Years in Australia (London: Samuel Tinsley & Co., 1878), pp. 152–3, 155.
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      38
      Letters to Mrs Stokes, 1882 (manuscript) (1882 SLWA, ACC689A).
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      39
      ‘Out of My Grandmother’s Box’, My Australian Girlhood: Sketches and Impressions of Bush Life (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1902), pp. 36–39. By Rosa Campbell Praed
  • Missionaries and Travellers
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      40
      ‘Natives of South Australian: And Missions There’, The Juvenile Missionary Magazine 1 (5) (1844), pp. 111–14.
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      41
      ‘A Chinese Lady’, Ballarat Star, 26 Apr. 1864, p. 2.
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      42
      What We Saw in Australia (London: Macmillan, 1875), pp. 291–2 (benevolent asylum, women’s wards). By Rosamund Hill; Florence Hill
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      43
      ‘Heartrending Distress’, Ballarat Star, 15 Apr. 1864.
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      44
      ‘Death of a Sister of Mercy’, WA Record, 23 Nov. 1893, p. 8.
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      45
      ‘The First Meeting of the Ladies’ Committee of the Paddington Benevolent Society’, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 Jan. 1899, p. 5.
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      46
      ‘Missionary Exhibition at Bowral’, Sydney Morning Herald, 14 Jan. 1899, p. 12.
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      47
      ‘Useful Institutions in the Metropolis’, The Dawn, 5 Nov. 1889, p. 7. By Brier Rose
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      48
      ‘The Dog Days’, Australian Journal, Apr. 1869, pp. 482–4. By Waif Wander
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      49
      Around the World (Toronto: James Murray [?1886–94]), p. 60 (comparison of Canadian and Australian girls). By Lydia Leavitt
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      50
      Glimpses of Four Continents: Letters Written During a Tour in Australia, New Zealand, & North America, in 1893 (London: John Murray, 1894), pp. 60–6. By Alice Anne Montgomery
  • Aboriginal Women and Empire
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      51
      ‘Curious and Original Account of the Natives of New South Wales’, Granger’s Wonderful Museum, 1804, vol. 2, pp. 814–22 (London: Hogg and Co., [?1803–8]). By William Granger
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      52
      ‘The Aborigines of Australia’, Port Phillip Christian Herald, 7 Mar. 1842, pp. 20–2.
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      53
      ‘Yarra Aboriginal Mission’, Port Phillip Christian Herald, 4 June 1842, pp. 153–4.
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      54
      ‘Yarra Aboriginal Mission’, Port Phillip Christian Herald, 4 July 1842, pp. 52–3.
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      55
      ‘Tasmanian Aborigines’, extracted from Tasmanian Journal, 1846 in Tasmanian Athenaeum 1 (3) (Dec. 1853), pp. 86–9.
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      56
      ‘The Aborigines of Western Australia’, Western Australian Church of England Magazine 6 (10) (Feb. 1868), pp. 25–32.
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      57
      Kooroona: A Tale of South Australia (Oxford: Mowbray; London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1871), pp. 177–80, 187–91.
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      58
      What We Saw in Australia (London: Macmillan, 1875), pp. 103–5 (description of elderly Aboriginal women). By Rosamund Hill; Florence Hill
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      59
      ‘A Word for the Blacks’, The Dawn, 1 Nov. 1897, p. 9. Edited by Louisa Lawson
  • The Australian Girl and the Australian Lady
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      60
      ‘Australia’, The Times, 15 June 1863, p. 6 (article on genteel ‘milkwoman’).
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      61
      ‘The News of the Day’, Age, 26 Dec. 1863, p. 4 (includes letter from Henrietta Dugdale; rejoinder to item no. 60).
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      62
      Broad Outlines of Long Years in Australia (London: Samuel Tinsley & Co., 1878), p. 164.
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      63
      Advance Australia! An Account of Eight Years’ Work, Wandering, and Amusement, in Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria, 2nd edn (London: W. H. Allen & Co, 1886), pp. 279, 281. By Harold Finch-Hatton
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      64
      ‘Muscular Development of Girls’, The Dawn, 5 Nov. 1889, p. 13.
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      65
      ‘In Search of a Title: Adventures of an Australian Heiress’, WA Record, May 1893, p. 4.
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      66
      ‘The Colonial Girl’, The Dawn, 1 June 1894, pp. 9–10.
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      67
      ‘An Australian Girl’, A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895, ed. Clarence Stedman (Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1895), p. 632. By Ethel Castilla
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      68
      Joyce Martindale (London: Remington, 1894), pp. 1–7. By H. E. Russell
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      69
      A Humble Enterprise (London: Ward, Lock & Bowden, 1896), pp. 24–44. By Ada Cambridge
  • Performances
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      70
      ‘Grand Amateur Performance . . . at the  Theatre Royal’, Ballarat Star, 25 Apr. 1864, p. 3.
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      71
      ‘Mrs Webster v. Morwitch’, Ballarat Star, 21 Apr. 1864, p. 3.
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      72
      What We Saw in Australia (London: Macmillan, 1875), p. 264 (Miss Martha Turner, religious celebrant). By Rosamund Hill; Florence Hill
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      73
      What We Saw in Australia (London: Macmillan, 1875), p. 190–1 (young Aboriginal woman mimics/parodies Government House ladies). By Rosamund Hill; Florence Hill
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      74
      The Newest Woman (Melbourne: Sportsman, 1895), pp. 38–59. By Millie Finkelstein
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      75
      ‘Triumph’, The Three Miss Kings (Melbourne: Melville Mullen & Slade, 1891), pp. 61–7. By Ada Cambridge
  • Women and Imperial Law
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      76
      ‘Deserting a Wife’, Argus, 14 July 1849, p. 2.
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      77
      ‘Assaulting a Bailiff ’, Argus, 4 Sept. 1849, p. 2.
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      78
      ‘Warra’, ‘Queensland Women’s Property Act’, The Dawn, 1 Oct. 1897, p. 10. By Warra
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      79
      WA Register, 18 Jan. 1894, p. 9 (hanging of Mrs Knorr).
  • Feminism and Empire
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      80
      What We Saw in Australia (London: Macmillan, 1875), p. 262 (women accidentally included on electoral roll). By Rosamund Hill; Florence Hill
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      81
      Mr Fumecrab’s Breakfast Table Lectures (Melbourne: M’Carron Bird, 1881), pp. 1–11. SARAH  WELCH Feminist Publishing and The Dawn By Sarah Welch
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      82
      ‘About Ourselves’, The Dawn, 15 May 1888, p. 1. Edited by Dora. Falconer
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      83
      ‘To the Editress’, The Dawn, 15 May 1888, Supplement.
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      84
      ‘To the Editress’, The Dawn, 1 May 1889, p. 24.
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      85
      ‘Our Anniversary’, The Dawn, 1 May 1895, pp. 14–15.
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      86
      ‘Let Our Girls Become Really Thorough Saleswomen’, The Dawn, 1 June 1889, p. 10.
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      87
      ‘The Dawn Club: A Social Reform Club for Women’, The Dawn, 1 July 1889, p. 8.
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      88
      ‘That Nonsensical Idea’, The Dawn, 5 June 1890, pp. 7–9.
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      89
      ‘Women’s Business College’, The Dawn, 1 Sept. 1891, p. 22.
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      90
      ‘The Enfranchisement of Women’, WA Record, 29 Oct. 1891, p. 8 (advertisement for Warner’s Pills).
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      91
      ‘An Unwomanly Woman’, WA Record, 28 Apr. 1892, p. 9 (‘anti-marriage’ talk denounced).
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      92
      ‘The New Woman’, The Dawn, 1 May 1899, p. 7.
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      93
      ‘To Our Readers’, The Dawn, 1 Dec. 1899, p. 7 (women and war). Rose Scott and the NSW Suffrage Movement
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      94
      ‘Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales’, The Dawn, 1 Sept. 1896, p. 14.
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      95
      ‘To the Commissioners for Taxation’ (Rose Scott Papers, Mitchell Library, SLNSW MLMSS 38).
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      96
      Letter, 4 Dec. 1899 (Rose Scott Papers, Mitchell Library, SLNSW MLMSS 38). ROSE SCOTT Suffrage in South Australia By Rose Scott
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      97
      ‘A Petition Against the Present Bill for Granting Woman’s Suffrage’, South Australian Register, 23 Aug. 1894, p. 4.
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      98
      ‘Delighted Women’, South Australian Register, 10 Apr. 1895, p. 5. xiv
  • Imperial Homes, or Public Women?
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      99
      Marian, or the Light of Someone’s Home, 2nd English edn (Bath: Binns & Goodwin, [1859]), pp. 210–31. By Maud Jean Franc
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      100
      Walch’s Tasmanian Almanac (1870), p. 22 (women’s days at a Turkish Baths).
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      101
      Kooroona: A Tale of South Australia (Oxford: Mowbray; London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1871), Ch. VIII, pp. 84–90 (employment of servants).
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      102
      What We Saw in Australia (London: Macmillan, 1875), p. 204 (presence of a lady ensures reproduction of English comfort and garden). By Rosamund Hill; Florence Hill
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      103
      What We Saw in Australia (London: Macmillan, 1875), pp. 184–5 (Aboriginal women’s domestic arrangements). By Rosamund Hill; Florence Hill
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      104
      ‘Girls as Housekeepers’, The Dawn, 3 Aug. 1889, p. 7.
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      105
      ‘Gardening for Women’, The Dawn, 1 June 1891, p. 14.
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      106
      ‘Hints on Gardening’, 1 Feb. 1898, p. 17. By Sarah Sparrow
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      107
      What We Saw in Australia (London: Macmillan, 1875), p. 299–300. By Rosamund Hill; Florence Hill
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      108
      What We Saw in Australia (London: Macmillan, 1875), p. 267 (‘Doing the Block’ – public promenade in Melbourne). By Rosamund Hill; Florence Hill
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      109
      The Three Miss Kings (Melbourne: Melville, Mullen & Slade, 1891), pp. 76–81, 99–104. By Ada Cambridge
  • End of Empire?
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      110
      ‘The Federation of Australia’ (Sydney: Turner and Henderson, Printers, 1898) (poem/pamphlet). By H. E. Russell
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      111
      Under the She-Oaks, 2nd edn (London: The Religious Tract Society, [?1903]) (account of Jubilee celebrations in Australia and Queen Victoria’s death) (extracts). By Elisabeth Boyd Bayly