Matilda Wallace (November 183821 January 1898) 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 (dairy maid) 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. George Hill married 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. When Matilda emigrated, she was described on the passenger list as a dairy maid.
At the time young people from rural Somerset were affected by 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.
Three of Matilda's siblings, Mary, Robert and Jeffrey, emigrated to the Colony of South Australia and she decided to follow them. Matilda's sister, Mary Elliot Hill, married Samuel Bartlett.They emigrated on the ship Himalaya on 1 August 1849 from Southampton. They settled at St Mary's Coromandel Valley in the Adelaide Hills.Samuel's brother, James Bartlett, married Elizabeth Culiford emigrated and arrived on the Sultana on 7 October 1852 from Plymouth. Matilda's brother, Robert Hill, married and travelled on the Nimrod, arriving in February 1856 In 1857 Matilda's other brother, Jeffrey Hill, and his wife Mary 23 sailed from Liverpool on the Tantivy to join them. The men worked on the land. In 1874 Robert was described as a market gardener at Scott's Creek.
As a nominated emigrant, Matilda's passage in steerage on the ship, North, was subsidised. Subsidies were used to encourage migrants and thus provide much needed labour. 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. 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.
The barque North departed from Liverpool on 1 November 1858 and 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
When Matilda Elliot Hill arrived in Port Adelaide on 28 January 1859 she 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: "I had made up my mind on leaving 'home' to make the best of everything, so now was the time to begin. I need not tell you how thankful I was for my bed, for when you think of it, walking, railway journey, coaching, and lastly riding 20 miles, was not so bad on the day of arrival, after three months cooped up on board ship. My waking thoughts were varied, and scenery I beheld on rising was most charming; and after a very hearty breakfast, two of my little nieces took me for a stroll, during which I came to the conclusion that life in Australia could be endured." Matilda later reflected on her arrival in the colony: 'I, then a girl of twenty-one, having left my native land (Somersetshire), father and mother. What for? I used often to ask myself'.
While in Coromandel Valley, Matilda became acquainted with Australian farming and 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 who had arrived in Australia on 24 November 1850 on the Joseph Somes from Plymouth.
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 on 9 December 1861. The couple stayed in Mt Gambier for 18 months. During that time Matilda helped in the Wallace's shop and the couple's first child, a boy, died.
The couple left for Queensland equipped with a waggon and pair of horses, bedding and provisions. They travelled up the Darling River to Mount Murcheson. 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 unwell when Abraham left her to dispose of the stock. 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.
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.
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 from wandering, 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.
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 (102,000 ha).'
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. 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" ("waddy"), 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 environment at Sturt's Meadows as depicted in her memoir, contrasted with 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.
Grazing had a significant impact on creeks, soaks, and waterholes as a result of extensive trampling and fouling by stock. Matilda reported facing many other challenges including extreme heat, droughts, plagues of rabbits and rats, dust storms and floods.’
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. At Sturt’s Meadows, Matilda was often left on her own to manage the sheep, horses, and staff. 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.
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.Sowden, Harry (1973) Australian Woolsheds. Cassell Australia Ltd., North Melbourne