Herstory
As human beings, we often draw strength and inspiration from those who came before us. The Tenterfield Shire was formed by remarkable men and women working for their families and for the betterment of their communities.
At present the contributions of the women of Tenterfield are largely invisible. Statues and biographies are conspicuously absent to the casual observer and yet we know remarkable women existed and are still among us. They have played an important part in the Tenterfield story although that has rarely been acknowledged in the public sphere.
To have a truly balanced and inclusive record of the history of this region, it is important to identify and highlight the remarkable women of the past and the present. This section seeks to begin the process of revealing and reconnecting those women to the community at large. All contributions or corrections are welcome.
This section documents the life and achievements of the women of Tenterfield both past and present.
Use the navigation menu on the right hand side of this page to navigate through our Women of Tenterfield archives.
Eleanor MacKinnon
1871 - 1936
Local Hero Who Served Her Country.
Eleanor MacKinnon was born in Tenterfield in 1871. She was a remarkable humanitarian who dedicated her life to easing the suffering of soldiers and their families, caring for vulnerable children and supporting women’s rights.
Eleanor MacKinnon was the daughter of Glentworth Addison, who served as the Police Magistrate in Tenterfield in the late 1860s and early 1870s. She was the only female child in a large family of boys.
From these modest beginnings, MacKinnon was to become a world-recognized figure for her outstanding work for the Red Cross Society in Australia during and after World War 1.
Based in Sydney, MacKinnon was active in charitable and political organisations such as the Women’s Liberal League from an early age. In 1914, she had developed the leadership skills, organizational abilities and gift for public speaking which placed her in a unique position to take up Lady Helen Munro Ferguson’s call to the women of Australia to assist in the war effort. With the founding of the British Red Cross Society, Australian Division, MacKinnon became the foundation Honorary Secretary of the NSW Division.
MacKinnon’s greatest achievement was the establishment of the Australian Junior Red Cross in NSW in 1914
During the war , MacKinnon acted as honorary director of Red Cross branches and the director of the produce depot. Red Cross achievements in raising vast sums of money in Australia for the war effort and coordinating the shipping of tons of goods to support prisoners of war or wounded soldiers was the result of the tireless work of extraordinary women such as Mackinnon.
MacKinnon also served as co-director of the state Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachments during this period. These women volunteers (VADs) provided first aid, nursing assistance, comforts, domestic assistance and other supports for returned and wounded soldiers. As Red Cross publicity officer, MacKinnon established and edited the Red Cross Record, a valuable record of the organisation and the war era.
MacKinnon’s greatest achievement was the establishment of the Australian Junior Red Cross in NSW in 1914. The movement rallied and guided children to support children of soldiers and children who were sick and in need in their community. This training ground for young humanitarians became an international movement with tens of thousands of participants.
Eleanor MacKinnon was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil), in 1919, for her invaluable war work through the Red Cross Society.
However, MacKinnon’s work and achievements were not confined to the war and continued until her death in 1936. Among her other accomplishments are:
1915 Initiated “Our Flag” movement to benefit the War Chest and worked enthusiastically for the Peace Loan.
1919 Directed the Red Cross campaign during the outbreak of the influenza epidemic in NSW.
1924 Appointed substitute delegate to the League of Nations in Geneva- her address documented her work in helping to found the Australasian Armenian Relief Fund in 1922.
1925-6 Oversaw the reconstruction of the Red Cross peace-time role in Australia and lead the fight against tuberculosis.
1925 Appointed a Fellow to the Senate of the University of Sydney.
1929 Appointed member of the Hospitals Commission – established many hospital auxiliaries throughout NSW.
1935 Worked on establishing the Sister Kenny Clinic at the Royal North Shore Hospital for children with infantile paralysis.
1935 Awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal in recognition of her contribution to hospitals and health care in Australia.
Sources used to compile this article: Abbott, Jacqueline Abbott, 'MacKinnon, Eleanor Vokes Irby (1871 - 1836)', in Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 2006, http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100306b.htm
The Australian Women’s Register -An initiative of The National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) in conjunction with The University of Melbourne Voluntary
Aid Detachments (VAD) - Organisation - The Australian Women's Register
Lilian (Amy) Chauvel
1867 -1953
Lilian Chauvel was born at Tabulum Station on the Clarence River in New South Wales. She was a painter and fashion designer and one of Australia’s first internationally recognised women artists.
Lilian Chauvel began her arts studies in Queensland and then studied in Paris under various teachers of renown. Returning to Sydney after a successful exhibition in London, Lilian Chauvel organised the Society for Women Painters in NSW. She exhibited all over Australia and created many landscapes and portraits of roses.
Lilian Chauvel bequeathed 35 of her paintings to Tenterfield in recognition of the encouragement she received from Mr and Mrs Walker residents of Tenterfield Station at that time. Many of her paintings are displayed in the Chauvel Gallery, Centenary Cottage Tenterfield.
Lilian Chauvel invented the art of “panchrocis” which is a delicate process of painting on silks and satins. She made these paintings into lampshades, trays, tables, handbags and fans. A fine and rare example of one of Lilian’s trays (pictured below) is on exhibit in the parlour of Centenary Cottage.
During World War 2, Lilian worked patriotically with Madame Peliere, a leading French dress designer, contributing her unique panchrocis buttons to her gowns. Money raised from the sale of these and her other artwork was donated to the Red Cross.
Lilian married her cousin Arthur Chauvel; interestingly, she was “Miss” Chauvel in her professional life and “Mrs” Chauvel in her private life. A Tenterfield Star article written in January 1915 gives us a little insight into her character. The writer describes Lilian thus: “most delightful. Genial, vivacious, full of energy and joy of living, this artist is an inspiration, sparing no pains to give of her best in everything. She takes an active interest in all around and has of her own efforts increased the Motor Ambulance and Sailor’s Widows Funds to the extent of over 60 pounds by the sale of her dainty calendars, turning out thirty-eight in eight days.”
Lilian Chauvel died in July 1953. In her will, she donated funds to establish memorials to the achievements of her famous brother, Sir Henry Chauvel. The Chauvel Gallery is one of these memorials and can be found at the Centenary Cottage complex in Tenterfield.
Amelia Rose Ferguson
AMELIA Rose Ferguson, known as Minnie to her friends, was 35 years old when she enlisted on 1st December 1916. Minnie was born in Tenterfield in 1881 to James and Rosina Ferguson.
Minnie was a trained nurse who had served some three months in the Australian Army Nursing Service before embarking on the troop transport ship, SS Kaisar-i-Hind (Empress of India) from Sydney for Egypt. The Tenterfield Star of January 1917 reports that her father, James, received a cable from Minnie to say she had arrived safely in Cairo. ( Copy of Minnie’s enlistment record in gallery.)
Minnie worked in the British military hospital in Alexandria (pictured in gallery). She then joined the Red Cross nursing staff there and transferred to Salonika where she worked in wards and operating theatres.
By 1918, one in five of the nurses in British military hospitals in Salonika was Australian. Few of us can comprehend what conditions were like at these field hospitals. Nurses worked mainly in tent hospitals, as pictured above right, and most of their patients were suffering from malaria, dysentery, and black water fever.
They toiled through hot, mosquito-infested summers, and then had to endure freezing winters, "living in balaclavas and scarves, topcoats and anything else we can get on" reports Sister Jessie Tomlins.
Salonika was a challenging location for the women. With little preparation, they were expected to manage large hospitals, overseeing non–English speaking staff who had very different customs. This picture from the Australian War Memorial shows Australian nurses based at a British hospital in Kalamaria, Greece, preparing for night duty by donning protective clothing against attack by mosquitoes.
At the end of the war, Minnie Ferguson returned to Australia in 1919 and married a New Zealander George Smith at St Leonards. Minnie died in Penrith in 1965.
Amelia (Minnie) Ferguson, a native of Tenterfield, is a woman who can rightly be called the “Other ANZAC”. We only have this very grainy picture of her above right, taken outside her tent and reproduced in the Sunday Times Sydney 20 August 1916.The Centenary Cottage Museum would love to be able to locate any other photos and information about this extraordinary woman and native of Tenterfield whose courage and exploits should be more widely celebrated.
Please contact us if you can help.
Sarah Elizabeth Bruxner
Sarah Elizabeth Bruxner was a daughter of pioneering families of the last century and one of the outstanding figures in the life of Tenterfield. She was born Sarah Elizabeth Barnes, daughter of Henry and Grace Barnes at Dyraaba Station, Casino, the eldest of eleven children. Sarah’s family background was important in her development: her father became one of the largest pastoralists in the north of NSW and a great stud master, establishing fine Hereford herds. Her mother’s side of the family were also great pioneers in the Clarence and Tweed areas.
This gave Sarah Bruxner a love of the country in which she spent long years and made her a great horsewoman and a fine judge of cattle. Sarah “was a great manager and builder and her garden all her life was her joy. She probably knew more about stock than most men and up to the end of her life took a keen interest in anything pertaining to the land.”
At the age of 21 years in 1879, Sarah married Charles Augustus Bruxner at Dyraaba and as a young bride moved to Sandilands Station near Tabulam where she raised her family and spent most of her life. It is said that Sarah “rode to her new home at Sandilands in pouring rain, swimming the last creek to get there.”
Sarah Bruxner was the mother of four children, one of whom predeceased her as did her husband. She lived to see the bridle tracks over which she carried her son, Michael, transformed under his guidance as Minister for Transport into modern highways. Hers was a life interwoven with the story of the development of northern New South Wales.
Sarah Elizabeth Bruxner was a keen lover of flowers and was patroness of the Tenterfield Horticultural Society from its inception in 1930 until the time of her death and took a keen interest in the beautification of Bruxner Park (named after her son), even before its designation as such. In the 1930s, the Council invited the community to submit designs to beautify the park. The winning entry was by Sarah Bruxner who used her prize money to purchase plants from Sydney to implement her design.
Charles Augustus and Sarah Elizabeth Bruxner are both buried at Sandilands Station.
Source: Northern Star (Lismore NSW) 22 February 1941 p11
1857 – 1941
Lilias Donnelly
Lilias Donnelly made an enormous contribution to community life in Tenterfield. Ken Halliday in his book Tenterfield Reflections (1981) asserts that she “became probably the most esteemed woman Tenterfield has ever known: her continual contribution to welfare became legendary.”
Lilias was involved or supported a wide range of organisations. For 30 years she was president of the Tenterfield branch of the Country Women’s Association. She was also closely involved with the Red Cross of the town for 18 years.
Her contemporaries at the C.W.A. described her thus: “Mrs. Donnelly was a true countrywoman. We knew her as the cultured wife of a civil servant, but she had grown up on a property at Balranald. As a girl, she toiled with her family clearing scrub and fought bushfires along with the men. She was a talented musician and a fine accompanist. She was highly intellectual and a splendid leader. Mrs. Donnelly was always ready to help and provide aid for the poor and needy and gave of her many talents to assist everyone in our town who needed her. During the war years she established a Comforts Fund and actively supported all patriotic functions. Truly a great country woman.” Beatrice Morton CWA.
Married to Albert Donnelly, three times mayor of Tenterfield, Lilias and her husband symbolised public service and their contribution to the district is reflected in memorials to their work. The Donnelly Hall which is now part of the local library complex was named in their honour. In addition, the Lilias Donnelly Memorial C.W.A. Room at the Tenterfield Showgrounds was established for the comfort of mothers and their children attending the show.
Lilias was a foundation member of the Arts Council and long-term President. She was a popular pianist and for years the organist at the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. Following her death in 1956, the Arts Council resolved to establish a fund for the purpose of providing an annual prize for music students to be known as the Lilias Donnelly Award. Many Tenterfield residents who had enjoyed the musical talents of Lilias Donnelly contributed towards the fund to perpetuate her memory in the musical life of the community.
Tenterfield Star
Lilias Donnelly is remembered as serving continuously in all fields where the motto was Service to Others.
1877 - 1956
Catherine McCowan
Catherine McCowen’s story in the Tenterfield district begins when Alfred McCowen took over as Postmaster in Bolivia in 1926. His son, Harold, purchased the Post Office which was previously the hotel and Cobb and Co change station in 1934. He brought with him his wife Catherine and their two children from their Silent Grove property of “Brushgrove.”
Catherine was responsible for a range of Post Office related roles, the chief one of which was as the telephonist on the only switchboard. This thrust Catherine into the centre of the community and she became involved with most of the families of the area. Her reputation as a selfless and generous person grew. She was a very practical woman who did “everything for everybody”. However, it is reported that she was rather shy and went quietly about her tasks.
The Bolivia local history booklet describes Catherine McCowen as particularly noted for her calmness and sound judgement in emergency situations. She frequently sent her son Kegga off delivering messages on his bicycle to people who did not have a telephone. Catherine was receptive to people’s need to make a telephone dash on occasion when things went wrong, and she is quoted by local resident George Curr as always being cooperative and understanding. Words such as considerate and gracious always on the beautiful wooden honour board pictured above reflect the community’s regard for “Mrs. Mac”. The honour board pictured above hangs in the Bolivia Community Hall.
In the 1971 Queen’s Birthday Honours, Catherine McCowen was awarded the British Empire Medal for her services to the community on the recommendation of the residents in the area.
Catherine continued to receive and dispatch a mail bag daily in her capacity as a Community Mail Bag Keeper until her death in 1988.
Community service clearly runs in the McCowen family as Catherine’s son Kegga (Harold Mervyn McCowen) was Mayor of Tenterfield for 14 years and received an OAM in 1997 for his contribution to council. Catherine was a devoted and much-loved mother of her three children and grandmother of 14, who all serve their communities where they live.
Sources:
Bolivia- A Century and a Half compiled by Paul Schiffmann, Fay McCowen, Debbie McCowen, and Ken Halliday Oct 1988.
Interview with Fay McCowen April 2022