Ruffles, flounces and tiny waists never went out of style. Miss Hirst, pictured on her wedding day in 1872, is the very picture of the Victorian bride. She is veiled and ruffled, with butterflies embroidered on the netting over the skirt. In the original photograph, her headpiece had details hand-painted in, and I suspect thatContinue reading “Bridal Fashion in old Queensland.”
Category Archives: Marriage
Let’s Elope!
Reading the 1846 article, “Love in the Bush,” made me think of that grand old 19th century tradition – elopement. Was it common in Queensland? A survey of the papers revealed that elopement in that century was a portmanteau term – it could mean a flight to the altar against parental wishes, a cheating spouseContinue reading “Let’s Elope!”
Love in the Bush.
With a translation from the original Moreton Bay Courier, 1846. This is the Victorian equivalent of a gossip blind item. My one-sentence translation is below. LOVE IN THE BUSH. We have been informed that the blind god[i] has been making great havoc lately on Darling Downs; and that a sad misadventure has befallen an ancientContinue reading “Love in the Bush.”
The Trials of Annie Clarke
Annie Clarke saw a great deal of courtrooms during her colourful career in Northern Queensland. Some extracts from the reports of her hearings at Millchester gathered here show the times she lived in – times when women who had sex with men they were not married to were not entitled to be believed as witnesses.Continue reading “The Trials of Annie Clarke”
The Marrying Kind
Bigamy in Colonial Queensland – PART TWO Annie Clarke must have been quite a gal. She scandalised three colonies, underwent at least six marriage ceremonies, and created news wherever she went. Who she actually was is hard to pin down, probably because of the number of husbands and surnames she racked up in a hecticContinue reading “The Marrying Kind”
“A Double Fraud, Double Treachery and Double Infamy.”
Judge Innes, Rockhampton District Court, 17 June 1867, sentencing a bigamist. Bigamy in Colonial Queensland – PART ONE Moreton Bay Courier, 1859 Whoever W.H.G. of Nanango was, he or she would have done well to take note of Brown’s Billy’s warning in the Courier’s classifieds in October,1859. Bigamy attracted stiff sentences of penal servitude, notContinue reading ““A Double Fraud, Double Treachery and Double Infamy.””
Moreton Bay and More 