Diana Mudgee

Diana Mudgee (c.1820s - 4 May 1902) was an Australian Aboriginal (Wiradjuri) woman from Mudgee, NSW who raised ten children and gained ownership of over 500 acres of land; which according to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies was an unusual achievement for a woman at that time.[1][2]

Life

Born in the 1820s, Mudgee lost her family at a young age in a colonial massacre south of Mudgee during the period where martial law was declared in Bathurst, New South Wales and the surrounding areas of Wiradjuri Country.[2][3][4][5] After this, she was sent to as an orphan to work on the Cox Family properties in Mudgee whose former superintendent, Theophilus Chamberlain, instigated many of the punitive expeditions against the local Aboriginal people including the massacre of Mudgee's family.[1][3][6] It is said that at one of the Cox properties was where she was given the name Diana Mudgee as part of her working as a servant as previously she had name in the Wiradjuri language that her employers refused to acknowledge.[2][7]

In her early teens, Mudgee had a daughter with James Knight, who distanced himself from Diana after her birth.[2] In 1840, she married convict William Phillips and had two daughters with him before he disappeared in 1845.[8][2] Between 1847 and 1861, Mudgee and convict Robert Rayner have seven children together.[1] Rayner died in 1874.[8]

In 1885, Mudgee was granted a conditional purchase of 160 ha (400 acres) of land in Piambong, with George Henry Cox listed as guarantor and additional lots of land were acquired by in 1892.[8] According to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies the circumstances for why Mudgee came into possession of such a considerable amount of land is not known.[1] It could have been that Cox used Mudgee as a "dummy bidder", a practice where colonists would purchase land in the names of their wives, children or servants as a security.[9][10]

Diana died on 4 May 1902 in Piambong at the estimated age of 76.[1][2]

References
  1. Studies, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (2022-05-25). "Diana Mudgee". aiatsis.gov.au. Retrieved 2022-11-08.
  2. Kennedy, Brian Joseph (2009). The Curly Headed Gin: The Diana Mudgee Story.
  3. Gapps, Stephen (2021). Gudyarra : The First Wiradjuri War of Resistance a" The Bathurst War, 1822a"1824. Kensington, NSW: NewSouth Books. ISBN 978-1-74223-671-1. OCLC 1266871296.
  4. Connor, John (2002). The Australian frontier wars, 1788-1838. Sydney, NSW: UNSW Press. ISBN 0-86840-756-9. OCLC 51437956.
  5. "Centre For 21st Century Humanities". c21ch.newcastle.edu.au. Retrieved 2022-11-08.
  6. "Mudgee in the Early Days". Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative. 1907-09-12. Retrieved 2022-11-08.
  7. "Word Up: Nathan Sentance". ABC Radio National. 2021-02-06. Retrieved 2022-11-08.
  8. Studies, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (2021-02-02). "Diana Mudgee timeline". aiatsis.gov.au. Retrieved 2022-11-08.
  9. "Australian Squatters and Selectors Sources". History Skills. Retrieved 2022-11-08.
  10. Small, Margaret; Piper, Andrew; Atchison, John (2019-03-11). "The Politics of Land Ownership in NSW: A Case Study". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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