‘The story of our influence is not so easily told’: Annie Sharpley, a teacher at Naracoorte

Kay Whitehead and Belinda MacGill

When former teacher Annie Sharpley died at Naracoorte,¹ South Australia, in 1941, several obituaries referred to her as a ‘highly respected resident of the district’ and highlighted her career of ‘fifty-one years continuous service in the one school, believed to be a Commonwealth record’.² Since then, Sharpley’s work has been included in histories of Naracoorte schools and the district, along with a short article in the ‘Great Educators’ series of Unicorn journal.³ While her career was extraordinary in length, the ‘selfless woman teacher in an idyllic [and homogenous] country school’ is a typical representation of rural education in white settler countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States.⁴ This image is sometimes tempered by discussions of women teachers’ unsatisfactory conditions of employment in government schools and criticisms of their inadequate training and transience in the profession.⁵ However, demographic and cultural changes in nineteenth-century rural contexts are mostly obscured, especially those wrought by colonisation and dispossession of Aboriginal people.⁶ This article incorporates Aboriginal Australians’ continuous exclusion from the education system and white settler community of Naracoorte in Annie Sharpley’s biography as a white settler woman teacher.

Like many women teachers, Sharpley left no personal accounts except her retirement speech, which was published in the Narracoorte Herald,⁷ and virtually all the people who knew her are beyond the reach of oral history.⁸ There are no extant inspectors’ reports for her school, though some official records of the education department contain details about her career. The most important sources are the Narracoorte Herald and other rural newspapers. Established in 1875 and purchased by Archie Caldwell in 1889, the Narracoorte Herald ‘kept pace with the times and always held a good position in the ranks of provincial journalism’.⁹ Archie was the ‘lead writer and chronicler of the news of the day’ and his brother Dugald managed the business until their deaths in 1942 and 1948, respectively.¹⁰ Both lived at Naracoorte with their sisters Annie and Juliet all their lives. Archie had a close relationship with Annie Sharpley, the nature of which remains a matter of speculation.¹¹

Published twice weekly, the Narracoorte Herald was ‘the mouthpiece of the district and endeavour[ed] to serve the community in all its activities’, including education.¹² Caldwell scoured the education department’s annual reports for local examination results and other statistics to include in the paper, as well as reporting on the activities of local schools. Perhaps unsurprisingly, his paper upheld the race and gender hierarchies of the time. Caldwell and most correspondents who submitted news to his paper privileged white men’s doings and sayings over those of white women and did not solicit the perspectives of Aboriginal and other non-white peoples.

In addition to reporting contemporary matters, the Narracoorte Herald and other local newspapers connected their readership with the past by publishing white settlers’ reminiscences and obituaries and ensuring that commemorative events were addressed in detail. These public histories that brought Naracoorte’s past into the present were also shaped by the politics of race and gender.¹³ A careful reading against the grain is required to reinstate Aboriginal people in their land and account for Annie Sharpley’s simultaneous subordination as a woman and her racial privilege as a white settler. In essence, this biography of Annie Sharpley’s life and work is underpinned by three themes: the relationships between white settlers and Aboriginal people in the Naracoorte district, the influence of marriage bars in the lives and work of women teachers, and the nexus between white settler histories and the history and geography curriculum in government schools.

The initial contact between the Meintangk people of south-eastern South Australia and white men dates from the 1830s and dispossession commenced in the 1840s. Sharpley was born during this period, and the first section of the article attends to her childhood and schooling. Beginning in 1877, the next section discusses her early years as a teacher at the Near Naracoorte Provisional School, and the curriculum and practices in late nineteenth-century government schools. The third section focuses on Sharpley’s position in the Naracoorte community, noting that she simultaneously resisted her subordination as a single woman while overlooking the marginalisation of Aboriginal people. Turning to the early twentieth century, the fourth section observes that Sharpley’s teaching and involvement in the Naracoorte community were marked by an emerging national awareness among white settlers and concomitant denial of the ongoing presence of Aboriginal people. When Sharpley retired in 1929, she was honoured with a huge reunion of parents and former scholars; later, when she died, tributes to her life and work were published. As described in the final section, such tributes were received at a time when Aboriginal people were mostly being written out of white settlers’ public histories of Naracoorte and relegated to the pre-contact era.

‘One of the sharpest and cleverest little creatures in the South East’

The lands of the Meintangk people extend from the vicinity of present-day Kingston on the coast to Naracoorte, about 100 kilometres inland.¹⁴ These lands were verdant, with permanent swamps and seasonally flooded plains, all rich in plant and animal life. Comprising seven groups, the Meintangk people lived more or less permanently in the region, moving to more sheltered higher ground during winter to avoid cold weather and flooding. They managed their land expertly in accordance with their gendered roles and responsibilities. With an intimate knowledge of food sources, they used fire as a hunting strategy and to facilitate the growth of edible plants. They constructed drainage systems and built weirs and traps to catch fish and birds.¹⁵ They had trading and cultural relations with other Aboriginal people in designated meeting places, one being narra coorta (springs of water).¹⁶

Meintangk people’s initial encounters with white men likely occurred in the late 1830s when the latter assessed the lands (named Mosquito Plains) for their economic potential.¹⁷ In 1842, it was reported that ‘the whole of this splendid tract of country is said to resemble a nobleman’s park on a large scale and is well-watered’.¹⁸ Dispossession commenced when squatters, mostly of Scottish ancestry, brought sheep overland from Victoria, quickly destroying the environmental balance and the social order. Some Meintangk people endeavoured to continue their lives as before; some joined the white labour market as shepherds, trackers and domestic servants for the squatters; many died from imported illnesses, thereby reinforcing claims that Aboriginal people were a dying race.¹⁹

As Foster notes, ‘frontier conflict commenced as soon as settlers arrived’.²⁰ Different perceptions of property ownership underlay some of this conflict, for whereas white people saw the Meintangk as ‘treacherous’ and thieving, the Meintangk regarded sheep as ‘lawful game like kangaroos’.²¹ In 1845, an altercation over sheep led to the death of a white man and violent retribution by his counterparts. It is reputed that a wounded Aboriginal man died in a limestone cave as a result and his preserved body was subsequently found by white men in the 1850s.²² By this stage, a private township, Kincraig, had been established in the vicinity of narra coorta and a government township was surveyed across the creek on Mosquito Plains in 1860. The townships were officially combined and named Naracoorte in 1869.²³

In the 1850s, another wave of non-Aboriginal people passed through Meintangk lands to avoid the Victorian colonial government’s poll tax on Chinese immigrants who were bound for the goldfields. More than 15,000 Chinese men disembarked at the port of Robe from 1857 and began the long walk, in groups of 600 or more, on a route that took them through Naracoorte. Many died along the way, and some abandoned their plans and established market gardens in various places, including Naracoorte.²⁴ However, rarely was this multiracial site portrayed as such in the contemporary press. In 1859, ‘Correspondent’ described ‘the village of Narricourt’ as a ‘charming retreat … romantically situated in a vale lying at the edge of these beautiful plains’. Correspondent told of the Scottish ‘founders’ of the town, and added a ‘prosperous tenantry’ plus ‘wheelwrights, carpenters, masons, brick makers and bricklayers’ to the population. Correspondent regretted not having time to view the ‘semi-petrified remains of the aboriginal so much talked of’ in the nearby caves.²⁵ In contrast, ‘Philanthropist’ had visited the district in 1854 and been ‘compel[led] by humanity’ to advocate for ‘a large mob of these aborigines camped near the Merino Inn’, among them two women who were gravely ill. While Dr Gunning, the medical practitioner, ‘was kind to them’, Philanthropist recommended that the colonial government’s protector of Aborigines establish a ration depot and a ‘kind of hospital’ at Naracoorte, thereby accommodating ‘the strong predilection they have to their native country’.²⁶ However, such observations were overlooked in favour white settlement, progress and development when the story of nineteenth-century Naracoorte was told.²⁷

Annie Sharpley was born at Kincraig on 24 February 1859.²⁸ Her parents, James and Sarah, had emigrated from County Cork, Ireland, arriving in Adelaide in 1858 and proceeding via Robe to Kincraig.²⁹ The Sharpleys did not belong to the squattocracy and were rarely named as pioneers of the district. An experienced horseman, James was one of Cobb and Co’s grooms.³⁰ He also took ‘charge of the mail stables’ and was later a poundkeeper for the Naracoorte District Council, while Sarah kept and sold poultry.³¹ Annie’s brother, William, was born in August 1860 and died in May 1862, leaving Annie as the Sharpleys’ only child.³²

The Sharpleys connected with, and contributed to the growth of, white settler institutions and thus were implicated in the consolidation of gendered and racial hierarchies at Naracoorte. White settlers numbered about 600 in the early 1860s and there was a post office, courthouse and police station along with the Merino Inn and other businesses.³³ After some discussion, the first church to be built was Presbyterian (in 1858) and James Sharpley participated in services there until an Anglican Church was built (in 1867).³⁴ The Presbyterian Church also served as a government school, licensed by the Central Board of Education (CBE) from 1860.³⁵ In 1866, the Sharpleys hosted the wedding of their relative Susan Sharpley to Robert Welcome, a local butcher and later farmer.³⁶ James Sharpley was an Anglican warden and a foundation member of the Loyal Mosquito Plains (Oddfellows) Lodge.³⁷

The above-mentioned letter writer Philanthropist’s advocacy for a ration depot at Naracoorte was not successful, even though the protector of Aborigines visited in 1866 and ‘found the blacks more numerous here than he expected’.³⁸ Visiting Naracoorte and pleading for rations at the same time, Father Tenison Woods stated that ‘the camp contains about thirty blacks, three of whom are prostrate from sickness’. Noting their ‘precarious earnings’, he added ‘some of them work; but as they plaintively objected to me, the sick cannot work, the aged cannot work’.³⁹ Nevertheless, local white settlers focused on developing Naracoorte with familiar institutions, and seemed more concerned with a visiting showman’s seizure of the ‘skeleton of the black’, now characterised as ‘a celebrated murderer’, from Naracoorte Caves in 1861 and its subsequent sale in London in 1866.⁴⁰

The Chinese market gardeners were rarely mentioned in the press and the 500 or so Aboriginal people who continued to use Naracoorte as a ceremonial and trading site were deemed ‘troublesome’ and ‘warlike’.⁴¹ The gendered and racial hierarchy that placed white men above all others was clearly on display when Governor Ferguson was accorded a rousing welcome by the white male ‘pioneer’ squatters and their wives in 1869. Less prominent residents of the township gathered as well, and James Sharpley was among the Oddfellow Lodge members who declared their loyalty.⁴² Large crowds accompanied the governor to Naracoorte Caves where ‘blacks’ performed a corroboree and ‘gave the scene a wild and fantastic look’.⁴³ This accords with the historian L. Watson’s observation that ‘Aboriginal ancient cultures were only allowed to return as a means of entertaining those who seek to enjoy “exotica”’.⁴⁴

Annie Sharpley thus spent her childhood among Aboriginal, Chinese and white settler people; however, she was firmly ensconced with the last and their institutions. Privileged by race, five-year-old Annie enrolled at the government school conducted by Alexander Watson in 1864. There were 54 white settler students, including 27 girls. Annie won first prize in her class at the well-attended annual public examinations conducted by Dr Gunning and Rev. McCalman.⁴⁵ She maintained a prestigious position in the following years, a correspondent claiming in 1868 that she was ‘one of the sharpest and cleverest little creatures in the South East’.⁴⁶ Annie’s success notwithstanding, there were ongoing gender issues at Watson’s school. In 1866, the CBE dealt with a complaint about Watson’s ‘discipline and the objectionable conduct of the larger boys towards the girls’. The complainants requested a woman teacher ‘to instruct the girls in the higher branches of education’. The CBE responded that it would license a woman teacher if there were more than 20 girls.⁴⁷ Following further claims that ‘a school for elder girls was much felt in this place’, Mrs Catherine Waterhouse was licensed in January 1869.⁴⁸ However, in December 1869, the CBE resolved to withdraw licences from women teachers (including Waterhouse) ‘who were conducting schools … connected with schools for which male teachers were licensed, who in several cases were the husbands of licensed teachers’.⁴⁹ This was the first time that women’s marital status was cited as a justification for suspending their careers and laid the groundwork for excluding married women as teachers in government schools. By the 1880s, married women had all but disappeared from government schools.⁵⁰

In 1869, the news that women teachers were to be expelled brought storms of protest across South Australia. At a public meeting at Naracoorte, attendees argued that ‘boys and girls should not be mixed’, supporting their case with examples from England and Ireland.⁵¹ The CBE backed down and Waterhouse was re-licensed, attracting increasing numbers of girls and offering an ‘advanced education’ to senior students.⁵² It is not known whether Annie Sharpley was among them but she later claimed that she had a ‘first class teacher’ in ‘finishing off’ her education, including music, which she used throughout her life.⁵³ Nevertheless, her entire teaching career was contingent on remaining single.

Teaching white settler students ‘the character of the country’

In the late 1870s, white settler Naracoorte continued to expand both its businesses and cultural and social life. In 1877, another Sharpley family, James B. and Bridget Sharpley and their children, came to Naracoorte. James opened a bootmakers shop, which he advertised in the Narracoorte Herald.⁵⁴ However, the family departed hurriedly in 1883 when James was declared insolvent; he died of alcoholism in 1886.⁵⁵ Meanwhile, Annie’s father was serving the community quietly in accordance with his ‘retiring disposition’.⁵⁶ He joined the Sons of Temperance in 1872 and the Naracoorte Philharmonic Society in 1876, playing the clarinet.⁵⁷ In 1876, Annie and Miss Attiwell performed an instrumental duet at the opening of the Naracoorte Institute.⁵⁸ Annie played the harmonium at the Wesley Church social in 1877.⁵⁹ The first Naracoorte Agricultural Show took place in 1871 and Annie’s mother won prizes for poultry and dairy produce in 1875.⁶⁰

For the most part, Naracoorte was a racially exclusive community. In the 1880s, the small group of Chinese men who had chosen Naracoorte over the goldfields were ‘cultivat[ing] the gardens in such excellent style that all kinds of vegetables are now grown in the district’.⁶¹ However, there is little evidence that they were included in social and cultural life—with the possible exception of the Naracoorte Show, where they won prizes for their vegetables.⁶² Likewise, almost all Aboriginal people were marginalised, the exceptions being some young men who participated in sporting events.⁶³

White settler interventions, such as drainage schemes, subdivision and fencing, forever changed Meintangk Country, detrimentally affecting Aboriginal people’s capacity to live on, and from, their lands. Native pastures deteriorated with the introduction of crops, grazing animals and rabbits, and fencing reduced the need for Aboriginal shepherds.⁶⁴ However, ever resourceful and resilient, Aboriginal people maintained their presence in the district and township. Kangaroo numbers increased rapidly, providing a meagre income for some Aboriginal men as shooters and trappers. Some were employed as seasonal workers: two Aboriginal haymakers successfully invoked the Master and Servants Act to sue Angas Campbell for non-payment of wages in 1879.⁶⁵

Ten years earlier, in 1869, the colonial government had passed the Strangways Act, liberalising its policies in relation to credit and the size of holdings, and advantaging James Sharpley who belonged to the Naracoorte Permanent Building and Investment Society.⁶⁶ Underpinned by a sense of entitlement to Meintangk Country, its advertisement stated that ‘every man [became] his own landlord by joining’ the society.⁶⁷ Around 1877, James Sharpley purchased four blocks of land about 5 kilometres from the town on the Messamurry Road to begin ‘farming and horticultural pursuits’.⁶⁸ He erected a wooden schoolroom on the property and 18-year-old Annie began her teaching career, riding her horse to work until the family home was built beside the school.

Whether coincidental or intentional, the Sharpley family was taking advantage of the 1875 Education Act that legislated compulsory schooling for children aged 7–13. Aboriginal children were not specifically excluded, but the Act focused on white settler children. Inspector-General Hartley led the new, centralised, bureaucratic Department of Education until his death in 1896. He created two categories of schools on the basis of student numbers. Schools such as Naracoorte with more than 20 students were designated ‘public schools’ and staffed by qualified teachers. Those with fewer than 20 students were categorised as ‘provisional schools’; no training was required of their teachers who were paid £4 per student, per annum, in lieu of a fixed salary.⁶⁹ Annie Sharpley was officially appointed teacher of the Near Naracoorte Provisional School on 1 August 1877 and thus engaged in ongoing, rather than piecemeal, waged employment, a privilege rarely accorded to Aboriginal people.⁷⁰ Most provisional teachers were women and Annie’s scholarly record supports Theobald’s claim that it was often the brightest girl in the district who became the provisional teacher.⁷¹

The education department instituted twice-yearly visits to each school by inspectors, the first being ‘without notice’ and the second to examine the students. Inspector Stanton was allocated to the South-East District and visited Near Naracoorte for the first 15 years of Annie’s career.⁷² Stanton, a notoriously harsh judge of teachers, complained that it was difficult to effect ‘visits without notice’ because:

[news] of his being on the road soon spread … In the South East the local newspapers, which take a particularly lively interest in all educational matters, betray a want of discretion on this particular point.⁷³

In Annie’s case, the inspector–teacher relationship was one of mutual respect, with Stanton giving ‘every assistance’ to this untrained teacher.⁷⁴ In 1878, she achieved 93.38 per cent in her first annual examination, the highest for any provisional teacher in the colony and far beyond Naracoorte Public School.⁷⁵ In 1879, Stanton and Inspector-General Hartley conducted the examination together with an equally impressive result.⁷⁶ Sharpley’s outstanding results earned her special commendations in Hartley’s annual reports until 1885, when she became the first provisional teacher in South Australia to be reclassified as a public teacher and awarded a ‘Fourth Class Certificate’.⁷⁷ When the average attendance at Near Naracoorte fell below 20 in 1887, Sharpley declined a transfer to a public school and was reclassified as a provisional teacher, remaining so until 1916.⁷⁸

As far as the education department was concerned, Sharpley’s outstanding examination results were an expression of her commitment to teaching a mandated curriculum, comprising the ‘3Rs’, history, geography, sewing (for girls) and drill. Inspector-General Hartley revised the curriculum in 1885 and it did not change for the remainder of the nineteenth century. Regarding history, he opined:

the demand is sometimes made that we should teach specially Australian history, because we live in Australia. To me this seems to be a mistake, for two reasons. In the first place our adopted country is very largely in the happy position of ‘having no history’; and further it would be a great pity that we should lose our associations with the glorious past of England. After all, we are citizens of Greater Britain.⁷⁹

According to Hartley, South Australian teachers needed to deliver ‘a fair general outline of the course of English history’.⁸⁰ Given his stance, geography ‘provided the framework for training [white settler] students to apprehend their world’.⁸¹ Teachers were required to focus geography lessons on the ‘school and its neighbourhood’ and then the ‘character of the country, occupations of the people, townships etc.’ within 10 miles of the school, followed by the ‘general geography’ of South Australia, Australia and New Zealand, and the world. ‘Requisite maps with names’ were supplied to every school and continually updated to encapsulate the spread of white settlement and development, concomitantly erasing Aboriginal people’s past and present.⁸²

In 1889, Hartley supplemented the curriculum with the Children’s Hour magazine ‘to encourage a taste in reading’ and focus on contemporary life.⁸³ The content was mainly British poems and stories, but there were isolated references to Aboriginal people as useful trackers of lost white children and/or inferior curiosities.⁸⁴ In essence, white settlers were not only increasingly dominating the landscape around Naracoorte, but also their narratives and understandings underpinned the school curriculum, influencing lifelong attitudes. Whatever Sharpley’s personal views and experiences, she was enmeshed in an expanding school system that upheld British supremacy and the prevailing racial hierarchy.

She was ‘capital in her love scene’

Unlike most teachers, who worked under the watchful eye of a headmaster, provisional teachers were relatively independent in their daily work. Yet, they still needed to negotiate effective relationships within the settler community.⁸⁵ A locally appointed Board of Advice produced annual reports and was delegated to enforce the compulsory attendance regulations for white children. The Naracoorte Board of Advice was initially only responsible for Naracoorte and Near Naracoorte schools; however, by 1893, the number of provisional schools had increased to six, all led by women teachers.⁸⁶ Board members visited Near Naracoorte annually, expressing strong support for Sharpley’s work. Certainly, her students’ examination results indicate that they learnt their lessons well.

Understanding the need for children’s labour on farms, the Board of Advice rarely prosecuted parents for failing to send their children to school. However, in 1889, Sharpley was required to produce her roll book in a case against the Leonard family: the defendant was ‘given the benefit of the doubt’ that his son ‘had sore feet and could not walk to school’.⁸⁷ Notwithstanding such issues, Sharpley fostered respectful relationships with parents and students.⁸⁸ She could be strict, on one occassion chastising a group of boys she caught having a boxing match in a nearby quarry, but she was also known for kind gestures, such as providing ‘a big billy of oatmeal water’ for students on hot days.⁸⁹ A class photograph of Sharpley and 21 of her students in 1889 includes two dogs, suggesting a degree of informality and friendliness in her relationships with her students (see Figure 1).⁹⁰ She kept in contact with many of her students long after they left school.

Weiler argues that ‘rural schools frequently provided the focus of the local community; they were one of the major public spaces for building collective identity through exhibitions … holiday celebrations’ and so on.⁹¹ From the outset, Sharpley was committed to connecting Near Naracoorte with the local settler community. For example, she organised membership of the Naracoorte Institute for two students every year.⁹² In February 1891, she sent the older boys to help fight a bushfire that was threatening nearby homes, including Sharpley’s.⁹³ Examples of Near Naracoorte students’ schoolwork were regularly exhibited at the Naracoorte Agricultural Show, along with other schools in the district. At the show in 1894, Sharpley ‘exhibited an excellent collection of children’s “manual work”’.⁹⁴

Figure 1: Annie Sharpley and her students, 1889.

Source: Mrs Judy Murdoch, Naracoorte historian.

Near Naracoorte’s annual Christmas break-up party was a highlight of the social calendar. Board of Advice members attended along with parents and friends, generous press accounts enhancing Sharpley’s status and reputation year after year. In 1883, a typical year, the school’s examination results were applauded and prizes were distributed to children, including Susan and Alfred Welcome, both relatives of Sharpley. In turn, the students presented Sharpley with ‘a handsome lady’s plush companion and they also gave a plated butter dish to Mrs Sharpley in recognition of her many acts of kindness’.⁹⁵ The gendered gifts were indicative of the esteem in which Sharpley and her mother were held.⁹⁶ That year, the ‘party was kept up gaily until midnight’.⁹⁷ Sharpley was not only deemed a good teacher by inspectors, members of the Board of Advice and parents, but also by students, so much so that by 1898 the annual break-up attracted many former pupils, including Rupert Magarey, who was training to be a doctor, and Lucas DeGaris, a well-known auctioneer. That year, the children’s gift to their teacher was a ‘beautiful bicycle lamp’, indicating that she embraced this modern mode of transport and well as the horse and trap.⁹⁸

Press reports show that Sharpley’s reputation as a dedicated and exemplary teacher began early in her career and continued throughout the nineteenth century. Beyond her role as a teacher, she engaged in social and cultural activities that brought her into focus as a modern and youthful woman. Within the town of Naracoorte—a typically gendered public space—white men, such as the Caldwell brothers, assumed leadership positions, while women served on separate ladies’ committees.⁹⁹ Sharpley’s options were even more limited, as the Department of Education specifically enjoined teachers ‘not to take part in political affairs other than by exercise of the franchise’, and Sharpley’s teaching commitments prevented participation in daytime committee meetings.¹⁰⁰ Nevertheless, she was a keen participant in diverse social spaces. For example, she and another provisional teacher, Juliet Caldwell, were stallholders at the Presbyterian Fair in 1883.¹⁰¹ Three years later, having trained ‘earnestly’ with Juliet and 20 other ‘maidenly and matronly’ women for three weeks, Sharpley captained the blue team in a ‘ladies cricket match’ on New Years Day in 1886, raising funds for the Naracoorte Hospital.¹⁰² The Naracoorte Hospital was subsidised by the government to treat Aboriginal as well as white patients and, as such, was a rare settler institution where the colour bar was blurred.¹⁰³ Otherwise, it was the Destitute Board, operating through the Naracoorte District Council, and a local doctor that ‘attended to the destitute poor and aborigines in the district’.¹⁰⁴ The Sharpleys were donors to the hospital but its most generous donors were the Chinese: indeed, as noted in the Narracoorte Herald in 1883, ‘none were more regular nor more liberal than the Chinese’.¹⁰⁵

Sharpley’s wideranging participation in social and cultural activities included membership of the Naracoorte Literary Society and the Naracoorte Cycling Club, and entries into agricultural, horticultural and floricultural shows, of which there were several across the year.¹⁰⁶ In 1890, she won first prize for her bouquet at the Floricultural Society’s Spring Show, at which vegetables donated by Sun Hap Shing were sold to raise funds for the society.¹⁰⁷ In 1894, Sharpley was one of the principal prize winners in floriculture for the Agricultural Show Ball, which lasted until five in the morning. (She was also the pianist.)¹⁰⁸ Notably, Sharpley also performed in Dramatic Society productions. In 1887, she ‘looked well as the rather vain [and ‘lovesick’] heiress’.¹⁰⁹ In 1892, ‘in her usual bright and dashing style’, she played ‘Seraphina Wiggins, an eligible young lady’.¹¹⁰ She had ‘lost none of her histrionic ability … and was capital in her love scene’ in 1898.¹¹¹

On the topic of love, Sharpley’s social life reputedly included a longstanding relationship with Archie Caldwell. They participated in the same settler institutions and shared an interest in history and world events. Archie spent weekends at Sharpley’s home. Their relationship challenged societal norms and students were known to arrive at school early on Monday mornings hoping to catch a glimpse of Archie.¹¹² Whether Sharpley and Archie’s relationship was real or imagined, the fact is that Sharpley would have found it difficult to combine teaching and marriage. Beginning in the 1870s, the education department restricted the employment of married women teachers and operated an informal marriage bar. For example, when Mrs Hannah Humphries applied for employment as a provisional teacher in 1887, Inspector-General Hartley advised that it was ‘not considered desirable to appoint married persons’ to such schools.¹¹³ Humphries was doubly disadvantaged in that she was also an unqualified teacher. In 1888, Hartley read about Charlotte Wauchope’s marriage in the newspaper and requested her resignation from Lower Wakefield Provisional School.¹¹⁴ In 1895, he stated that ‘it was now the practice of the Department not to appoint married female teachers living with their husbands’.¹¹⁵ Given the escalating marginalisation of married women teachers, especially those without qualifications, teachers such as Sharpley were placed in an invidious position, which may explain why neither Sharpley nor Archie married.

Linking past and present at Near Naracoorte school and district

In the late nineteenth century, the government’s approach to South Australia’s Aboriginal population shifted markedly when it became apparent that the number of mixed-race people was increasing. While it was assumed that Aboriginal people of full descent would die out, people of mixed descent were ‘destined for assimilation’ into white settler society.¹¹⁶ From 1911, most Aboriginal people’s lives and opportunities were constrained by restrictive government legislation.¹¹⁷ They continued to engage with the settler economy as itinerant shearers, labourers and cooks, but their freedom of movement was strictly controlled and many were pressured to live on missions or reserves, such as Blackford near Kingston, where the education department established a provisional school in 1908.¹¹⁸ Assimilation may have been the government’s goal, but living in close proximity on reserves facilitated strong and supportive relationships that helped Aboriginal people maintain their identity. With determination and ingenuity, senior Aboriginal people passed on their knowledge, skills, customs and traditions to younger generations.¹¹⁹ In the 1920s, Aboriginal women made baskets and mats from indigenous sedges, rushes and grasses, and sold them in Kingston.¹²⁰

Although the ongoing presence of Aboriginal people around Kingston was undeniable, most settlers believed—or hoped—that their time had passed.¹²¹ New waves of settlers taking up Aboriginal land found artefacts, such as tools, grinding stones and abandoned campsites. Some saw these artefacts as worth collecting for museum displays and others ploughed over them.¹²² When two skeletons were found by a farmer in 1898, it was ‘deemed that they were the remains of aborigines and no further action was considered necessary’.¹²³ The Narracoorte Herald occasionally reported on Aboriginal people in other places, but had nothing to say about any who might have been living in the Naracoorte district and township. Likewise, the Chinese men whose market gardens supplied the town’s fresh vegetables were rarely mentioned.¹²⁴ It was only in the context of the past that Aboriginal people were mentioned. For example, the Narracoorte Herald sponsored a history of the district and published some local white settlers’ reminiscences and obituaries that included references to Aboriginal people.¹²⁵

By 1909, Naracoorte had a high school and a burgeoning tourist industry focused on the Naracoorte Caves.¹²⁶ The land surrounding the caves had been declared a forest reserve in 1876 and was a favourite picnic spot. Official tours began in 1887 and the site was developed by its caretaker, William Reddan, until 1918, when it was taken over by the state’s tourist bureau.¹²⁷ In 1909, the caves—replete with ‘beautiful stalactites and stalagmites’—were promoted in the Adelaide Observer as ‘beauty spots worth visiting’. Somewhat incongruously, the article included a graphic account of an Aboriginal man’s death in the caves, and his skeleton’s subsequent removal and sale in London.¹²⁸ There had been several such articles over the years, each reminding readers about the violence of dispossession; however, by 1909, such violence was deemed a phenomenon of the distant past—as such, it did not dimmish the beauty or attraction of the caves. Potential tourists were encouraged to visit the ‘spectacular caverns’ rather than ‘spending a lot of money’ in other parts of Australia.¹²⁹ Of course, some of Naracoorte’s white settlers were also tourists. Sharpley’s students had presented her with a ‘handsome travelling bag’ in 1902 and she ‘and several other ladies from Naracoorte’ enjoyed a vacation at the seaside town of Kingston in January 1906.¹³⁰

James Sharpley’s sudden death in June 1899 aged 69 brought significant changes to his daughter’s domestic and working life. On the day of his death, James had prepared the horse and trap for Annie to drive into town, but he did not return to the house for the evening meal. Sarah Sharpley called a neighbour who found him deceased. The Narracoorte Herald regretted that his death marked ‘another link broken … between the past and present’.¹³¹ Following ‘a large funeral’ attended by representatives ‘of all classes of the community’, Annie and her mother thanked ‘their neighbours and numerous friends’ for their condolences.¹³² Subsequently, Annie took over the responsibility of running the farm as well as the school, employing young white men, such as her former student Richard Blacksell, as farmhands.¹³³ She continued acting in plays put on by the Dramatic Society.¹³⁴ When the Oddfellows Lodge purchased a new piano in 1904, she was invited to ‘play the first overture’ in memory of her late father’s membership.¹³⁵ Her mother’s health gradually deteriorated and she died from influenza in September 1908, aged 74. She was also accorded ‘a large and representative funeral’ and Annie was granted one week’s bereavement leave by the education department.¹³⁶

As mentioned, Sharpley had declined Hartley’s offer to transfer to a public school in 1887. Following Hartley’s death, Stanton led the education department from 1897 to 1906, and he too offered Sharpley a position in a public school.¹³⁷ In 1901, the proposition of such a move was canvassed in the presence of ‘a large attendance of parents, old scholars and friends’ at Near Naracoorte’s annual Christmas break-up party. Sharpley’s students had won 23 prizes at the Naracoorte Show and 10 at Lucindale, and achieved 92.92 per cent in the annual examination. Given Sharpley’s impressive record, one speaker opined that she should be in a ‘much larger school’, to which a father of one of the students replied: ‘parents would have something to say if he tried to persuade Miss Sharpley to leave for a higher sphere’.¹³⁸ Transferring to a public school would have rendered Sharpley subordinate to a headmaster, subject to larger classes with less autonomy and recognition, and living apart from her family and social networks. Sharpley chose to remain at Near Naracoorte.

Sharpley’s career record indicates that she kept abreast of current events and changing times. Following the appointment of Alfred Williams as director of the Department of Education in 1906, the curriculum in government schools was revised. Williams was a progressive educator and encouraged teachers ‘to instil in pupils a love of their own country’.¹³⁹ To this end, history was to be taught under the banner of ‘civics and morals’, with a dual focus on ‘glorious’ British history and the ‘people who explored and settled’ Australia.¹⁴⁰ Geography was part of ‘nature knowledge’ and teachers were encouraged to add ‘stories of Australian aborigines’ to the existing curriculum for younger children and introduce ‘the controlling influence of man’ to older students.¹⁴¹ The Children’s Hour was the primary source for both subjects, which meant there were endless stories of royal events and white explorers, but very few about Aboriginal people.¹⁴² Inspector Nicolle described Sharpley as ‘progressive and industrious’ in 1908; and she was deemed ‘progressive’ again in 1909 and 1911. Inspector Pavia examined Near Naracoorte between 1913 and 1918 and was impressed by its ‘ardent, devoted, stimulating, efficient’ teacher. Sharpley was reclassified as a public teacher under new regulations in 1915, which also institutionalised the marriage bar.¹⁴³

As mediated by Sharpley, the school curriculum coexisted in mutually productive ways with white settler activities. Near Naracoorte school joined in the construction of the town’s identity as a patriotic Australian community, linked, of course, to the British Empire. Near Naracoorte students marched in their school colours of pink and green in the 1902 coronation procession.¹⁴⁴ To celebrate Empire Day in 1905, Sharpley invited parents and friends to the school, suspended normal lessons and spoke about ‘the great advance in the area over which the British flag waved’. Another speaker urged students to participate in making Australia ‘one of the greatest nations in the world’.¹⁴⁵ These displays of patriotism, as enthusiastic as they were, paled in comparison Sharpley’s investment in World War I.

When Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914, Australia followed suit. Several young men from Naracoorte enlisted straightaway: one of Sharpley’s former students was at Gallipoli and another was awarded a military cross.¹⁴⁶ By 1915, there was a Red Cross branch and a Cheer Up Society in Naracoorte, the latter established by Sharpley’s friend Juliet Caldwell.¹⁴⁷ Both organisations benefited from Sharpley’s personal donations, and Near Naracoorte was reputed to be the first school in the district to begin war work.¹⁴⁸ The Union Jack and Australian flag featured in a photograph of Sharpley and her students in 1914.¹⁴⁹ In 1915, Near Naracoorte students were busy knitting and sewing for ‘our soldiers’ and Sharpley was occupied with committee work, which continued throughout the war years. In 1915, she and her students agreed to suspend prizes and gifts at the annual Christmas break-up party and donate the money to the Wounded Soldiers Fund and the education department’s Children’s Patriotic Fund.¹⁵⁰

Amid ongoing debates about conscription, Naracoorte’s settler community organised elaborate ‘Australia Day’ celebrations to raise funds for war charities.¹⁵¹ As usual, the day commenced with women selling flags, buttons and small articles on street corners. Later, accompanied by the Naracoorte Brass Band, there was an enormous procession of flag bearers, decorated vehicles, trolleys featuring Australian and imperial tableaus, adults and children in comic and fancy costumes, teachers and students, and various clubs. The afternoon program comprised stalls, sideshows and sports at the showgrounds, and the evening’s entertainment of ‘moving pictures’ of patriotic themes ‘was in every way a fitting wind-up to the day’s outing’.¹⁵² In 1915, Near Naracoorte’s Red Cross Company marched in the procession, collecting money for the war effort. Notably, among the prize winners in the procession was a group of white men in black face portraying Aboriginal people from the previous century, which was described as a ‘truly Australian representation’.¹⁵³ Repeated in 1916, ‘the characters were’ said to be ‘true to the native race’.¹⁵⁴ Yet again, Aboriginal people were (mis)represented as historical figures in settler Naracoorte rather than as contemporary Australians.

After the war, as was the case in many country towns, funds were raised for a ‘Fallen Soldiers Memorial’ at Naracoorte. Sharpley donated personally and Near Naracoorte students grew and sold vegetables from the school garden as their contribution.¹⁵⁵ In 1922, Near Naracoorte placed ‘memorial wreaths … on [the] Fallen Soldiers Memorial on three occasions … the unveiling ceremony, Nelson Day and Armistice Day’. That year, Edna Welcome and Margaret Humphries were successful in the statewide Qualifying Certificate examinations, entitling them to attend secondary school, even though they were under 13 years of age.¹⁵⁶ Following Sharpley’s retirement in 1929, Welcome would begin her teaching career at Near Naracoorte.¹⁵⁷

‘The story of our influence is not so easily told’

As required by the Department of Education, Annie Sharpley retired on her seventieth birthday in February 1929, having taught around 500 children during her 52-year career at Near Naracoorte.¹⁵⁸ Determined to ‘mark in some way what she had done for them in her able conduct of the school’, parents and old scholars organised a reunion in her honour in May. Responses to invitations were so overwhelming that the organisers had to move the event to a larger venue, the Naracoorte Institute. Sharpley’s long-time friend and newspaper owner Archie Caldwell recorded the occasion in enormous detail in the Naracoorte Herald.¹⁵⁹ A former Near Naracoorte student (1892–99) Albert DeGaris presided. ‘Appreciatory letters’ from throughout South Australia were read, including one from another old scholar, Lucas DeGaris, who stated: ‘it has been said that one can easily tell the tale of one’s life, but the story of our influence is not so easily told’. Nevertheless, the latter was the focus of several speeches, interspersed with musical items. While local speakers gave firsthand testimony, newly appointed inspector Hosking relied on ‘existing reports’ and stated that they were ‘uniformly excellent’. Naracoorte’s mayor recalled that Sharpley ‘had done a good deal in assisting the public institutions of the town when they were being built up’. He nominated her as ‘one of the leading amateurs in the Dramatic Club’ along with five more women provisional teachers who were in attendance. He highlighted her ‘war work’ and added that no less than 74 old scholars had enlisted. He concluded by naming several old male scholars in ‘prominent positions’ who were a ‘credit’ to her. Before presenting Sharpley with two ‘moquet easy chairs’, Albert Schinkel stated that she had shown ‘a wonderful adaptability as a teacher … she appeared to have grasped every change and adapted to it’.

Sharpley’s carefully constructed speech was read by DeGaris on her behalf and published in full in the Narracoorte Herald. She commenced with thanks to the organisers and confessed that the reunion was emotionally challenging. Evaluating her life’s work as a teacher, she stated:

I felt through the long years I conducted the school that I had the respect and support of the parents, and the goodwill of the children and I can assure you that was more than sufficient encouragement for me.

Then she ‘added a few words’ about her career, highlighting Near Naracoorte as the ‘first country school in the district’. She acknowledged Inspector-General Hartley and Inspector Stanton’s support, and said that she had declined ‘chances of promotion in other spheres’ on account of her ageing parents. She valued her Fourth Class Certificate as testimony to her ‘practical work in teaching’ and made a special point of mentioning Near Naracoorte’s contributions to the ‘Great War’ in the battlefields and at home. She concluded by outlining how her work as a teacher had contributed to making a white settler nation:

I am proud that so far as I know nearly all of my old scholars have become useful citizens in varied walks of life, and a number have held and hold important positions in the business and commercial activities of the state, and in the public service of the country.¹⁶⁰

Supported financially by the education department’s superannuation fund, Sharpley continued living in the family home and managing the family farm. She dealt with the quarry and the dogs that menaced the 40 or so sheep on her property.¹⁶¹ She was selling a bale of wool annually in the 1930s.¹⁶² Her father’s orchard was still producing almonds that Near Naracoorte students shelled and sold to raise funds for the school. She supported the new teachers: Edna Welcome (1929), Dorothea Kay (1930–35) and Harry Clarke (1935–41).¹⁶³ By the time Clarke arrived, the outdated school building was very dilapidated, but he credited Sharpley with Near Naracoorte’s ‘wonderful tradition and history’.¹⁶⁴ In turn, Sharpley gave Clarke some of her teaching materials and donated prizes for the annual Christmas break-up party.¹⁶⁵ Naracoorte High School also benefited from her generosity.¹⁶⁶

Retirement gave Sharpley extra time to maintain her social networks. In February 1935, for example, she enjoyed a ‘little afternoon reunion of Naracoorte old friends’.¹⁶⁷ She could now participate more freely in Naracoorte’s settler institutions, including the Cheer Up Society. She was a foundation member of the Naracoorte branch of the Country Women’s Association in March 1935, membership of which grew to 65 by October.¹⁶⁸ She attended its monthly meetings, which were held in the afternoon. The August 1937 meeting was focused on handcrafts, and Sharpley showed ‘quite a number of interesting exhibits done by former scholars and to each piece of work was given the name of the child who made it’. The exhibits included coat and horse brushes, baskets and mats, fretwork, fancy work and sewing specimens.¹⁶⁹ Having been denied public involvement in politics while she was employed by the education department, Sharpley became a member of the Naracoorte Women’s Branch of the Liberal and Country League in retirement. In 1938 she and Archie Caldwell were nominated as delegates to select a candidate for a Legislative Council by-election.¹⁷⁰

Perhaps prompted by the centenary of white occupation in South Australia, the Narracoorte Herald published several brief historical pieces in 1936. The articles, which focused on white men’s progress, made one passing reference to the ‘decline’ in numbers of Aboriginal people in the 1880s.¹⁷¹ The longest piece was a reminiscence by Malcolm McPherson who had arrived at Naracoorte in 1879. McPherson recalled his childhood in a land abundant with wildlife, his education at Naracoorte Public School, and ‘stoning a couple of Chinamen’ who owned gardens in the town. He named the white settler ‘businessmen of the town’ but made no mention of the Aboriginal people who also lived there during his childhood. Instead, he consigned the ‘old-time aborigines’ to a pre-contact era, the evidence of which—their ‘pounding stones’—he had sometimes found during his rambles. Yet mentioning the missing Aboriginal skeleton from the Naracoorte Caves, which he did, negated such claims, as the man had been killed in the 1840s.¹⁷² McPherson’s account was indicative of the ways in which Meintangk people were not only dispossessed of their lands but also marginalised from the living memory of the district. Obituaries of white settlers in Naracoorte and surrounding towns likewise inferred an exclusively white community.¹⁷³

With the exception of an unspecified ‘accident’ in July 1936, Sharpley seems to have enjoyed good health until 1940.¹⁷⁴ In about June 1940 she fell and broke her thigh and spent several weeks in hospital.¹⁷⁵ Still unable to walk, she purchased a home in the township and ‘seemed to be getting along fairly well’; however, her ‘cheerful presence was missed by all present’ at the Near Naracoorte Christmas break-up party that year.¹⁷⁶ She suffered a heart attack on 15 January 1941 and died the following day, aged 82.¹⁷⁷ Given her close relationship with Archie Caldwell, some people wondered if they had married in secret, but she was buried as Miss Sharpley.¹⁷⁸ Her funeral ‘was very largely attended by many old scholars’, six of whom were pallbearers.¹⁷⁹

Without mentioning their friendship specifically, Caldwell published a lengthy and poignant tribute to Sharpley in the Narracoorte Herald:

Being widely known and esteemed, it is needless to say that her death is regretted by a host of friends. Her quiet and unassuming disposition and sympathetic manner combined with her intellectual and conversational qualities gained friends for her in all walks of life. Being a schoolteacher of experience and ability over a long period, it can be said that she played a special part in the social and home life of the community.¹⁸⁰

Turning to Sharpley’s late parents, he recounted the many ways they had contributed to the development of Naracoorte through farming and institutional memberships, before detailing Sharpley’s own extensive community service, noting that she ‘recognised that it was a civic duty to furnish the town with institutions for social and intellectual purposes’. Next was an exposition of Sharpley’s ‘remarkable record of service as a school teacher’, which drew heavily on the account of her farewell in 1929. Finally, he described her funeral service and commented on the ‘beautiful floral wreaths’, including one from Near Naracoorte students and parents, fitting tributes to an ‘old and highly respected resident of the district’.¹⁸¹

Near Naracoorte school, ‘one of the oldest establishments of its kind in the district’, closed soon after Sharpley’s death in July 1941.¹⁸² Archie Caldwell died 14 months after Sharpley and was buried in the adjoining grave. Their headstones are identical.¹⁸³

Conclusion

Born into a multiracial community, Annie Sharpley’s racial privilege began early with access to schooling, followed by ongoing, rather than intermittent, employment; inclusion in white settler institutions and networks; and respectful acknowledgements of her past and present life following her retirement and death. These privileges were rarely, if ever, enjoyed by Aboriginal and Chinese people who lived in the Naracoorte township and district. But Sharpley’s access to racial privilege was not unfettered. There was gender discrimination in her schooling, her employment was contingent on remaining unmarried, her community participation was subject to male leadership, and most of the accounts of her life and work were produced by white men. Nevertheless, those texts, especially the education department’s reports and articles in the Narracoorte Herald, served her well, representing her as an exemplary teacher and influential woman.

Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century schools were important institutions. Sharpley constructed her life and career in ways that accommodated the existing racial hierarchy while challenging the gender order. A dedicated and skilled teacher, she cooperated with white men in the education department and Naracoorte to embed particular visions of history and geography, celebrating Australia as a white settler nation in the classroom and the local community. She rejected offers of a vertical career path that would have subordinated her to male school leadership, preferring to sustain family and community relationships, and her relatively autonomous work as a teacher in a one-room school. In an era when marriage, motherhood and domestic life was women’s assumed destiny, Sharpley engaged in paid work and social activities that brought her into public focus. As a self-assured single woman, she experimented with ‘love scenes’ on the stage and participated in a long-term, off-stage relationship with a single man that tested social conventions, but did not compromise the respect and goodwill of parents, students and the community. In essence, Annie Sharpley negotiated the opportunities and constraints of her time and place to shape a fulfilling independent life in white settler Australia.

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1. 1 The town’s name went through many spellings: Gnanga-kurt, Nanna-coorta, Narcoot, Nancoota, Narricourt, Narcoota and, for many years, Narracoorte.

2. 2 Narracoorte Herald, 24 January 1941, 4; Border Watch, 18 January 1941, 5; Border Watch, 25 January 1941, 8; Advertiser, 29 January 1941, 8; Chronicle, 30 January 1941, 2.

3. 3 J. Murdoch and H. Parker, History of Naracoorte (Naracoorte: Naracoorte Chamber of Commerce, 1963); S. Findlay, The Centenary of Primary School Education in Naracoorte, 1879–1979 (Naracoorte: Naracoorte Herald, 1979); K. Whitehead, ‘Great Australian Educators: Annie Sharpley, 1859–1941’, Unicorn 24, no. 3 (1998): 89–92.

4. 4 K. Weiler, ‘Betsey Holsbery’s School: Place, Gender, and Memory’, Gender and Education 26, no. 5 (2014): 524–38, doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2014.942256; D. Warren, ‘Looking for a Teacher, Finding Her Workplaces’, Journal of Curriculum and Supervision 19, no. 2 (2004): 150–68.

5. 5 K. Whitehead, ‘“The Insufficiency of the Low Grade Teacher”: A Transnational Matter’, Australasian Canadian Studies 22, no. 2 (2005): 289–311.

6. 6 M. Allbrook and M. Nolan, ‘Australian Historians and Biography’, Australian Journal of Biography and History 1, no. 1 (2018): 16, doi.org/10.22459/AJBH.2018.01; P. Brock and T. Gara, eds., Colonialism and its Aftermath: A History of Aboriginal South Australia (Adelaide: Wakefield Press, 2017); P. Sendziuk and R. Foster, A History of South Australia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), doi.org/10.1017/9781139196352; L. Watson, Looking at You, Looking at Me: Aboriginal Culture and History of the South-East of South Australia, vol. 1 (Adelaide: History Trust of South Australia, 2002); K. Whitehead and B. Wadham, ‘Marking a Marginal Past: Schooling and Dispossession in the Franklin Harbour District’, History Australia 8, no. 3 (2011): 25–46, doi.org/10.1080/14490854.2011.11668387.

7. 7 The Naracoorte Herald was spelt as Narracoorte Herald until 1948.

8. 8 Narracoorte Herald, 21 May 1929, 3.

9. 9 Narracoorte Herald, 17 March 1942, 3; Murdoch and Parker, History of Naracoorte, 110–12.

10. 10 Narracoorte Herald, 17 March 1942, 3.

11. 11 Murdoch and Parker, History of Naracoorte, 112.

12. 12 Narracoorte Herald, 27 March 1942, 4.

13. 13 C. Healy, From the Ruins of Colonialism: History as Social Memory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

14. 14 L. Watson, Looking at You, 37.

15. 15 J. Murdoch, Bool Lagoon: A Changing Balance (Naracoorte: Bool Lagoon Hall Committee, 1991); P. Clarke, ‘The Aboriginal Ethnobotany of the South East of South Australia Region. Part 1: Seasonal Life and Material Culture’, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 139, no. 2 (2015): 216–46, doi.org/10.1080/03721426.2015.1073415. See also B. Pascoe, Dark Emu: Aboriginal Australia and the Birth of Agriculture (Broome: Magabala Books, 2014); B. Gammage, The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2011).

16. 16 J. Blacket, The Early History of the Old and Thriving Town of Naracoorte (Naracoorte: A. Caldwell, 1930), 2.

17. 17 Murdoch and Parker, History of Naracoorte, 13.

18. 18 Quoted in Murdoch and Parker, History of Naracoorte, 13.

19. 19 H. Jones, Broad Outlines of Long Years in Australia (London: Samuel Tinsley and Co., 1878); Murdoch and Parker, History of Naracoorte, 13–15.

20. 20 R. Foster, ‘The Lower South-East of South Australia’, in Colonialism and Its Aftermath: A History of Aboriginal South Australia, ed. P. Brock and T. Gara (Adelaide: Wakefield Press, 2017), 204–5.

21. 21 Foster, ‘The Lower South-East’, 205; Watson, Looking at You, 61.

22. 22 Register, 27 February 1856, 2; Murdoch and Parker, History of Naracoorte, 121; Blacket, The Early History, 5–6.

23. 23 Blacket, The Early History, 8, 18; Murdoch and Parker, History of Naracoorte, 14.

24. 24 L. Harfull, Almost an Island: The Story of Robe (Adelaide: Wakefield Press, 2013) 60–63; Mail, 6 June 1925, 20.

25. 25 Adelaide Observer, 11 June 1859, 8. See also Register, 27 February 1856, 2.

26. 26 Adelaide Times, 2 September 1854, 3.

27. 27 Register, 19 September 1862, 3.

28. 28 J. Thomas, South Australian Births: Index of Registrations, 1842–1906, vol. 9 (Adelaide: South Australian Genealogy and Heraldry Society, 1997), 2725.

29. 29 Register, 2 February 1858, 2.

30. 30 Register, 28 April 1868, 3; Murdoch and Parker, History of Naracoorte, 87.

31. 31 Border Watch, 13 May 1876, 3; Narracoorte Herald, 8 October 1878, 2.

32. 32 Thomas, South Australian Births, 2725; A. Cobiac, South Australian Deaths: Index of Registrations, 1842–1915, vol. 4 (Adelaide: South Australian Genealogy and Heraldry Society, 2000), 1300.

33. 33 Adelaide Observer, 11 June 1859, 8; Murdoch and Parker, History of Naracoorte, 18.

34. 34 Narracoorte Herald, 10 November 1916, 2.

35. 35 Blacket, The Early History, 11–15; Murdoch and Parker, History of Naracoorte, 16.

36. 36 A. Cobiac, South Australian Marriages: Index of Registrations, 1842–1916, vol. 5 (Adelaide: South Australian Genealogy and Heraldry Society, 2001), 2022.

37. 37 Register, 3 December 1867, 3; Border Watch, 23 May 1866, 3; Narracoorte Herald, 31 October 1930, 4.

38. 38 Border Watch, 21 July 1866, 2.

39. 39 Register, 25 July 1866, 3.

40. 40 Border Watch, 20 September 1861, 2. Both events were extensively reported in the British press. See, for example, Leicester Journal, 30 May 1862, 3; Morning Advertiser, 31 July 1862, 3; Western Daily Press, 17 March 1866, 3; Field, 17 March 1866, 11.

41. 41 Narracoorte Herald, 25 November 1924, 1.

42. 42 Border Watch, 5 June 1869, 2; Jones, Broad Outlines, 173.

43. 43 Border Watch, 9 June 1869, 2.

44. 44 Watson, Looking at You, 5.

45. 45 Border Watch, 15 July 1864, 3.

46. 46 Border Watch, 8 July 1865, 2; Border Watch, 4 July 1866, 2; Border Watch, 18 December 1867, Border Watch, 26 December 1868, 4; Border Watch, 30 June 1869, 2.

47. 47 Minute nos. 9027, 9057, Minutes of the Central Board of Education, GRG 50/1, State Records of South Australia (hereafter SRSA); Border Watch, 25 August 1866, 3.

48. 48 Minute nos. 495, 532, Minutes of the Central Board of Education, GRG 50/1, SRSA; Register, 2 December 1868, 4.

49. 49 Minute no. 946, Minutes of the Central Board of Education, GRG 50/1, SRSA.

50. 50 K. Whitehead, ‘The Teaching Family, the State and New Women in Nineteenth-Century South Australia’, in Transformations in Schooling: Historical and Comparative Perspectives, ed. K. Tolley (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), 159.

51. 51 Register, 11 January 1870, 6; Border Watch, 12 January 1870, 3.

52. 52 Border Watch, 24 December 1870, 2; Southern Argus, 2 June 1871, 3; Border Watch, 21 September 1872, 2.

53. 53 Narracoorte Herald, 21 May 1929, 4.

54. 54 Advertiser, 27 July 1876, 6; Argus, 29 September 1877, 1; Narracoorte Herald, 18 September 1877, 1: James B. Sharpley was Susan Welcome’s (née Sharpley) brother.

55. 55 Narracoorte Herald, 25 December 1883, 2; Observer, 8 September 1883, 30; Mackay Mercury and South Kennedy Advertiser, 3 March 1886, 2.

56. 56 Naracoorte Herald, 27 June 1899, 2.

57. 57 Border Watch, 17 January 1872, 2; Narracoorte Herald, 25 January 1876, 2; Narracoorte Herald, 24 September 1878, 4.

58. 58 Narracoorte Herald, 3 October 1876, 2.

59. 59 Narracoorte Herald, 24 April 1877, 2.

60. 60 South Australian Chronicle and Weekly Mail, 28 August 1875, 13.

61. 61 Narracoorte Herald, 11 January 1881, 2; South Eastern Times, 5 July 1940, 4.

62. 62 M. Hextall, The Family of Wattle Farm (Adelaide: Gillingham Printers, 1986), 41.

63. 63 Narracoorte Herald, 22 January 1878, 2; Narracoorte Herald, 28 May 1879, 2.

64. 64 Murdoch, Bool Lagoon, 41, 79; Watson, Looking at You, 53.

65. 65 Narracoorte Herald, 4 February 1879, 2.

66. 66 Sendziuk and Foster, A History of South Australia, 63; Murdoch and Parker, History of Naracoorte, 22.

67. 67 Narracoorte Herald, 20 February 1877, 2; Narracoorte Herald, 9 September 1879, 1.

68. 68 Narracoorte Herald, 27 June 1899, 2.

69. 69 Whitehead, ‘The Teaching Family’, 159–62.

70. 70 Advertiser, 25 December 1877, 6.

71. 71 M. Theobald, ‘And Gladly Teach? The Making of a Woman’s Profession’, in Women Teaching, Women Learning: Historical Perspectives, ed. E. Smyth and P. Bourne (Toronto: Inanna Publications and Education Inc., 2006), 65–84.

72. 72 Inspector Stanton, Report, 1890, South Australian Parliamentary Papers 1891, no. 44, 7 (hereafter SAPP).

73. 73 Inspector Stanton, Report, 1879, SAPP 1880, no. 44, 7.

74. 74 Narracoorte Herald, 21 May 1929, 4.

75. 75 Minister Controlling Education, Report, 1878, SAPP 1879, no. 35, 25; Narracoorte Herald, 10 December 1878, 2.

76. 76 Narracoorte Herald, 25 November 1879, 2.

77. 77 Education Gazette, August 1885, 25.

78. 78 Naracoorte Board of Advice, Report, 1887, SAPP 1888, no. 44, 52. See Annie Sharpley’s teaching record, in Teachers’ Classification Board and Teachers’ History Sheets, GRG 18/167, SRSA.

79. 79 Inspector-General Hartley, Report, 1885, SAPP 1886, no. 44, xviii.

80. 80 Education Regulations, 1885, SAPP 1885, no. 34, 9.

81. 81 Healy, From the Ruins, 8.

82. 82 Education Regulations, 1885, SAPP 1885, no. 34, 7.

83. 83 H. Bonnin, Hours to Remember: Reflections on Life in South Australia, 1889–1929 from the Children’s Hour (Adelaide: Government Printer, 1987), 13.

84. 84 Bonnin, Hours to Remember, 35–6, 50, 53.

85. 85 Weiler, ‘Betsey Holsbery’s School’, 526; Whitehead and Wadham, ‘Marking a Marginal Past’, 25–46.

86. 86 Naracoorte Board of Advice, Report, 1879, SAPP 1880, no. 44, 32; Findlay, The Centenary of Primary School Education, 6–10.

87. 87 Border Watch, 25 September 1889, 4.

88. 88 Narracoorte Herald, 20 December 1898, 3.

89. 89 Narracoorte Herald, 21 May 1929, 4.

90. 90 Findlay, The Centenary of Primary School Education, 5.

91. 91 Weiler, ‘Betsey Holsbery’s School’, 534.

92. 92 Border Watch, 16 January 1884, 2.

93. 93 Narracoorte Herald, 3 February 1891, 2.

94. 94 Narracoorte Herald, 21 September 1894, 2.

95. 95 Narracoorte Herald, 25 December 1883, 2.

96. 96 Weiler, ‘Betsey Holsbery’s School’, 527.

97. 97 Narracoorte Herald, 25 December 1883, 2.

98. 98 Narracoorte Herald, 20 December 1898, 3.

99. 99 Weiler, ‘Betsey Holsbery’s School’, 525.

100. 100 Education Regulations, 1885, SAPP 1885, no. 34, 3.

101. 101 Narracoorte Herald, 17 August 1883, 2.

102. 102 Narracoorte Herald, 5 January 1886, 2.

103. 103 P. Brock and T. Gara, ‘From Segregation to Self-Determination in the Twentieth Century’, in Colonialism and Its Aftermath: A History of Aboriginal South Australia, ed. P. Brock and T. Gara (Adelaide: Wakefield Press, 2017), 43.

104. 104 Narracoorte Herald, 11 August 1893, 3.

105. 105 Border Watch, 16 January 1884, 2; Naracoorte Herald, 12 May 1899, 2; Narracoorte Herald, 19 June 1885, 2.

106. 106 Narracoorte Herald, 24 August 1894, 2; Narracoorte Herald, 3 May 1889, 2; Narracoorte Herald, 11 March 1892, 3; Narracoorte Herald, 12 May 1899, 2.

107. 107 Narracoorte Herald, 14 November 1890, 3; Narracoorte Herald, 18 November 1890, 2.

108. 108 Narracoorte Herald, 21 September 1894, 3.

109. 109 Narracoorte Herald, 6 September 1887, 2.

110. 110 Narracoorte Herald, 30 December 1892, 2.

111. 111 Narracoorte Herald, 29 July 1898, 3.

112. 112 Harry Clarke, interview by authors, 22 June 1993.

113. 113 Quoted in G. Morphett and K. Whitehead, ‘Marginalising Married Women Teachers in South Australia from the 1870s’, History of Education Researcher, no. 88 (2011): 53.

114. 114 Inspector-General Hartley to Charlotte Wauchope, 16 April 1888, in The Confidential Letterbook of the Inspector-General of Schools, 1880–1914, ed. B. Condon (Adelaide: Murray Park College of Advanced Education, 1976).

115. 115 Quoted in Whitehead and Wadham, ‘Marking a Marginal Past’, 38.

116. 116 Brock and Gara, ‘From Segregation to Self-Determination’, 41; R. Foster and A. Nettlebeck, ‘From Protectorate to Protection, 1836–1911’, in Colonialism and Its Aftermath: A History of Aboriginal South Australia, ed. P. Brock and T. Gara (Adelaide: Wakefield Press, 2017), 39.

117. 117 Foster and Nettlebeck, ‘From Protectorate to Protection’, 41–9.

118. 118 Watson, Looking at You, 122.

119. 119 M. Forte, Flight of an Eagle: The Dreaming of Ruby Hammond (Adelaide: Wakefield Press, 1995), 22–41; Watson, Looking at You, 60, 106; Foster, ‘The Lower South-East’, 212–16.

120. 120 Clarke, ‘The Aboriginal Ethnobotany’, 233–6.

121. 121 Healy, From the Ruins, 122; Foster, ‘The Lower South-East’, 212.

122. 122 Murdoch, Bool Lagoon, 22–4.

123. 123 Hextall, The Family of Wattle Farm, 44.

124. 124 Narracoorte Herald, 10 January 1904, 2; Narracoorte Herald, 24 May 1912, 2.

125. 125 Blacket, The Early History; Narracoorte Herald, 25 November 1924, 1–2; Narracoorte Herald, 23 March 1932, 1; Mail, 6 June 1925, 20; South Eastern Times, 5 July 1940, 4.

126. 126 Murdoch and Parker, History of Naracoorte, 100.

127. 127 L. Reed and S. Bourne, ‘“Old” Cave, New Stories: The Interpretative Evolution of Blanche Cave, Naracoorte, South Australia’, Journal of the Australasian Cave and Karst Management Association, 90 (2013): 11–28; Narracoorte Herald, 10 January 1939, 4; Narracoorte Herald, 29 April 1954, 4.

128. 128 Observer, 30 January 1909, 40.

129. 129 Observer, 30 January 1909, 40.

130. 130 Narracoorte Herald, 23 December 1902, 3; Observer, 27 January 1906, 4.

131. 131 Narracoorte Herald, 27 June 1899, 2.

132. 132 Narracoorte Herald, 27 June 1899, 2; Narracoorte Herald, 4 July 1899, 2.

133. 133 Narracoorte Herald, 23 February 1906, 3; Narracoorte Herald, 24 December 1909, 3; Narracoorte Herald, 9 August 1945, 6.

134. 134 Narracoorte Herald, 28 May 1901, 3; Chronicle, 10 November 1906, 16.

135. 135 Narracoorte Herald, 29 October 1904, 3.

136. 136 Narracoorte Herald, 25 September 1908, 2; Border Watch, 30 September 1908, 3; Narracoorte Herald, 27 October 1908, 2.

137. 137 Narracoorte Herald, 21 May 1929, 4.

138. 138 Narracoorte Herald, 24 December 1901, 3.

139. 139 Healy, From the Ruins, 8, 115–17.

140. 140 Education Gazette, February 1907, 50.

141. 141 H. Harrison, ed., Primary School Courses of Instruction, South Australia, 1920–1938, vol. 3 (Adelaide: Murray Park College of Advanced Education, 1976), 40.

142. 142 Bonnin, Hours to Remember, 98.

143. 143 See Annie Sharpley’s teaching record in Teachers’ Classification Board and Teachers’ History Sheets, GRG 18/167, SRSA; Morphett and Whitehead, ‘Marginalising Married Women Teachers’, 7.

144. 144 Narracoorte Herald, 12 August 1902, 2.

145. 145 Narracoorte Herald, 13 June 1905, 4.

146. 146 Narracoorte Herald, 23 April 1918, 4; Observer, 18 May 1939, 7.

147. 147 Narracoorte Herald, 10 January 1949, 8.

148. 148 Narracoorte Herald, 15 October 1915, 4; Observer, 18 May 1939, 7; Narracoorte Herald, 14 November 1916, 2.

149. 149 Findlay, The Centenary of Primary School Education, 13.

150. 150 Narracoorte Herald, 24 December 1915, 4.

151. 151 Narracoorte Herald, 3 October 1916, 2; Narracoorte Herald, 18 December 1917, 3; Sendziuk and Foster, A History of South Australia, 104–11.

152. 152 Narracoorte Herald, 3 August 1915, 3; Narracoorte Herald, 1 August 1916, 2; Narracoorte Herald, 24 September 1918, 3.

153. 153 Narracoorte Herald, 3 August 1915, 3.

154. 154 Narracoorte Herald, 1 August 1916, 2.

155. 155 Narracoorte Herald, 15 October 1920, 2.

156. 156 Narracoorte Herald, 16 January 1923, 4.

157. 157 Education Gazette, February 1929, 94.

158. 158 Education Gazette, January 1929, 64.

159. 159 Narracoorte Herald, 21 May 1929, 4. See also Advertiser, 13 May 1929, 6; Mail, 18 May 1929, 19.

160. 160 Narracoorte Herald, 21 May 1929, 4.

161. 161 Narracoorte Herald, 30 November 1934, 3.

162. 162 Narracoorte Herald, 14 March 1933, 1.

163. 163 Narracoorte Herald, 19 May 1935, 1.

164. 164 Narracoorte Herald, 7 January 1936, 4.

165. 165 Clarke, interview; Narracoorte Herald, 2 February 1940, 3, Border Watch, 5 January 1939, 5.

166. 166 Narracoorte Herald, 2 January 1940, 3.

167. 167 Narracoorte Herald, 19 February 1935, 1.

168. 168 Chronicle, 10 October 1935, 5; Narracoorte Herald, 27 March 1936, 4.

169. 169 Narracoorte Herald, 31 August 1937, 4.

170. 170 Narracoorte Herald, 6 May 1938, 2.

171. 171 See, for example, Narracoorte Herald, 26 June 1936, 1; 8 December 1936, 1.

172. 172 Narracoorte Herald, 1 May 1936, 1; Narracoorte Herald, 5 May 1936, 1.

173. 173 See, for example, Narracoorte Herald, 7 February 1936, 2; Narracoorte Herald, 5 June 1936, 3.

174. 174 Narracoorte Herald, 7 July 1936, 4.

175. 175 Narracoorte Herald, 18 June 1940, 3.

176. 176 Narracoorte Herald, 24 December 1940, 4.

177. 177 Border Watch, 18 January 1941, 5.

178. 178 Clarke, interview.

179. 179 Border Watch, 25 January 1941, 8; Advertiser, 29 January 1941, 8; Chronicle, 30 January 1941, 2.

180. 180 Narracoorte Herald, 24 January 1941, 4.

181. 181 Narracoorte Herald, 24 January 1941, 4.

182. 182 Narracoorte Herald, 8 July 1941, 3.

183. 183 Border Watch, 14 March 1942, 3.