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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Arrival in Melbourne' records first impressions of Melbourne in 1855: Bourke-street; the Albion Hotel; rich crude diggers; the Argus office and James Semple; Fitzroy and a betrayed husband; buses and coaches; journey to the diggings.
'Kangaroo Flat' records daily life on the diggings; a shanty keeper's murder of his 'partner' and her lover's revenge; and old Irish shanty keeping couple; then Ballarat; M. H. F.'s first association with the press (poetry in the Mt Alexander Mail); Castlemaine and a sly-grog trial at the courthouse.
'Buninyong' records Taradale, White Hills, Buninyong and the journey and settlement there; characters met including a faithless wife rejected by husband and lover; false rushes; Green Hills, Buninyong Advertiser and W. W..
'Chinaman's Flat' records the goldrush ; Victorian summer heat and travelling; a mother's infanticide; murder buried in a mind shaft and a happy woman's consequent fever and death; a madcap wedding on the diggings; a comic false rush; (Irish characters abound); English brothers, one of whom dies of a heart attack on discovering gold.
'Inkerman' recalls the Kingower and Inkerman fields; a goat milkman; a listless young mother and wife complaining of her circumstances (very little sympathy for W. W.) who turns to alcohol and whose neglected child dies; also a horse-thief and murderer. (PB)
Notes
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This series of reminiscences appeared in six instalments in the Australian Journal in September 1882 and between January and May 1883. The episodes were not individually titled. The titles used here are editorial titles chosen by Lucy Sussex in her 1989 reprinting of the series.
Includes
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Arrival in Melbourne
1882
single work
autobiography
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , September vol. 18 no. 208 1882; (p. 33-37) The Fortunes of Mary Fortune 1989; (p. 3-22) -
Kangaroo Flat
1883
single work
autobiography
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , January vol. 18 no. 212 1883; (p. 280-286) The Fortunes of Mary Fortune 1989; (p. 23-49) -
Buninyong
1883
single work
autobiography
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , February vol. 18 no. 213 1883; (p. 338-343) The Fortunes of Mary Fortune 1989; (p. 51-78) -
Chinaman's Flat
1883
single work
autobiography
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , March vol. 18 no. 214 1883; (p. 379-384.) The Fortunes of Mary Fortune 1989; (p. 79-102) -
Inkerman
1883
single work
autobiography
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , April vol. 18 no. 215 1883; (p. 445-448) The Australian Journal , May vol. 18 no. 216 1883; (p. 508-510) The Fortunes of Mary Fortune 1989; (p. 103-124)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Unconventional Memoirs : Mary Fortune’s Account of Life on the Diggings
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Commonwealth : Essays and Studies , vol. 43 no. 1 2020;'In “Twenty-Six Years Ago: or, the Diggings from ’55,” published in The Australian Journal (1882-83), Waif Wander (Mary Fortune’s pen name) provides an autobiographical account of an unconventional woman’s life on the Australian goldfields. This article seeks to stress the unconventionality of Mary Fortune’s memoirs, written beyond norms of genre and gender, in order to contribute to their re-evaluation. It addresses Fortune’s exclusion from the Australian literary histories as well as her eccentric and marginal way of life.' (Publication abstract)
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A Literary Fortune : Mary Fortune's Life in the Colonial Periodical Press
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Unsociable Sociability of Women's Lifewriting 2010; (p. 128-147) -
Shrouded in Mystery : Waif Wander (Mary Fortune)
1988
single work
criticism
— Appears in: A Bright and Fiery Troop : Australian Women Writers of the Nineteenth Century 1988; (p. 117-132)
-
A Literary Fortune : Mary Fortune's Life in the Colonial Periodical Press
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Unsociable Sociability of Women's Lifewriting 2010; (p. 128-147) -
Shrouded in Mystery : Waif Wander (Mary Fortune)
1988
single work
criticism
— Appears in: A Bright and Fiery Troop : Australian Women Writers of the Nineteenth Century 1988; (p. 117-132) -
Unconventional Memoirs : Mary Fortune’s Account of Life on the Diggings
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Commonwealth : Essays and Studies , vol. 43 no. 1 2020;'In “Twenty-Six Years Ago: or, the Diggings from ’55,” published in The Australian Journal (1882-83), Waif Wander (Mary Fortune’s pen name) provides an autobiographical account of an unconventional woman’s life on the Australian goldfields. This article seeks to stress the unconventionality of Mary Fortune’s memoirs, written beyond norms of genre and gender, in order to contribute to their re-evaluation. It addresses Fortune’s exclusion from the Australian literary histories as well as her eccentric and marginal way of life.' (Publication abstract)