AustLit

Daughter of Henry Harslett and his wife Caroline Jane (q.v.), Caroline Bateson had three older brothers as well as a younger brother and sister. The family lived at Woods Point, about ten miles from Wellington, South Australia. Her account of catching animals as a child for Dr Schomburgk and his new zoological department in the Botanic Garden, Adelaide, is told in 'My Enthusiastic Relation'. She was apparently an intelligent and beautiful girl, and was known as 'The Belle of the Murray'.

Bateson married Richard Henry Bateson in 1873, and a few years after their marriage they moved to Western Australia. They had four children. Some of Bateson's known writings are reproduced in the history of the Harsletts, Hares on the Hill (1996) by Gwenda Jeffrey (q.v.).