Chapter 11: The most interesting race on earth
p267 ‘The natives at . . .’ from Edith Coleman, 1938, ‘One man’s meat’, Walkabout, 4, pp36–38. pp269–71 This reconstruction is based on information in Edith’s letters to Rica Sandilands. The material about the fundraiser for animals and Gladys’s return from her trip comes from a letter dated 2 November 1933, while other material on Gladys is from letters dated 31 December 1931, 7 February 1932 and 27 March 1932. Some of their misadventures while up north are recorded in Donald’s newspaper articles of the time, particularly the series ‘White Man and his wife: Life up north among the Nomads’. Edith’s thoughts about Dorothy marrying are from a letter to Rica Sandilands dated 25 February 1932. All the letters from the Rica Erickson Papers, SLWA. p271 Information on Blackburn and Healesville’s original custodians from Isabel Ellender and Peter Christiansen, 2001, People of the Merri Merri: The Wurundjeri in Colonial Days (Merri Creek Management Committee: East Brunswick) pp112–113 and Gary Presland, 2001, Aboriginal Melbourne: The Lost Land of the Kulin People (Harriland Press: Forest Hill) pp105–107. p272 ‘Could we get . . .’ ‘The Coranderrk petition’ (21 September 1886) E 9263, Public Record Office of Victoria. For a history of Coranderrk see Diane Barwick, 1998, Rebellion at Coranderrk (Aboriginal History Inc: Canberra). p273 ‘colonising narratives that . . .’ Hannah Donnelly, 2016, ‘The Unnatural Way of Things’, The Book That, https://thewritersbloc.net/unnatural-way-things [accessed 20.2. 2017]. p274 ‘English is my . . .’ Quoted in Maryam Azam, 2014, ‘Alexis Wright: “it was like writing a story to the ancestors”’, The Guardian, 25 May, https://www.theguardian.com/books/australia-culture-blog/2014/may/25/ alexis-wright-it-was-like-writing-a-story-to-the-ancestors [accessed 27.2.2017]. Mark Tredinnick, 2007, ‘Under the mountains and besides a creek: Robert Gray and the shepherding of Antipodean being,’ in C. A. Cranston and Robert Zeller (eds) The Littoral Zone: Australian contexts and their writers (Rodopi: Amsterdam) p141. ‘The land and . . .’ Judith Wright, quoted in Veronica Brady, 1998, South of My Days: A biography of Judith Wright (Angus and Robertson: Sydney) p121. p275 ‘When the stories . . .’ Catherine Mauk, 2017, ‘Geography of the self’, Terrain.org: A journal of the built and natural environment, https://www.terrain.org/2017/nonfiction/geography-of-the-self/ [accessed 25.3.2017]. Information on Donald Thomson from Bruce Rigby and Nicolas Peterson (eds) Donald Thomson, the man and scholar (Academy of Social Sciences in Australia: Canberra) p3. Gladys seems to have completed all her studies by the end of 1926 (after taking no subjects in 1925) but her degree was not conferred until 1928, when her research grant was awarded (Student Record for Gladys Thomson, UMA). John Thomson recalls that Gladys supported the family with her writing. During this time Donald also published prolifically in the newspapers as a naturalist and anthropologist. ‘You can imagine . . .’ letter from Edith Coleman to Rica Sandilands, 31 December 1931, Rica Erickson Papers SLWA. p276 ‘As soon as . . .’ and ‘Almost anyone will . . .’ Donald Thomson, 1934, ‘White Man and his Wife among Nomads of the North, Part 1’ The Mail (Adelaide) 8 September, p2. ‘Flo Kennedy, then . . .’ and ‘the old people . . .’ from Rigby and Peterson, 2005, p13. Lindy Allen, 2008, ‘Tons and Tons of Valuable Material: The Donald Thomson Collection’, in Nicolas Peterson, Lindy Allen and Louise Hamby (eds) The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections (Melbourne University Publishing: Melbourne) p394. Diane Bell, 1980, Daughters of the Dreaming (University of Minnesota Press: Minnesota). p277 ‘A few natives . . .’ and ‘One felt a . . .’ from Edith Coleman, 1929, ‘Across the continent to Perth: Impression of colour and vast distances’, The Argus, 23 November, p10. ‘They are almost . . .’ in a letter from Edith Coleman to Rica Sandilands, 2 November 1933, Rica Erickson Papers, SLWA. p278 ‘would only place . . .’ letter from Peter Thomson to Rica Erickson, 26 February, 2001, Rica Erickson Papers, SLWA. p279 ‘Scientists in Australia’s Far North–Adventures of Mr and Mrs Donald Thomson’, The Sydney Mail, 1 November 1933, pp26–27. ‘It seems strange . . .’ letter from Edith Coleman to Rica Sandilands, 2 November 1933, Rica Erickson Papers, SLWA. ‘They are scrupulously . . .’ ‘Life among Natives: Scientists’ Experiences’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 26 October 1933, p12. p280 ‘They had walked . . .’ in a letter from Edith Coleman to Rica Sandilands, 5 September 1932, Rica Erickson Papers, SLWA. p281 ‘His wife and . . .’ ‘Life among Natives’, 1933. ‘The illustrations depict . . .’ and ‘Gladys was always . . .’ Moira R. Playne, 2005, ‘The line drawings, paintings and painted photographs of five women artists’ in Rigby and Peterson, 2005, p232. p283 Lyndsay Gardiner, 1977, Tintern School and Anglican girls’ education 1877–1977 (Tintern Church of England Girls Grammar School: East Ringwood) p89. pp283–284 Recollections of Dorothy as a teacher and ‘One sweet memory . . .’ from Lois Meyer, 1998, ‘Memories of Dorothy Coleman’, Tintern News, 1998, p7 (from Peter Harms). p284 ‘She is going . . .’ letter from Edith Coleman to Rica Sandilands, 19 October 1932, Rica Erickson Papers, SLWA. Dorothy’s retirement from ‘Tintern Girls Grammar School’ The Age, 19 December 1935, p14. Dorothy’s activities at Hermannsburg compiled from ‘From Near and Far’, The Age, 28 April 1937, p17. ‘Only those who . . .’ and ‘Green food and . . .’ Dorothy Coleman to the Editor, ‘Funds for Extension’, The Argus, 14 December 1936, p10. p285 Mitchell Rolls and Anna Johnston, 2016, Travelling home, Walkabout magazine and mid-twentieth century Australia (Anthem Press: London) p23. ‘where she is . . .’ ‘From Near and Far’, The Age, 28 April 1937, p17 p286 ‘There is also . . .’ ‘Easy Modelling: New invention by woman artist’, The Age, 18 January 1940, p4. Mrs W. Whitford Hazel, ‘Australian invents new modelling medium’, The Sun, quoted in Kate Baker, 1942, p26. p287 ‘Two wide-spreading limpid . . .’ Jeannie Gunn [Mrs Aeneas Gunn] (1908/2008) We of the Never-Never (Vintage Classics: North Sydney) p58. p288 ‘There are beautiful . . .’ quoted in David M. J. S Bowman, Jason Gibson, and Toshiaki Kondo, 2015, ‘Outback palms: Aboriginal myth meets DNA analysis’, Nature, 520, p33. Walter F. Veit, 1990, ‘Strehlow, Carl Friedrich Theodor (1871–1922)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography (National Centre of Biography, Australian National University) http://adb.anu.edu.au/ biography/strehlow-carl-friedrich-theodor-8698/text15221 [Accessed 26.2.2017]. p289 Edith’s visit to Dorothy is noted in ‘Social Notes’ The Argus, 9 June 1937, p19. ‘Trichiniums which still . . .’ from Edith Coleman [E.C.] 1937, ‘Flowers of the inland: Colours and sweet perfume’, The Age, 11 December, p4. See also Edith Coleman, 1938, ‘Magic rain carpets the “inland”: Many and brave are the flowers of the inland – blooms of a ‘desert’ that is no desert’, The Argus, 11 June, p4, 6. ‘A sad and . . .’ Elizabeth Durack, 1986, ‘Albert Namatjira ‘Rides forth to claim his own’’, Quadrant, November, p107. pp290–291 ‘Mrs Thomas (sic) . . .’ and ‘I have seen . . .’ ‘Ate Turtle: Naturalist’s Bill of Fare’, Daily Examiner (Grafton) 8 January 1930, p3. Edith Coleman [E.C.] 1945, ‘Australian Oddities: The nardoo plant – food of a stone age people’, The Age, 27 January, p9. ‘That there were . . .’; ‘To him, the . . .’; ‘I came to . . .’ and ‘The natives at . . .’ Edith Coleman, 1938, ‘One man’s meat’, Walkabout, 4, pp36–38. Oodgeroo Noonocul [Kath Walker] 1970, ‘The Food Gatherers;, My people: A Kath Walker collection (Jacaranda: Milton). p292 ‘Little mia mias . . .’ and “A native girl . . .’ Edith Coleman, 1939, ‘Still Life in the Garden: Sylvan historians in Australian designs’, The Age, 11 March, p3. p293 ‘Easy Modelling’, 18 January 1940. ‘A delicately modelled . . .’ and ‘In her studio . . .’ Whitford Hazel, in Kate Baker, 1942, pp25–27. Dorothy Coleman (1940) Easy Modelling with Nucraft (FW Cheshire: Melbourne). p294 Edith Coleman, 1938, ‘Manna in the Wilderness’, The Age, 3 September, p3. ‘The more familiar . . .’ Catherine Mauk, 2017, ‘Geography of the self’. pp297–300 by Edith Coleman, 1938, ‘Magic rain carpets the “inland”: Many and brave are the flowers of the inland – blooms of a “desert” that is no desert’, The Argus, 11 June, pp4, 6.
Chapter 12: One of us
> p301 ‘Perhaps we might . . .’ Edith Coleman to the Editor, ‘Saving our fauna and flora’ The Age, 15 July 1933, p4. pp303–305 This reconstruction is based on two letters written by Edith on Stella Miles Franklin’s Commonwealth Literary Award, in The Age, 5 December 1939, p8 and The Argus, 19 December 1939, p4, as well as The Age, 2 December 1939 and the article on ‘Fellowships for Writers: Literary Awards’, p31. Background information is drawn from Sandra Burt, 1996, ‘Kate Baker and “a matter of national importance”’, The LaTrobe Journal, No 58, Spring, p33. H. M. R. Rupp referred to Charles Barrett as ‘an ass of a man’ in a letter to Alec Chisholm, 12 April 1933 and others, in relation to publishing other people’s work under his own name (Acc. No 503.0/001 Item 18, papers and correspondence of Rev. H. M. R. Rupp, Box 1 & 2. NHNSW Library). Edith’s recipe for a homemade tea/coffee substitute and its toleration comes from Edith Coleman, 1942, ‘The cup that cheers: Substitutes from the herb garden–American women show the way’, The Age, 2 May, p7. p305 Roy Duncan, 1980, ‘Kate Baker, ‘Standard-bearer”’, Australian Literary Studies, 9(3) p378. ‘accept nothing Australian . . .’ Stella Miles Franklin to Kate Baker, 11 May 1937, quoted in Bill Holloway, ‘Such is Life, Abridged’, 3 February 2016, The Australian Legend: The Independent Woman and the myth of the Australian bushman https://theaustralianlegend.wordpress.com/2016/02/03/ such-is-life-abridged/ [accessed 2.1.2016]. ‘illusion that she . . .’ quoted from Jill Roe (ed) 1993, Congenials: Miles Franklin and Friends in Letters, Vol 1 & 2 (Angus and Robertson: Sydney) p47 ‘complained of the . . .’ Kate Baker to Victor Kennedy, 23 June 1940, MS 9419/2571. Victor Kennedy papers Box 1900, quoted in Sandra Burt, 1996, p34. p306 ‘A triumph, 91 . . .’ Stella Miles Franklin, quoted in Sandra Burt, 1996, p37. ‘May I give . . .’ letter from Edith Coleman to Kate Baker, 15 May 1937, Papers of Kate Baker, 1893–1946 [manuscript] MS 2022/1/660, NLA. p307 ‘She has written . . .’ and ‘I do not know . . .’ from Kate Baker, 1942, Preface and File 3 Edith Coleman, p17. p308 ‘One is almost . . .’ Alec H. Chisholm, 1925, ‘Our women of the open ways: Part II’, The Australian Woman’s Mirror, 3 February, p16. ‘the only girl . . .’ Diana Saverin, 2015, ‘The Thoreau of the Suburbs’, The Atlantic, 3 February, http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/ archive/2015/02/thethoreauof thesuburbs/385128/ [accessed 10.1.2016]. ‘The mythic frontier . . .’ William Cronon, 1995, ‘The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature’, in William Cronon (ed) Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature (WW Norton: New York) pp69–90. ‘roughly half of . . .’ Lawrence Buell, The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture (Belknap Press: Cambridge Massachusetts) pp44–5. p309 ‘Is national forgetfulness . . .’ Clare Wright, 2015, ‘Forgetting to remember’, Griffith Review, 48, pp149–157. This dynamics of cross-gender communications is a very large field of research, but see, for example, the foundational books by Robin Tolmach Lakoff or Deborah Tannen as well as Ann Weatherall. pp309–310 ‘He shared our . . .’, ‘This son of . . .’, ‘One is not . . .’ and ‘teach him to . . .’ from Edith Coleman, 1934, ‘The Echidna under domestication’, Victorian Naturalist, 51, pp12–21. p311 ‘I rail against . . .’ Edith Coleman (E.C.) 1940, ‘Day of little things: The squeak family–wearing shows of happiness’, The Age, 6 January, p11. ‘Santa Claus, the . . .’ Stella Miles Franklin, 1963, Childhood at Brindabella, quoted in Kate Rigby, 2007, ‘Ecopoetics of the Limestone Plains’ in Carol A. Cranston and Robert Zeller (eds) The Littoral Zone: Australian Contexts and their Writers (Rodopi: Amersterdam) p161. Bill Baillie’s return documented in Gladys W. Coleman, 1924, ‘Sketches from the Bush: Bill Baillie’, The Leader, 31 July, np. Gladys W. Coleman, 1924, ‘Sketches for the Bush: The Yabbie’, The Leader, 11 August, p55. ‘On Sunday . . .’ and ‘There is no . . .’ in Donald Macdonald, 1914, ‘Notes for Boys’, The Argus, 19 May, p12. p312 ‘I want to . . .’ and ‘grand aspirations [for] . . .’ Donald Macdonald, 1909, ‘Notes for Boys’, The Argus, 23 February, p5. p313 Observations of nature study being for boys from Grant Rodwell, 1997, ‘Nature Enthusiasm, Social Planning and Eugenics in Australian State Schools, 1900–1920’, Journal of Educational Administration and History, 29, p6. p313 Jane Marcet, 1809, Conversations on Chemistry (Sidney’s Press: New Haven) piii. p314 History of the women in the British Academy from Margaret Alic, 1986, Hypatia’s Heritage (The Women’s Press: London) p180. Evidence of women’s participation in botany from Ann B Shteir, 1987, ‘Botany in the breakfast room: Women in early nineteenth century British plant study’, in Pnina G. Abir-Am and Dorinda Outram (eds) Uneasy careers and intimate lives: Women in Science 1789–1979 (Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick) pp31–44. Alfred Ewart’s preference for employing cheaper women in Linden Gillbank, 2010, From System garden to scientific research: The University of Melbourne’s School of Botany under its first two professors (1906–1973) (University of Melbourne: Parkville) p6. ‘every member of . . .’ from Report to the University Council by the Committee of Selection for the Professorship of Botany, 1938/91, UM 312, UMA, quoted in Gillbank, 2010, p13. Both Agar and Turner preferentially appointed males as documented in Farley Kelly, 1993, ‘Learning and teaching science: Women making careers 1890–1920’, in Farley Kelly (ed) On the edge of discovery: Australian women in science (Text: Melbourne) p58 and in Jane Carey, 2001, ‘Engendering scientific: Australian women and science, 1880–1960’, Limina: a journal of historical and cultural studies, 7, p17. p315 Historical gender disparity data from Richard Sellick and Stuart Macintyre, 2004, A short history of the University of Melbourne (Melbourne University Press: Melbourne) p77. Current gender disparity data from ‘Staff equity and diversity framework, 2013–2016’, University of Melbourne, https://hr.unimelb.edu.au/ data/assets/pdf_file/0005/750659/Staff_Equity_and_Diversity_Framework_2013-2016.pdf [accessed 19.11.2016]. p316 ‘Had our friend . . .’ Charles Lyell to his future wife, 1831, I325, quoted in Alic, 1986, p190. Mary Horner’s contributions are noted in Ellen Cole, Esther D. Rothblum and Donna M. Ashcraft, 2013, Women’s Work: A survey of scholarship by and about women (Routledge: London) pp55–56. p317 ‘Named in honour . . .’ Richard S. Rogers, 1923, ‘Contributions to the orchidaceous flora of Australia’, Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia, 47, p337. Recent sightings of the lilac leek orchid’s are recorded in the Atlas of Living Australia, http://biocache.ala.org.au/occurrences/ca6f2a66-776d-426e-8059-a80a07a5d103, with the original photographs and records, ‘Prasophyllum colemaniae and Maegilla asserta’ (20 August 2014) Bowerbird, found at http://www.bowerbird.org.au/observations/19881 [accessed 17.2.2017] . pp317–318 ‘in a party . . .’ Edith Coleman, ‘Orchids at the National Park.’ Victorian Naturalist, vol. 43, 1926, pp211–212. p320 ‘Miss Dorothy Coleman . . .’ ‘TOGA Dance’, Table Talk, 12 June 1923, p31. ‘Residents of Blackburn . . .’ ‘Dance at Blackburn’, Table Talk, 18 September 1924, p41. ‘The society of . . .’ Henry D. Thoreau, 14 November 1841, Journal entry, quoted in Odell Shepard (ed) 1961, The heart of Thoreau’s journals (Dover Publications: New York) p67. p321 ‘the lady – Edith . . .’ and ‘in my opinion . . .’ J. F. McCormack to the Editor, ‘Emerson’s Essays’, The Age, 25 June 1932, p8. ‘I had forgotten . . .’ Edith Coleman to the Editor, ‘Emerson’s Essays–Bedside Reading’, The Age, 9 July 1932, p8. ‘Strictly speaking, your . . .’ J. H. Sampson to the Editor, ‘Flesh-devouring plants’ The Age, 27 November 1933, p16. ‘My letter was . . .’ Edith Coleman to the Editor, ‘Flesh-eating plants’ 30 November 1933, p13. ‘Victorian feminist mock insouciance’ and ‘It takes Thoreau . . .’ Lawrence Buell, 1996, The environmental imagination: Thoreau, nature writing, and the formation of American culture (Harvard University Press: Cambridge Massachusetts) pp234–5. p322 ‘A question mark . . .’ Alec Chisholm following Edith Coleman, ‘Aromatic plants as antiseptics,’ Victorian Naturalist, vol. 61, 1944, pp85–88. p323 ‘feminine tosh . . .’ Amy Fallon, 2011, ‘VS Naipaul finds no women writers his literary match – not even Jane Austen’, The Guardian, 2 June, https:
//www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jun/02/vs-naipaul-jane-austen-women-writers [accessed 8.12.17] ‘the male-dominated tradition . . .’ and ‘helped craft a . . .’ Lorraine Anderson and Thomas S. Edwards, 2002, At Home on this Earth: Two centuries of US women’s nature writing (University Press of New England: Hanover, New England) pp2, 3. ‘Our limbs indeed . . .’ Henry D. Thoreau, Journal, 21 March 1840, http://hdt.typepad.com/henrys_ blog/1840/page/4/ [accessed 15.11.2017]. p324 ‘To settle the . . .’ Jessie A. Ackerman, 1913, Australia from a woman’s point of view (Cassell and Co: London) pp68–69. pp324–325 ‘women behind the . . .’ Edith Coleman to the Editor, ‘Saving our fauna and flora’, The Age, 15 July 1933, p4. ‘It is recalled . . .’ Edith Coleman to the Editor, ‘Flora and Fauna protection, Woman’s part of the movement,’ The Age, 7 September 1933, p8. ‘Almost every woman . . .’ Edith Coleman to the Editor, ‘Fauna and Flora Protection’, The Age, 5 August 1933, p6. p326 Edith Coleman, 1936, ‘The Poet’s Flower: Golden Daffydowndilly – harbinger of spring’, The Australian Woman’s Mirror, 4 August, p10. ‘Are there fairies . . .’ Edith Coleman, 1939, ‘Still Life in the Garden: Sylvan historians in Australian designs’, The Age, 11 March, p3. ‘There are a . . .’ Moira R. Playne, 2005. ‘The line drawings, paintings and painted photographs of five women artists,’ in Bruce Rigby and Nicolas Peterson (eds) Donald Thomson, the man and scholar (Academy of Social Sciences in Australia: Canberra) p233. pp329–332 Extract from Edith Coleman, 1935, ‘A forest huntress: The praying mantis – her beauty, her skill and her way with lovers’, The Australian Woman’s Mirror, August 6, pp17, 30.
The Wasp and the Orchid Page 34
