Mrs Blakesley early settler, Mt Gambier

Typical portrait and costume for women in the 1850s. From the earliest days of the province, there existed a significant number of women and men who were conversant with ideals of religious freedom and social equity, creating a fertile environment in which social reform could develop.

The first European women to settle in South Australia were for the most part married, in accordance with the aims of the South Australia Act to have equal numbers of both sexes. However, on arrival in South Australia these women were subject to the same marriage and property laws that had disenfranchised them from owning property, or having a political voice, in England.

Proclaimed as a City on 9th December 1954, Mount Gambier is the regional cetnre of the Limestone Coast in the South East of South Australia.

Mount Gambier (S. Aust)

Jones, Helen. In her own name: a history of women in South Australia from 1836. Rev. and updated ed. Kent Town, Wakefield Press, 1994.

Flinders history of South Australia. Social history.Ed. by Eric Richards. Netley, S. Aust.: Wakefield Press, 1986. pp.403-432. Ch.15. Bacchi, Carol. 'The 'woman question' in South Australia.'

A Book of South Australia: women in the first hundred years. Ed. by Louise Brown et al. Adelaide.: Rigby for the Women's Centenary Council of S.A., 1936. 

Lee, Ida The logbooks of the 'Lady Nelson': with the journal of her first commander, Lieutenant James Grant, R.N. London: Grafton, 1915

State Library of South Australia factsheets online Women in South Australia

1850s in fashion Wikipedia

Limestone Coast