Famous forgotten ladies of West Tce cemetery
From a ballet star to a pioneering author, our biggest cemetery is full of women whose stories are seldom told. Reporter Stephanie Timotheou went on a tour that aims to change that.
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Dead people.
It is an unlikely topic to discuss when meeting someone for the first time.
But not for Philippa King.
The 75-year-old has been guiding visitors around West Terrace Cemetery for six years and has uncovered – not literally, of course – some interesting people along the way.
About 150,000 people are buried on West Tce, including the state’s first premier, Boyle Travers Finniss, and the first cricketer to score 10,000 runs in Australian first class cricket, George Giffen.
But less well known are the tales of some of the women laid to rest at the 27ha burial ground.
Ms King wants to change that. She this week took The City on a tour that shines a light on the stories of some of the leading ladies that lie beneath West Tce.
There is the tale of a pioneering publican, our first female novelist and the American ballerina who never made it home.
“So many women did wonderful things for this state which many people don’t know about,” Ms King says.
Fanny Ware 1829-1898
In the 1800s it was rare for a woman to manage a hotel, but Fanny Ware did it – and she did it well.
It was 1869 and she and her husband Charles – a brewer and grazier – lived in Burra until a series of droughts meant their property was no longer profitable.
The two packed their bags and left the country town bound for the city.
Soon after the move, an opportunity came up to take over the The Exchange Hotel on Hindley St, then one of the city’s best-known watering holes.
Two years later, Mr Ware died, leaving his wife to run the hotel.
She renamed the pub Mrs Ware’s Exchange and quickly became one of Adelaide’s finest female entrepreneurs and hoteliers.
“For a man to leave his property in charge of a woman was extraordinary in those days,” Ms King says.
“She was very strict about the hotel’s clientele which we believe contributed to its success.
“There were no sly grog or loose women allowed and only the best whiskeys and food were served there.”
In 1888, Mrs Ware handed control of the hotel to her eldest of two sons, Arthur, but remained actively in its operations for the next 40 years.
Madeleine Parker 1912-1936
American ballerina Madeleine Parker had a promising future as a dancer on the international stage.
When the 24-year-old arrived in Adelaide in 1936 with renowned ballet troupe Monte Carlo Russian Ballet (Ballets Russes), she never thought her career would end there.
One night, while performing on Hindley St, Ms Parker collapsed on stage and was rushed to hospital.
She was diagnosed with leukaemia.
Though terminally ill, she wanted assurance from her doctors that she could dance again.
“Before her fall she had no idea what was wrong so she chose to ignore it, thinking it was some malaise she would get over,” Ms King says.
“Of course the company went on to tour the rest of Australia without her because she wasn’t well enough but left someone with her to keep her company.”
Ms Parker died six weeks later, breaking the hearts of theatregoers and ballet lovers around the world.
“On hearing her story, the people of South Australia were so upset so they decided to raise a considerable sum of money in her name and donated it to the Adelaide Children’s Hospital ... she became an honorary South Australian that way.”
Her family decided she would be buried at the West Terrace Cemetery because they could not afford to ship her body back to America.
Mary Colton 1822-1898
Although she was the wife Premier John Colton, Mary Colton didn’t let that define her.
“That’s a sign of a pretty independent woman if you ask me,” Ms King says.
The mother-of-nine, devoted much of her life to philanthropy, working with around 22 charitable organisations that supported women and children who became victims of poverty and injustice.
“She looked after young girls who emigrated here and made sure they went to good homes,” Ms King says.
“Put yourself back in those times where different races and religions had simmering distrust of each other, but to her it didn’t matter what face you belonged to.
“If you called at her door and asked for help, she gave it, so she was extraordinary in that sense.”
Ms Colton was also the driving force in the women’s suffrage movement in Adelaide.
In 1894, during Ms Colton’s leadership of the Suffrage League, South Australia became the first place in the world to allow women full democratic rights – the right to vote and stand for election.
“We’ve found wonderful women like Mary who gave us ideas and improved women’s lives in ways they never imagined and it’s up to us to carry that on and provide pathways for women in our life,” Ms King says.
“These women started it all by saying we want the vote.
“It opened up a whole new world of what women could do, what was possible.”
Augusta Zadow 1846-1896
Standing at just 120cm, Russian-born Augusta Zadow was made Adelaide’s first female factory inspector by Premier Charles Kingsford.
In a male-dominated industry, Ms Zadow made it her goal to help secure better working conditions for shop and factory workers, particularly women and children.
“Women were always paid much less than men so she set up the first Working Women’s Trade Union in 1890 to make sure women had better and safer work practices,” Ms King says.
“You can just imagine her going into factories and being confronted by the manager or owner ... it would have been quite intimidating for a woman, particularly of her size.
“It would have taken a lot of strength to do that job.”
SafeWork SA honours her legacy with the Augusta Zadow Awards fund, which helps improve the health and safety of women and young workers in South Australia.
Matilda Jane Evans 1827-1886
Before Matilda Jane Evans, all novelists in South Australia were men.
She not only had a passion for the written word, but spent her days teaching students at a school she opened in Mount Barker.
It was there where she wrote her first novel, The Light of Someone’s Home, a tale of Australian bush life.
The book was published in 1859 by Mount Barker printer Arthur Waddy, but several editions were run in London.
She worked under the pseudonym Maud Jeanne Franc, although on her headstone it bears the name Mrs E Evans.
“In those days women didn’t have their own identities and instead took their husband’s full names because they were their property,” Ms King says.
“His name was Ephraim Evans, who was a baptise minister in Nuriootpa but died in 1863.”
In 1882 she gave up teaching to focus on her writing, contributing short stories and articles to local journals.
Mrs Evans ended up writing 14 novels, some of which can still be found in libraries around Adelaide today.
Her two sons followed in her foot steps – Henry Congreve was a chief-of-staff at The Advertiser, while William James also worked as a journalist.
The public can discover all these women and more during the From Housewives to Heroines tour on Sunday, April 29, from 10.30am. Get tickets.