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Fred Gray, who remembered Wonggu well, recallwd that he was an impressive man and that the time he spent
with the Caledons, ‘was the happiest time of his life’. A man of influence, power and charisma Wonggu represents
a romantic and little known area of Northern Territory history.
Australian Archives, Northern Territory, CRS F1 36/386; Australian Archives, Australian Capital Territory, CRS A1 38/6715; M Dewar,
The ‘Black War’ in Arnhem Land, 1992; F Gray, interviews 1983–1995; VC Hall, Dreamtime Justice, 1962; Northern Standard, June 1934;
I Idriess, Man Tracks, 1938.
MICKEY DEWAR, Vol 3.WOOD, HANNAH nee INCH (1827–1903), pioneer and nurse, was born in England in 1827 to Thomas Inch
and Jan, nee Martin. She was for many years in the service of the English Government and in 1859 was appointed
assistant matron at Millbank Prison, filling that position with credit until 1861 when she resigned to take charge of
a number of single girls emigrating to Queensland. She arrived in Brisbane with the immigrant women in January
1865 and later that year returned to England where she was put in charge of immigrants to Adelaide in the ship
Lincoln. The vessel arrived on 3 December, 1865 with the shipping records describing Hannah as aged 35 or 36,
single, in good health and that she had been matron on the voyage. Hannah spent most of 1866 in Adelaide in
charge of part of the Emigrants Department. In 1867, she returned to England and was next sent to Melbourne
in the ship White Star in charge of 338 single women. The clipper ship arrived on 19 August 1867, the Argus
reporting that ‘the single women were under the charge of Miss Inch the matron and the immigration officers spoke
in terms of high praise of the manner in which her arduous duties had been discharged’.
In 1868, Hannah returned to England to bring out another shipment of single women in the same vessel for
Melbourne, arriving on August 29 and again receiving accolades for ‘the cleanliness and order which prevailed
on board’. In 1869, Hannah made one last trip to England, returning to Melbourne in Electric in charge of
between 200 and 300 single women. When the ship arrived, the paper gave this vivid description of the voyage
and the passengers: ‘Her large freight of living humanity has come into port in apparently robust health; and the
accommodation for her passengers—men, women, and children—attended to with due care during the voyage...
The single women on board have been under the supervision of Miss Inch who has had considerable experience in
immigrant ships. The passengers are 72 married persons, 177 single women, 83 single men, 64 children. One infant
died on the voyage and five others–electric sparks as they were facetiously termed on board—were born so that the
ship has come into port with four souls more than her original complement’.
From 1869 until 1874, Hannah worked at the Sunbury Industrial School near Melbourne. On 7 December,
1874 she married James Wood, ‘gentleman’ at Scots Church Manse in Melbourne where she described herself as a
‘spinster/lady’, residing at Emerald Hill, known in the early days as ‘tent city’. Within the year, they had decided to
try their luck in the north of Australia with James arriving in the Territory in September 1875 and Hannah arriving
in November just as Palmerston had been declared a free port.
By December 1876, James had the licence of the Standard Hotel, Pine Creek that they managed for two
years before moving to Palmerston where Hannah soon owned land and became a ratepayer. In September 1880,
James died of dysentery and Hannah returned to her profession of nursing. She was not backward in coming
forward if she felt strongly about something. For instance in July 1881 Hannah wrote a long letter to the council
complaining that in visiting the cemetery she found it difficult to discover her husband’s grave and suggesting that
some registry should be kept.
In December of the same year, she sent a petition to the Minister requesting the Queen Anne’s Bounty,
a pension that was given to people in need. In her covering letter, in an educated hand, she wrote, ‘I have written
to some powerful friends in England who I think will bring their influence to bear on the subject’. Unfortunately
for Hannah, the Minister was not convinced and replied that, ‘as the greater part of this lady’s services have been
performed under the government of South Australia and Victoria, his Excellency considers that there is no ground
for forwarding the application to the Colonial Secretary’.
Hannah, however, was not deterred from speaking her mind about issues she felt strongly about and in June 1886
she was one of three women to sign a petition asking the Government to establish a municipal corporation rather than
district council. The following year she wrote to the local board of health calling their attention to the overgrowth
of an adjacent allotment and the nuisance caused, as she put it, by ‘the blacks camping thereon’. The clerk replied
that he would have the allotment cleared forthwith. In May 1888 Hannah wrote to the Government Resident
offering herself for the position of matron of Burrundie Hospital, pointing out that before she came to the Territory
she held a leading position in large institutions and consequently had ‘a good deal of experience together with
useful knowledge under medical direction’. She added: ‘I understand the necessary treatment of patients in all
its branches. I listed very high testimonials for past services but having been here for long and to some extent
practised my profession I hardly need point to them. I think the local medical officer together with the respectable
citizens whose familiys (sic) I have served will give me their support and assure you that I can carry out to the
satisfaction of all parties concerned the duties I seek to undertake’.
Subsequently, in July 1888, Hannah was appointed Acting Matron at the Palmerston Hospital, a position she
held for some time. Given her assertive nature, it is not surprising that on 13 May 1895 Hannah registered to vote
on the Territory electoral roll when women first won the opportunity.
When the 1897 cyclone devastated Palmerston amongst the first buildings to collapse were two houses
belonging to Mary Ann Finniss and Hannah Wood. The paper remarked, ‘It is quite marvellous that neither of
the above mentioned women was killed in escaping from under the debris of their houses’. Hannah was pinned
beneath her home until some Aborigines got her out and fixed up a bed for her under some partitions. When the