- page -
http://www.cdu.edu.au/cdupress
Go Back >> List of Entries
storm was over, Mary Kelsey, Ellen Ryan’s sister, took Hannah back to her home and nursed her back to health.
Hannah then wrote a public letter to the paper asking for the community’s help, putting her case thus: ‘Sir Will
you kindly give me space in this week’s issue to appeal to my friends and the public generally, who I beg most
respectfully to ask to assist me to rebuild my cottage. I think everyone knows that I lost my all. I hoped that as I
am a widow and alone that the committee of the Relief Fund would have allowed me sufficient money to rebuild
my cottage and to some extent restore my furniture. My house is a part of my living as sometimes I have to take
in a patient. The committee however have given me 35 Pounds, at first only 20 Pounds. I was up country and very
ill at the time. I came to Palmerston as soon as I was well enough to travel. I wrote another letter explaining my
circumstances and also interviewed two members of the committee. After waiting another three weeks, they have
had a meeting and added 15 Pounds to the first 20 Pounds. This amount will not buy enough timber and iron to
rebuild my cottage. If I had property of any kind to sell I would never beg. I have not asked for charity before
in my life but if men who are in good positions and receiving good salaries are not ashamed to receive a sum of
money from the Relief Fund, I, who have lost my all together with my health through that terrible storm, need not
be ashamed to [ask those who] have known me for 22 years to assist me to rebuild my home’.
The appeal worked and by November she was able to write another letter thanking those who had helped:
‘When I asked the public for their assistance, knowing how much everyone had lost I was truly sorry to have
to call attention to my need and I did not think my appeal would meet with such a generous response. I am very
much pleased to find that I have so many friends and I sincerely hope they will accept my thanks... I have also to
thank those friends who have helped me to restore my furniture. Some have assisted me with their labour while
others have sent me useful presents. I hope they will believe that I shall remember them for their kindness for all
my life’.
In May 1902, Hannah had an accident and had to spend some considerable time in the hospital. Over the next
few months, the townspeople got together and prepared a petition to the government to procure a special pension
for her. After outlining the many nursing and immigration jobs she had held, the petitioners wrote: ‘Since her late
husband’s death in 1880 Mrs Wood has earned her own livelihood by nursing and taking in sewing and by her
kindliness and skill as a nurse, her industry, her general rectitude and brave uncomplaining and independent spirit
has earned the respect and esteem of a large circle of friends. Mrs Wood was born in England in 1827 and is now
therefore 75 years of age. Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that the Honourable the Minister for the Northern
Territory will take the above circumstances into consideration with a view to the granting by the South Australian
Government of such small special pension as will enable this unfortunate lady to live out the short remaining
time of life which remains to her in that freedom and independence which her long and useful life have made
essential to her happiness but which her present debilitated condition renders impossible of attainment without
some assistance’.
Many leading citizens signed the petition but the Government said it had no provision for cases of Hannah’s
kind. It then added that if necessary accommodation could be found for her at the hospital. A little more than
six months later, on 16 July 1903, Hannah Wood died. The paper described the sad circumstances of the case:
‘Mrs Pett sent her servant with flowers but the servant couldn’t get an answer so Mrs Pett went and found her
dead... A glass of water untouched was standing on a little table by the head of the bed and a small night lamp
was still burning. The body was pressing against the mosquito curtain. Among other complications Mrs Wood has
been suffering for some time past from an aneurism of the right artery and this was the immediate cause of death.
She met with an accident some time [ago and has] never fully recovered from the effects... She had the option of
remaining as a permanent inmate of the hospital but she preferred struggling along as best she could in her own
cottage. This she succeeded in doing with a little assistance from some friends and the names of Dr Seabrook
and Mrs Pett deserve special mention in this connection for their constant kindness and unremitting attention’.
The paper added: ‘Like other members of the human family the deceased lady doubtless had her failings. She was
a woman with strong passions and prejudices an independent spirit and great determination and she could be a
bitter enemy as well as a kindly and staunch friend. But she was clearly industrious and skilful and enthusiastic in
the practice of her profession’.
Hannah Wood was a Roman Catholic and at the time of her death, there was no resident priest in the town,
the service being conducted a member of the railway staff. Attendance at her funeral was poor, ‘less than a dozen
persons following the poor old lady to her last resting place’. Her obituary writer commented, ‘the fact is calculated
to give rise to rather cynical reflections but the sparse attendance may have been partly due to the necessarily
hurried nature of the preparations for burial. Still it might have been expected that so old a resident, who from the
nature of her calling had been brought into peculiarly intimate relations with so many people would have been more
honoured on the last occasion presented for any display of kindly feeling or respect’. She was about 76 though her
age was somewhat at variance with that stated on her marriage certificate and in the census returns.
B James, Occupation Citizen, 1995.
BARBARA JAMES, Vol 3.
WOOD, ROBERT (1880–1953), rural worker, prison guard, policeman and farmer, was born on 25 April 1880 at
Aberchowder, Scotland, the son of Andrew Wood, a farmer. He was a police constable in Scotland between 1902
and 1910 and then came to Australia with his brother and took up farming. He was working at Quandong Station
at Lockhart in New South Wales when he applied to join the Northern Territory Police in 1913. After arriving in
Darwin in June 1913, he changed his mind and became a guard at Darwin (Fannie Bay) Gaol. The following year
he was promoted to Acting Keeper.