Lost Irish Women of the Goldfields – What Kind of Courage
Finding women’s stories is a challenge. History often records women in relation to men, as daughters, mothers, and wives. The Ballarat District Irish Association launched a project, funded by Public Records Office Victoria, to highlight the contribution of Irish women to Ballarat’s social, cultural, and industrial development. The project culminated in a written report, several events and short films interpreting the research findings. The misconception that no women lived on the Victorian goldfields has been successfully challenged by historians in recent years. However, there remains a longing among current-day Irish descendants to better understand our own cultural heritage. Bolstered by the considerable resources available since the democratization of historical records, the project hopes uncovered individual identities of women, using a range of family and archival sources.
FILM
Lucy Bracey, Historian, Way Back When researched family stories and located photographs, available in a report here. Erin McCuskey, Creative Director, Yum Studio produced a short film from the resulting research. The project was funded by the Public Records Office of Victoria (PROV) through the leadership of the Ballarat and District Irish Association (BDIA). Please subscribe to the BDIA newsletter for updates.
REPORT
Download here and view as part of Way Back When post here.
ENGAGEMENTS
The project was launched at the Eureka Centre Ballarat for the Ballarat Heritage Festival 2024, progress presentations were made during 2025 featuring the families of those women who were found as part of this project.
- The Lost Irish Women of Eureka – Project Launch Ballarat Heritage Festival Eureka Centre Ballarat – 19th May 2024 – VIDEO
- The Found Irish Women of Eureka – Project Report Launch Eureka Centre – 15th November 2024 – EVENT LINK
- What Kind of Courage – Project Film Launch Australian Centre for Gold Rush Collections – 2nd November 2025
The project findings, feelings and fotos were presented at The Australian Centre for Gold Rush Collections in the Rare Trades Centre at an event titled What Kind of Courage. Below is an outline of that event.
What Kind of Courage? To leave family, country and your night sky?
What kind of courage does it take to migrate, to journey worlds away from home?
Irish culture is not performative, it is expressive. That is, not fixed traditionally as ‘Irish’, more a cultural expression like storytelling, dance, song. To that end this short film about the lost Irish women of Eureka, where only first names existed, needed to be surrounded by those kinds of expressions. We welcomed poets, historians and storytellers to delve into the emotional courage and fortitude of Irish women who journeyed across the sea, with hope of building a new life and to create new communities. Featuring short film, poetry, historical readings and live music in an intimate setting, we shared together story and verse to bring heart to bear on historical information, where fact is illuminated by fiction (fabulism).
MADAME OF CEREMONIES ERIN M McCUSKEY
Erin will be sharing film work based on the Lost Irish Women of Eureka. Erin has a national reputation for moving image works that are unique, moving and expand our experience of story. McCuskey’s art is cinematic, multilayered film using archival, found and captured moving image. Working at the intersection of cinema and art, she explores themes of feminisms, memory and death. The youngest girl of a large Irish immigrant family, she studies the once prohibited Gaeilge (Irish language) and Irish mythology to understand concepts of home and belonging.
MADAME OF CEREMONIES ERIN M McCUSKEY
OPENING BY MARY DARCY
Mary is a Psychologist with 40 years of engaging with the stories of her fellow travellers. She is a descendent of Irish and Scottish immigrants who sought refuge in Australia in the 1850’s. This led her to explore Celtic history and culture and created in her an awareness of the power and fragility of memory in how we shape our lives. She often ponders questions such as ”Why does everyone begin to sing in the pub when the band plays The Fields of Athenry?
Go raibh maith agat Mary Darcy cáiliuil. Thank you for sharing the extraordinary poetry of Eavan Boland, The Lost Land. Mary shared with me a talk by Eavan recently where she spoke so eloquently about the difference between history and the past. History is a recording, often an inadequate recording of what happened. The past however is a place full of shadow and darkness where might find memory and story in equal measure.
INTRO ACKNOLWEDGMENT
We acknowledge we are on the unceded traditional lands of the Kulan Nations – here today on Wadawurrung Country – with elements of today created Gadubanud Country. We pay our deepest respects to elders and to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here today. As a colonised people ourselves the Irish, and Irish diaspora, can see parallels, and we must also acknowledge the damage we have done to the traditional custodians of this beautiful country.
One of those parallels is the prohibition of language. I hope Irish speakers Gaeilgeoiri will forgive me. While I have been learning Gaeilge for a while, discerning dialects without being able to converse… well the pronunciation of the once prohibited language, by Australian born Irish worlds away in time and distance is… problematic. A saying that became familiar to me on my recent film tour of Ireland was ‘who’s going to stop you?’ And so I try. Thankfully failure is not fatal.
Erin is ainm dom, ta athas orm labhairt leat inniu. (My name is Erin, I am happy to talk with you today). Admhaím mo shinsir. Muintir m’athar as Tuaisceart Éireann agus clann mo mháthar i bPoblacht na hÉireann. (I acknowledge my ancestors. My father’s people of Northern Ireland and my mother’s clan of the Republic of Ireland.)
“Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam. A country without a language is a country without a soul.” Padraig Pearse.
A language spoken, is a language honoured. Even one spoken badly. Knee cap are being credited with a resurgence of young people wanting to learn Gaeilge. Young people wearing tshirts that read Is fearr Gaeilge bhriste ná Béarla cliste Broken Irish is better than clever English. The beauty of imperfection.
Cead Mile Failte One hundred thousand welcomes, because for the Irish one is never enough.
Today is the time of Samhain when the veil between the worlds is thin enough that we might both honour our ancestors and have them come visit. For those who brought a photo of their ancestors today think of them, if you haven’t I’m sure an ancestor today has already tapped you on the shoulder, ready with a story to tell. So today is about the past, about emotion and feeling. It is about mixing together the information history provides us with an understanding of the past that can only be shared through cultural expression. It is only story that can make sense of history, without it its just words on a screen.
Today we honour the courage of those Irish women who left their homes, their families, their country and their stars for a journey into the unknown, carrying only hope and courage. And why did they leave? The heartbreak of An Ghorta Mor (the Great Hunger), the adventure of the goldrush, maybe forced – women in the poor house or streets being rounded up – and we know through the research of local ACU PhD student Sharni Brownbridge among others that some women took advantage of arson to get a lift. Whatever the reason, it is often unrecorded, so, let’s not dally there, today is not about why, but how. And that answer mo cara (my friend) is in your Chroi (heart) if you can open it today. They say you learn most from situations not of your choosing.
We have a mix of real people and people on screen today so we’’ be slipping between them.
SCENE SETTINGS
Lucy is a professional historian with Way Back When, who has researched and produced the report ‘Lost Irish Women of Eureka’ finding stories about the courage of Irish women on the goldfields. The report uncovers the stories of 18 women, including ancestors of Margaret Lavery, who will also be present at the event. Lucy has a passion for storytelling and writing engaging histories that people want to read. Based in Ballarat, she’s made strong connections to local community groups, museums and organisations.
HISTORIAN – LUCY BRACEYToday on screen Lucy Bracey from Way Back When who did the research for the Lost Irish Women of the Goldfields speaks with descent of Catherine Linnane – Margaret Lavery.
Laurel established the first iteration of the Eureka Museum in 1985 in conjunction with her enterprise historic Montrose Cottage. In her trailblazing she was the first to acknowledge, and publish, the stories of women’s contribution to events during the Eureka Uprising, Women of Eureka in 1995. “My time with Montrose Cottage and the Eureka Museum was 20 years of love and devotion to Ballarat’s heritage and culture as the birthplace of Democracy.” Montrose Cottage and the Eureka Museum was acknowledged with many local and state Awards culminating in the Australian Tourism Award for Heritage and Culture.
STORYTELLER – LAUREL JOHNSONToday in person we have Laurel Johnson. Laurels Book, for sale in the foyer, The Women of Eureka was the first of its kind. Let’s find out how – please welcome Laurel. Laurel spoke with us about Montrose Cottage and the first Eureka Museum. Her book, the first to talk of women at Eureka and she read a passage. She shared stories of her ancestors and read the poem she wrote to finish her book.
Dorothy Wickham is a well-known author and expert on women of the goldfields. Her book Women of the Diggings is considered an essential resource. She has written, designed, published, and authored many books and book chapters about a diverse range of themes and topics including women and feminist histories. She can’t be with us today, so she has generously crafted a beautiful piece for you where she shares some of her story.
HISTORIAN – DOROTHY WICKHAMDorothy shared her story online and we are waiting for clearance to share here.
Shel hails from Murrami, a small village in Wiradjuri country, the sixth (and youngest) daughter of Paddy & Sheila O’Toole. As a kid she had an active imagination which was fed by the books she consumed. Its outlet was her own writing endeavours. Shel’s had a varied and interesting life, living all over Australia and in New Zealand. While doing her Master’s degree she began to delve into her culture of heritage and in 1998 she travelled to Ireland to learn more about what it means to be Irish. It was during this trip Shel saw herself as a singer and she has been performing ever since.
SINGER SONGWRITER – SHEL O’TooleAs well as being a singer/songwriter she is also a poet, a Playback Theatre practitioner and an occasional painter. Today she has composed an original work on the theme of women’s courage. Thank you Shel.
Clare is an award-winning historian, author, broadcaster, podcaster and public commentator working in politics, academia and the media. I interviewed Clare online and she graciously agreed to read some of her writing from her book The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka
HISTORIAN AUTHOR MEMORY KEEPER – CLARE WRIGHT
LOST IRISH WOMEN OF EUREKA film
Set at the time of Samhain, when in Celtic mythology the veil between the worlds is thin, we hoped to hear the whispers of the past, and we were not disappointed. The event was sold out thanks to our partnership with the Australian Centre for Gold Rush Collections.
What kind of Courage?
Sunday 2nd November 2025
Rare Trades Centre – Wadawurrung Country (Ballaarat)
ALL IMAGES CREDIT ERIN M MCCUSKEY EXCEPT FEATURED IMAGE
Featured Image: Ellen Fern Sovereign Hill Collection #78.707.6 and Catherine Allen (née Shelley) courtesy of the Shelley Family.
