Lost Irish Women of the Goldfields
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 is launching a new project, funded by Public Records Office Victoria, to highlight the contribution of Irish women to Ballarat’s social, cultural, and industrial development. The project will culminate in a short film that interprets 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 their own cultural heritage. Bolstered by the considerable resources available since the democratization of historical records, the project hopes to uncover individual identities of women, using a range of family and archival sources. The project will culminate in a short film that interprets the research findings.
Lucy Bracey, Historian, Way Back When has researched family stories and located photographs, available in a report here. Erin McCuskey, Creative Director, Yum Studio will be producing a short film from the resulting research, due in 2025. The project is 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.
FILM AVAILABLE 2025. REGISTER FOR UPDATES AT [email protected]
The project was launched at the Eureka Centre Ballarat for the Ballarat Heritage Festival 2024.
Featured Image: Ellen Fern Sovereign Hill Collection #78.707.6 and Catherine Allen (née Shelley) courtesy of the Shelley Family.
