Back

Wilhelmina (Reid) Murray 1799-1879 of "Warrawang"

Minnie Reid was born in Langholm, Dumphriesshire Scotland in 1799. At 19, she married James Murray. The marriage produced 13 children, but 2 daughters both called Contetty, after their paternal Indian grandmother, died in Scotland. When she and James migrated to New South Wales in 1843, they took their 11 children that ranged in age from adulthood to infancy. On settling on top of the Great Divide at Mount Lambie, she became a pioneer woman on the frontier of civilization. In this remoteness, she ran her household displaying her domestic competency, and her education through her music and love of reading. This pioneer squatter's wife raised a family that was to have wide influence in emerging Australia of the 19th and early 20th centuries. She died of pneumonia in 1879 aged 79, and was buried in Barton Park Cemetery, Wallerawang.

Back