Exploring Gentry Women on the New South Wales Frontier in the 1820s and 1830s

Abstract

The early settlement of middle-class and gentry families on the frontier in several districts of New South Wales, on the east coast of Australia, in the 1820s and 1830s, and the role of women in this process, has generally been overlooked. Some regional and family histories touch on some of this territory, but largely leave unexplored questions of colonialism, gender, sexuality, class, race and culture. A number of aspirant gentry families took up extensive land grants and settled on them while the area was still a conflict zone between the British invaders and the Aboriginal inhabitants. Women and the family were at the heart of this enterprise, as wives and husbands set about replicating British genteel culture in the Australian wilderness. The female archive for these settlers is thin. What sources and analytical tools should we use to uncover the roles, attitudes and activities of these women in settling on the frontier in New South Wales in the 1820s and 1830s? This article draws on a variety of sources to begin to look at the motives and lifestyles of the elite settlers in the Bathurst district of New South Wales.