Augustina Roe was the daughter of a white publican who raised her and her brothers without being allowed to have any contact with their mother or participate in any form of Aboriginal life. Augustina's father made sure she received an education and when the Native Welfare officers came to take her away, her father organised her escape on board a ship in Derby destined for the Catholic Nuns in Carnarvon. She was frightened by the sea and frightened by the confusing attire of the priest whom she met on her arrival and ran away. She was then sent to Beagle Bay Mission where she stayed until she was eleven until her father organised her return to the Catholic nuns in Carnarvon. A childhood sweetheart pursued her relentlessly, writing her letters over thirteen years. Eventually Augustina succumbed to his affection and they were married in a church in Carnarvon. They had seven children and Augustina found work as a cook while her husband worked as a stockman and bush carpenter. Augustina highly reveres her father for the way she was raised; her brothers stayed in the Northern Territory.
