Cirrus@Austlit

'What did it mean to be widowed in Australia in the 1860s? Bettina Bradbury explores this question through a close examination of the extraordinary plight of English-born Protestant Caroline Bax. Caroline, at age nineteen, married Irish-born Catholic Edward Kearney in 1853. Kearney, aged thirty-four at the time of the marriage, was an ambitious man, hoping to make good on a sheep station in South Australia. Clearly a hard-working wife and children would help supply the labour to back his grand plans. Bradbury’s close examination of one family story provides a model of how to highlight the larger structures that governed women’s lives, across continents, in the nineteenth century.' (Introduction)

'Bucketty Diary is an extract from a journal written during visits to a cabin in the bush at Bucketty, north of Sydney, over a period of several years. At the beginning and end of the journal there are short accounts of the context of the journal. The writing observes the environment, and reflects on the experience of living close to the country, an experience like camping out. It is creative rather than critical writing, with a brief reflection at the end on influences and intentions. ' (Author's abstract)