Catherine Helen Spence
Encyclopedia
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Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
and leading suffragette
Suffragette
"Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...
. In 1897 she became Australia's first female political candidate after standing (unsuccessfully) for the Federal Convention held in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
. Known as the "Greatest Australian Woman" and given the epitaph "Grand Old Woman of Australasia", Spence is commemorated on the Australian 5 dollar note
Australian 5 dollar note
The Australian 5 dollar note was first issued in 1967, one year after the currency was changed from the Australian pound to the Australian dollar on 14 February 1966...
issued for the Centenary of Federation of Australia
Federation of Australia
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed one nation...
.
Early life
Spence was born in Melrose, ScotlandMelrose, Scotland
Melrose is a small town and civil parish in the Scottish Borders, historically in Roxburghshire. It is in the Eildon committee area.-Etymology:...
, as the fifth child in a family of eight. In 1839, following sudden financial difficulties, the family emigrated to South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
. Arriving in November 1839 on her 14th birthday, at a time when the colony had experienced several years of drought, the contrast to her native Scotland made her "inclined to go and cut my throat". Nevertheless, the family endured seven months "encampment", growing wheat on an eighty acre (32 ha
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
) selection before moving to Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
.
Her father, David Spence, was elected first Town Clerk of the City of Adelaide.
Journalism and literature
Catherine had a talent for writing and an urge to be read, so it was natural that in her teens she became attracted to journalism. Through family connections, she began with short pieces and poetry published in The South Australian. She also worked as a governess for some of the leading families in Adelaide, at the rate of sixpence an hour.Her first major work was the novel Clara Morison: A Tale of South Australia During the Gold Fever. She submitted it to, and it was rejected by, the same publishers who had initially rejected her first novel some years previously. It was published by J W Parker and Son in 1854. She received forty pounds for it, but was charged ten pounds for abridging it to fit in the publisher's standard format. Her second novel Tender and True was published in 1856, and to her delight went through a second and third printing, though she never received a penny more than the initial twenty pounds.
In 1888 she published A Week In the Future, a tour-tract of the utopia she imagined a century in the future might bring; it was one of the precursors of Edward Bellamy
Edward Bellamy
Edward Bellamy was an American author and socialist, most famous for his utopian novel, Looking Backward, set in the year 2000. He was a very influential writer during the Gilded Age of United States history.-Early life:...
's 1889 Looking Backward
Looking Backward
Looking Backward: 2000-1887 is a utopian science fiction novel by Edward Bellamy, a lawyer and writer from western Massachusetts; it was first published in 1887...
.
Social Work and Issues
Although Catherine rejected both of the two proposals of marriage she received during her life, and never married, she had a keen interest in family life and marriage - as applied to other people. Both her life's work and her writing were devoted to raising the awareness of, and improving the lot of, women and children. She successively raised three families of orphaned children - the first being those of her sister Mrs Ward.She was one of the prime movers, with C. Emily Clark (sister of John Howard Clark
John Howard Clark
John Howard Clark was editor of The South Australian Register from 1870 to 1877 and was responsible for its Echoes from the Bush column and closely associated with its Geoffry Crabthorn persona.-Early years:...
), of the "Boarding-out Society". This organization had as its aim the placing of destitute children, who would otherwise be sent to "Industrial School", into approved families. At first treated with scorn by the South Australian Government, the scheme was encouraged when the institutions devoted to the handling of troublesome boys became overcrowded.
Religion
Around 1850, having become disillusioned with some doctrines of the Church of ScotlandChurch of Scotland
The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....
, she began attending the Adelaide Unitarian Christian Church
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
in Wakefield Street. She preached her first sermons there in 1878, and filled in for the pastor Dr John Crawford Woods during his absences 1884–90.
Politics and "Effective Voting"
She was an advocate of Thomas Hare's scheme for proportional representationProportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
, at one stage considering this issue more pressing than that of woman suffrage.
Memorials
There are numerous memorials to Spence around the Adelaide city centreAdelaide city centre
The Adelaide city centre is the innermost locality of Greater Adelaide, known by locals simply as "The City" or "Town". The locality is split into two key geographical distinctions: the city "square mile", bordered by North, East, South and West Terraces; and that part of the Adelaide Parklands...
, including:
- a bronze statue in Light SquareLight Square, AdelaideLight Square is one of five squares in the City of Adelaide. Located in the centre of the north-western quarter of the Adelaide city centre, the Square is named after the city's planner, Colonel William Light....
- the Catherine Helen Spence building in the City West campus of the University of South AustraliaUniversity of South AustraliaThe University of South Australia is a public university in the Australian state of South Australia. It was formed in 1991 with the merger of the South Australian Institute of Technology and Colleges of Advanced Education. It is the largest university in South Australia, with more than 36,000...
- the Spence wing of the State Library of South AustraliaState Library of South AustraliaThe State Library of South Australia, located on North Terrace, Adelaide, is the official library of the Australian state of South Australia. It is the largest public research library in the state with a collection focus on South Australian information, and general reference material for...
- Catherine Helen Spence Street in the south-east of the city centre
- a plaque on the Jubilee 150 WalkwayJubilee 150 WalkwayThe Jubilee 150 Walkway, also variously known as the Jubilee 150 Commemorative Walk, the Jubilee 150 Walk, and the Jubilee Walk, is a series of 150 bronze plaques set into the pavement of North Terrace, Adelaide. It was officially opened on 21 December 1986...
on North Terrace
In 1975 she was honoured on a postage stamp
Postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
bearing her portrait issued by Australia Post
Australia Post
Australia Post is the trading name of the Australian Government-owned Australian Postal Corporation .-History:...
.
Her image appears on the commemorative Centenary of Federation
Federation of Australia
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed one nation...
Australian five dollar note
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
issued in 2001.
One of the four schools at Aberfoyle Park, South Australia
Aberfoyle Park, South Australia
Aberfoyle Park is a southern suburb of Adelaide in the City of Onkaparinga, South Australia. It has a shopping mall called "The Hub", several primary schools and a public high school, one of the biggest in the state.-Governance:...
was named Spence in her honour. That school has since been amalgamated with another school to form Theile Primary School.
External links
- "Catherine Helen Spence: a bibliography", State Library of South Australia]
- Spence, Catherine Helen: An Autobiography at Project Gutenberg
- Gathered In: A novel at Sydney University
- Mr. Hogarth's Will at Sydney University
- Susan MagareySusan MagareyProfessor Susan Margaret Magarey AM, FASSA, is an Australian historian and author, most notable for her historic works and biographies of Australian women.-Education:English Literature and History:*BA - University of Adelaide*DipEd - Adelaide...
(2010) Unbridling the Tongues of Women: a biography of Catherine Helen Spence, University of Adelaide Press, 214 pp, ISBN 978-0-9806723-0-5 Free Download