Grace Bussell
Encyclopedia
SS Georgette
SS Georgette was a steamship built in 1872. She is best known, especially in Irish-American circles for the part played in the story of the Catalpa rescue in April 1876. While the events surrounding her shipwrecking eight months later are dramatic and did capture the imagination of the local...
disaster in Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
on 1 December 1876. Bussell, along with Aboriginal stockman Sam Isaacs, helped save the lives of around 50 people with a quick thinking rescue from shore. She is now regarded as one of Australia's greatest heroines.
Grace Bussell discovered Walcliffe cave when she was 7 years old.
Grace Bussell was lauded by the press at the time and became known as the 'Grace Darling
Grace Darling
Grace Horsley Darling was an English Victorian heroine who in 1838, along with her father, saved 13 people from the wreck of the SS Forfarshire.-Biography:...
of the West', after an Englishwoman who had rescued people in similar circumstances. She was awarded a silver medal by the Royal Humane Society
Royal Humane Society
The Royal Humane Society is a British charity which promotes lifesaving intervention. It was founded in England in 1774 as the Society for the Recovery of Persons Apparently Drowned, for the purpose of rendering first aid in cases of near drowning....
.
Grace was born to the well-known and prosperous Bussell family
Bussell family
The Bussell family were a family of early settlers in colonial Western Australia. Four members of the Bussell family emigrated from England to Western Australia in 1831, with more members following in the next few years...
. She married Surveyor General
Surveyor General of Western Australia
The Surveyor General of Western Australia is the person nominally responsible for government surveying in Western Australia.In the early history of Western Australia, the office of surveyor general was one of the most important public offices...
Frederick Slade Drake-Brockman
Frederick Slade Drake-Brockman
Frederick Slade Drake-Brockman was a surveyor and explorer of Western Australia.Born 9 July 1857 at Seabrook near Northam in Western Australia, he was the son of Edmund Ralph Brockman, gentleman-farmer, and Elizabeth Deborah née Slade. He was educated at Bishop Mathew Hale's school and articled in...
in 1882 and was the mother of Edmund Drake-Brockman and Deborah Vernon Hackett
Deborah Vernon Hackett
Deborah Vernon Hackett was born in West Guildford, Western Australia on 18 June 1887, the daughter of surveyor Frederick Slade Drake-Brockman and heroine Grace Vernon Bussell and younger sister of Edmund Drake-Brockman...
. She died aged 75 in Guildford
Guildford, Western Australia
Guildford is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located 13 km northeast of the city. Its Local Government Area is the City of Swan.-History:Guildford was established in 1829 on the Swan River, being sited near a permanent fresh water supply...
.
Bussell is commemorated by having had several places named in her honour. One of these is the coastal hamlet of Gracetown
Gracetown, Western Australia
Gracetown is a small town in Western Australia. It is located 283 km south of the Perth CBD, in the Augusta-Margaret River Shire Council area on the coast at Cowaramup Bay....
, north of Margaret River. Another is the wheatbelt town of Lake Grace
Lake Grace, Western Australia
-Natural disasters:In late 2005 and early 2006, Lake Grace experienced two natural disasters. The first was a hail storm on 16 October 2005, which destroyed 500 hectares of wheat and barley crop and damaged a further 5,500 hectares, with some farmers reporting fields covered by up to...
. Additionally, a street in the Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
suburb Cook
Cook, Australian Capital Territory
Cook is a suburb of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Cook is in the district of Belconnen. On Census night 2006, Cook had a population of 2,817 people....
is named after her.