Mary Gilmore
Encyclopedia
Dame Mary Gilmore DBE
(16 August 18653 December 1962) was a prominent Australian socialist
poet and journalist.
. When she was one year old her parents, Donald and Mary Ann, decided to move to Wagga Wagga to join her maternal grandparents, the Beatties, who had moved there from Penrith, New South Wales
in 1866.
Her father obtained a job as a station manager at a property, Cowabbie
100 km north of Wagga. A year later, he left that job to become a carpenter, building homesteads on properties in Wagga, Coolamon
, Junee
, Temora
and West Wyalong
for the next 10 years. This itinerant existence allowed Mary only a spasmodic formal education; however she did receive some on their frequent returns to Wagga, either staying with the Beatties or in rented houses.
Her father purchased land and built his own house at Brucedale on the Junee Road, where they had a permanent home. She was then to attend, albeit briefly, Colin Pentland's private Academy at North Wagga Wagga and, when the school closed, transferred to Wagga Wagga Public School for two and a half years. At 14, in preparation to become a teacher, she worked as an assistant at her Uncle's school at Yerong Creek, New South Wales
.
After completing her teaching exams in 1882, she accepted a position as a teacher at Wagga Wagga Public School where she worked until December 1885. After a short teaching spell at Illabo
she took up a teaching position at Silverton
near the mining town of Broken Hill
. There Gilmore developed her socialist views and began writing poetry.
school" of radical writers. Although the greatest influence on her work was Henry Lawson
it was A. G. Stephens, literary editor of The Bulletin, who published her verse and established her reputation as a fiery radical poet, champion of the workers and the oppressed.
She followed William Lane
and other socialist idealists to Paraguay
in 1896, where they had established a communal settlement called New Australia
two years earlier. There she married Billy Gilmore in 1897. By 1902 the socialist experiment had clearly failed and the Gilmore returned to Australia, where they took up farming near Casterton, Victoria
.
Gilmore's first volume of poetry was published in 1910, and for the ensuing half-century she was regarded as one of Australia's most popular and widely read poets. In 1908 she became women's editor of The Worker, the newspaper of Australia's largest and most powerful trade union, the Australian Workers Union (AWU). She was the Union's first woman member. The Worker gave her a platform for her journalism, in which she campaigned for better working conditions for working women, for children's welfare and for a better deal for the Indigenous Australians
.
By 1931 Gilmore's views had become too radical for the AWU, but she soon found other outlets for her writing. She later wrote a regular column for the Communist Party
's newspaper Tribune, although she was never a party member herself. In spite of her somewhat controversial politics, Gilmore accepted appointment as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
in 1937, becoming Dame Mary Gilmore. She was the first person to be granted this award for services to literature. During World War II
she wrote stirring patriotic verse such as No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest.
In her later years, Gilmore, separated from her husband, moved to Sydney, and enjoyed her growing status as a national literary icon. Before 1940 she published six volumes of verse and three editions of prose. After the war Gilmore published volumes of memoirs and reminiscences of colonial Australia and the literary giants of 1890s Sydney, thus contributing much material to the mythologising of that period. Dame Mary Gilmore died in 1962, aged 97, and was accorded the first state funeral accorded to a writer since the death of Henry Lawson
in 1922.
$10 note, along with an illustration inspired by No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest and, as part of the copy-protection microprint, the text of the poem itself. The background of the illustration features a portrait of Gilmore by the well-known Australian artist Sir William Dobell
.
In 1973 she was honoured on a postage stamp
bearing her portrait issued by the Australia Post
.
The Canberra suburb of Gilmore
and the federal electorate of Gilmore
are named after her.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(16 August 18653 December 1962) was a prominent Australian socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
poet and journalist.
Early life
Mary Jean Cameron was born on 16 August 1865 at Cotta Walla near Goulburn, New South WalesGoulburn, New South Wales
Goulburn is a provincial city in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia in Goulburn Mulwaree Council Local Government Area. It is located south-west of Sydney on the Hume Highway and above sea-level. On Census night 2006, Goulburn had a population of 20,127 people...
. When she was one year old her parents, Donald and Mary Ann, decided to move to Wagga Wagga to join her maternal grandparents, the Beatties, who had moved there from Penrith, New South Wales
Penrith, New South Wales
Penrith is a suburb in western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Penrith is located west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the City of Penrith...
in 1866.
Her father obtained a job as a station manager at a property, Cowabbie
Cowabbie, New South Wales
Cowabbie is a rural community in the central part of the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. It is situated by road about south from Ardlethan and north from Matong along the Wagga Wagga road....
100 km north of Wagga. A year later, he left that job to become a carpenter, building homesteads on properties in Wagga, Coolamon
Coolamon, New South Wales
Coolamon is a town in the Riverina region of south-west New South Wales, Australia. Coolamon is north-west of Wagga Wagga and south-west of Sydney via the Hume and Sturt Highways. The town is situated on the railway line between Junee and Narrandera. Coolamon had a population of 1,339 at the 2006...
, Junee
Junee, New South Wales
Junee is a medium sized town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The town's prosperity and mixed services economy is based on a combination of agriculture, rail transport, light industry and government services, and in particular correctional services...
, Temora
Temora, New South Wales
Temora is a town located in north east part of the Riverina area of New South Wales, south-west of the state capital, Sydney. At the 2006 census the population of Temora was 4,086.-History:...
and West Wyalong
West Wyalong, New South Wales
West Wyalong is a town in New South Wales, Australia which is the main town of the Bland Shire, located in the Central West region of New South Wales. It is located 467 km west of Sydney. It is located on the crossroads of the Newell Highway between Melbourne and Brisbane, and the Mid-Western...
for the next 10 years. This itinerant existence allowed Mary only a spasmodic formal education; however she did receive some on their frequent returns to Wagga, either staying with the Beatties or in rented houses.
Her father purchased land and built his own house at Brucedale on the Junee Road, where they had a permanent home. She was then to attend, albeit briefly, Colin Pentland's private Academy at North Wagga Wagga and, when the school closed, transferred to Wagga Wagga Public School for two and a half years. At 14, in preparation to become a teacher, she worked as an assistant at her Uncle's school at Yerong Creek, New South Wales
Yerong Creek, New South Wales
Yerong Creek is a small village situated in the Riverina area of southern New South Wales. It is about south-west of Wagga Wagga on the Olympic Highway...
.
After completing her teaching exams in 1882, she accepted a position as a teacher at Wagga Wagga Public School where she worked until December 1885. After a short teaching spell at Illabo
Illabo, New South Wales
Illabo is a locality in the South West Slopes part of the Riverina and situated about 13 kilometres southwest of Bethungra and 16 km northeast of Junee. At the 2006 census, Illabo had a population of 190 people. Illabo Post Office opened on 1 July 1879. A railway station on the Main...
she took up a teaching position at Silverton
Silverton, New South Wales
Silverton is a small village at the far west of New South Wales, Australia, 25 kilometres north-west of Broken Hill. At the 2006 census, Silverton had a population of 89 people....
near the mining town of Broken Hill
Broken Hill, New South Wales
-Geology:Broken Hill's massive orebody, which formed about 1,800 million years ago, has proved to be among the world's largest silver-lead-zinc mineral deposits. The orebody is shaped like a boomerang plunging into the earth at its ends and outcropping in the centre. The protruding tip of the...
. There Gilmore developed her socialist views and began writing poetry.
Literary career
In 1890, she moved to Sydney, where she became part of the "BulletinThe Bulletin
The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...
school" of radical writers. Although the greatest influence on her work was Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest writer"...
it was A. G. Stephens, literary editor of The Bulletin, who published her verse and established her reputation as a fiery radical poet, champion of the workers and the oppressed.
She followed William Lane
William Lane
William Lane was a journalist, advocate of Australian labour politics and a utopian.-Early life:Lane was born in Bristol, England, eldest son of James Lane,from Ireland a Protestant Master Gardener , and his English wife Caroline, née Hall...
and other socialist idealists to Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
in 1896, where they had established a communal settlement called New Australia
New Australia
New Australia was a utopian socialist settlement in Paraguay founded by the Australian New Australian Movement. The colony was officially founded on 28 September 1893 as Colonia Nueva Australia and comprised 238 adults and children.-History:...
two years earlier. There she married Billy Gilmore in 1897. By 1902 the socialist experiment had clearly failed and the Gilmore returned to Australia, where they took up farming near Casterton, Victoria
Casterton, Victoria
Casterton is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on the Glenelg Highway, 42 kilometres east of the South Australian border, in the Shire of Glenelg. The Glenelg River passes through the town...
.
Gilmore's first volume of poetry was published in 1910, and for the ensuing half-century she was regarded as one of Australia's most popular and widely read poets. In 1908 she became women's editor of The Worker, the newspaper of Australia's largest and most powerful trade union, the Australian Workers Union (AWU). She was the Union's first woman member. The Worker gave her a platform for her journalism, in which she campaigned for better working conditions for working women, for children's welfare and for a better deal for the Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
.
Later life
Communist Party of Australia
The Communist Party of Australia was founded in 1920 and dissolved in 1991; it was succeeded by the Socialist Party of Australia, which then renamed itself, becoming the current Communist Party of Australia. The CPA achieved its greatest political strength in the 1940s and faced an attempted...
's newspaper Tribune, although she was never a party member herself. In spite of her somewhat controversial politics, Gilmore accepted appointment as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1937, becoming Dame Mary Gilmore. She was the first person to be granted this award for services to literature. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
she wrote stirring patriotic verse such as No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest.
In her later years, Gilmore, separated from her husband, moved to Sydney, and enjoyed her growing status as a national literary icon. Before 1940 she published six volumes of verse and three editions of prose. After the war Gilmore published volumes of memoirs and reminiscences of colonial Australia and the literary giants of 1890s Sydney, thus contributing much material to the mythologising of that period. Dame Mary Gilmore died in 1962, aged 97, and was accorded the first state funeral accorded to a writer since the death of Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest writer"...
in 1922.
Honours
Gilmore's image appears on the AustralianAustralian 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...
$10 note, along with an illustration inspired by No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest and, as part of the copy-protection microprint, the text of the poem itself. The background of the illustration features a portrait of Gilmore by the well-known Australian artist Sir William Dobell
William Dobell
Sir William Dobell, OBE was an Australian artist .The electoral Division of Dobell is named after him.- Life :...
.
In 1973 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 the Australia Post
Australia Post
Australia Post is the trading name of the Australian Government-owned Australian Postal Corporation .-History:...
.
The Canberra suburb of Gilmore
Gilmore, Australian Capital Territory
Gilmore is a suburb in the Canberra, Australia district of Tuggeranong. The postcode is 2905. The suburb is named after the poet and journalist, Dame Mary Gilmore. It was gazetted on 5 August 1975...
and the federal electorate of Gilmore
Division of Gilmore
The Division of Gilmore is an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. The division was created in 1984 and is named for Dame Mary Gilmore, the poet and author. It is located in the Shoalhaven the southern Illawarra regions, extending from Warilla in the north to Durras in the south, then...
are named after her.
Further reading
- W.H.Wilde, Courage a Grace - Melbourne University Press (1988)
- Dymphna Cusack and others, Mary Gilmore: A Tribute (1965)
- W H Wilde and T Inglis Moore, Letters of Mary Gilmore (1980)
- Gavin Souter, A Peculiar People - The Australians in Paraguay