A Story sent to me by Jennifer Sherwood as told to her by Lorraine Rieck, published with Lorraine’s kind permission. It is about Blanche Habgood who died in the Peak Hill district of the Murchison of Western Australia.
The reason for this story is the memory of running around Blanche’s grave as a child and to show how history is changed because facts are assumed when they are not known. It will forever be believed Mrs Habgood is under the headstone.
Inscription – Blanche Mary Eliza Habgood. 24.6.1860 – 8.2.1912. Loving Mother of Robert Henry Habgood. Both pioneers of the then Munnyinbunna Station near Tunnel Creek. Erected by her grandsons Robert Mace and William Henry Habgood. June 2000.
Lorraine was 8yrs old the last time the family was at Milgun Station (in the Shire of Meekatharra). Dad was caretaking while the owners were away. It was summer and I remember Dad listening to cricket on the radio while we had lunch. It is my first memory of a game of balls chased into a gully. I asked why cricket wasn’t played on flat ground.
Why did the men have square legs? And why did the men on the radio have funny voices?
We lived at the homestead. A cement path ran across the lawn from the front gate to the front door. Halfway along the path, it was divided by another path so it was like a large plus sign with a circle in the middle. A girl about my age sometimes came to play. When we ran around the garden playing tag, we were warned not to step in the circle, even accidentally. We had to respect the lady buried there so we avoided that part. Dad also told me two men were buried close to the workshop, a large man, who had dropped dead in the workshop doorway and Richard Whybourne.
Memorial to Richard Whybourne – Milgun Station – Photo Jennifer Sherwood
Richard WHYBOURNE (50yrs) was unwell before holidaying at Milgun, where on a morning walk, he died 3kms from the homestead at the Government Well. He died on 31st May 1927. Richard, known as Dick, is buried under a huge gum tree in front of the saddle and stockyards at the station. A station hand-made a coffin for him from flat iron. Richard was a station master who had been ill for some time. He and his wife Ethel nee Brethow married in Southern Cross and had two children, Marjory and John. Dick had gone to the station for a holiday to recover his health staying with the station manager Jack Skeahan. When it was found one morning that he had not slept in his bed, Jack and his daughter Laural went in search of him on a motorbike. They found his body at the well.
Also Buried at Milgun Station
James HACKETT – died 5th Jul 1901, 53yrs, buried by Thomas O’Brien (Drover) on the Milgun Station, Hackett was a cook who died of Pneumonia, born c 1849 in Tipperary, Ireland, he had been in Australia for 50yrs, son of Phillip and Margaret (nee Marra) Hackett. Phillip arrived in the Swan River Colony as a convict, Margaret and their two children, James and Edward joined him two years later in 1855.
Phillip SHEEHAN – died 21 Oct 1908, 66yrs, buried on Milgun Station by John Henry Knapton (Station Manager), witness to death Frank Leamar, a prospector who died of senile decay, born 1832 in NSW, he had recently travelled to Milgun station for the purpose of spraying cattle, he had been in Western Australia for 3 yrs.
John THORP AKA Jack – died about 5th Feb 1900, aged about 34yrs, buried in Milgun station about 13th Feb 1900 by Constable Jonathon Armstrong (No 444) of Peak Hill, a miner who became lost in the bush and died of thirst. He had left the Horseshoe mine for the North West. A traveller met Thorp 21 miles from Milgun and gave him 2 quarts of water and told him where to get more. As thorp was travelling at night it was thought he missed the track and subsequently perished. Nothing was found on the deceased to throw any light on his antecedents or from where he came, however, a man who had been dry blowing with him on the ‘Shoe’ mine said he was very retiring and never spoke of any relatives., his body was found in Milgun Paddock about 3 1/2 miles from the homestead, he had been dead about 4 days, he was described as bout 6 ft in height and a dark complexion.
Lorraine said – After I later moved to Mt Vernon, I learned of Habgood’s Creek and later on of the Habgood’s (mother and son) who had started a station, ‘Munnyinbunna’ between Mt Vernon and Turee Creek. As an avid reader of Australian history, I read “The Law Provides” by Edgar Morrow, published in 1937. Edgar, a policeman, wrote of visiting the abandoned Munnyinbunna station on one of his patrols. He tells how Mrs Habgood’s son tried to get her to medical help when she became ill. Their only transport was a wagon and donkey team but after three days of travel, she died 30 miles (48km) from Milgun station. The author wrote – In the centre of the garden at Milgun Station rests the body of Mrs Habgood. A railing shields it from the careless treading of casual visitors and flowers in season are placed upon it by the station staff.
Milgun Station and Homestead – Photo Lorraine Rieck
Part of the mid-section of the paths can be seen in the above photograph of the original homestead. Later, the lawn grew over the side paths leaving only the path to the front door. A new homestead was built in 1985.
Blanche Mary Eliza Habgood – Photo SLWA – Blanche’s wedding
dress is in the State Library collection.
Blanche Mary Eliza Habgood, nee Brown, born 24 June 1860. She married Robert Henry Habgood in June 1880. He died in June 1891. Her son Robert Henry (who buried her) was born on 23 Oct 1883 he married in 1915.
Milgun Homestead kitchen separate to the main house – Photo Lorraine Rieck
Peter Hoffman, a pen-pal, who did the library research for me, contacted one of Blanche’s elderly grandsons in Victoria. He wrote, sending a photo of the headstone he sent to Milgun in 2000. It is erected close to the workshop and stockyards. He is unaware the headstone is in the wrong place. I didn’t tell him!
Milgun Station – Photo SLWA
Were Blanche Habgood’s remains moved from the lawn? (Most unlikely). Blanche’s father was a noted explorer and pastoralist. She was 8 years old when her mother died giving birth to a fifth child. She was 15yrs at the time when her father was hanged for murdering his second wife. I wondered why someone from a comfortable background would go, with her son, to a remote outback area to start a station. I never found the answer. Her sister, Edith Cowan, was a tireless worker for underprivileged women and children and the first woman elected to WA parliament. A Perth university is named after her and she is depicted on the $50 note.
Edith Cowan depicted on the Australian $50 note
Publication by Lorraine Rieck –
Nulla. Albert “Nulla” Thompson,
Drover and Horseman.
By Lorraine Rieck.
The biography of Nulla by his daughter. He grew up in Meekatharra and became a well-known drover and horseman, despite having a bung leg from a childhood accident. Available from Hesperian Press: https://www.hesperianpress.com/
Moya Sharp
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