MOTHER OF THE NORTH -

Early life in the north west was very tough and women often had to run the homestead on their own when the men were away tending to stock. Emma Withnell told the following story in her diary:

'After I had put my dear little ones to bed, I tried to read, but I could not settle down to my book. The dogs kept up a continual barking, and I thought that wild bush natives were camped nearby. Perhaps, I thought, they had seen my husband riding away that morning, and were planning to attack the homestead. Pulling aside the curtains to the kitchen window, I peered out. To my horror there was a black figure about a chain away from the house. I kept a rifle in the corner of the room, and I rushed over, seized and loaded it. Returning I opened the window, slipped the barrel of the rifle through and called out: "Go away or I'll fire". In the dim light the figure took on a menacing attitude, and appeared to move its head in a sinister way. "Go away, go away!" I screamed again. Then I pressed the trigger. I knew I had hit the object, but it still remained upright. Seizing a hurricane lantern, I ran out to investigate. To my relief the "wild bush native" about to attack us was a dress and hat I had hung to dry on the clothes line.'

In fact, far from having any problems with the local Aborigines, Emma Withnell befriended them and tended many when they fell ill. She became known as 'Medicine woman' and for 40 years she was to remain in the north west. Finally at age 86 she died near Perth and is buried in the Guildford Cemetery.

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