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Catherine Street

Stow, Catherine Eliza Somerville (Katie) (1856 - 1940)

A collector of Aboriginal legends, was born on 1 May 1856 at Encounter Bay, South Australia, daughter of Henry Field, pastoralist, and his wife Sophia, daughter of Rev. Ridgway Newland.

Henry had migrated to South Australia in 1837; with James and Andrew Chisholm of Goulburn, he established Marra station on the Darling in New South Wales.

An Aboriginal girl saved Katie's life, when two of her sisters drowned in the Darling, and later shared the lessons Mrs Field gave to her children.

The family moved to Adelaide in 1872; that year Sophia died after the birth of her eighth child. Katie and her sister
Rosina (b.1863) attended a girls' school.

At St Peter's Church, Glenelg, on 12 January 1875 Catherine married Langloh Parker (b.1840), a well-known pastoralist who served as a model for Lal Parklands in A Colonial Reformer by 'Rolf Boldrewood'.

In 1879 Parker acquired Bangate station on the Narran River, near Walgett, New South Wales.

Katie wrote a description of her journey there and some reminiscences of her outback life, posthumously published as
My Bush Book (1982).

mybushbook

My Bush Book: K. Langloh Parker's 1890s
Story of Outback Station Life,
with Background and Biography

 

 

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