Catherine Helen Spence was an Australian writer, feminist and social reformer who wrote in 1854 with Clare Morrison, the first written by a woman's novel about life in Australia.
Catherine Helen Spence emigrated with her family in 1839 from Scotland to Australia in 1854 with Clare Morrison and authored the first written by a woman's novel about life in Australia.
In the following years she wrote five other novels, the last of which was Handfasted (1884), published posthumously. Her interest in social issue in Australia led them to hold a lecture tour of the United Kingdom and the United States.
Their commitment to gender distribution proportional representation in public, she described in her book, A Plea for Pure Democracy (1861). In addition, she held the position of the first text book on social studies in Australia, which in 1880 appeared under the title The Laws We Live Under.
The mid-1890s, she campaigned for the establishment of Australia, on 1 Was established in January 1901. After the founding of the Australian House of Representatives under the Constitution of Australia, she was the first woman candidate for Parliament, albeit unsuccessfully.
1910 posthumously published autobiography, entitled Catherine Helen Spence: an Autobiography, which was completed and edited by Jeanne Young.
On the centenary of the founding of Australia, she was honored in 2001 by a special note of the Australian dollar: Together with the "Father of Australia" and five-time premier of New South Wales, Sir Henry Parkes her portrait appeared on a five-dollar bill.
Our collection contains 20 quotes who is written / told by Catherine.
"My return to London introduced me to a wider range of society"
"Nothing is insignificant in the history of a young community, and - above all - nothing seems impossible"
"My brothers went to the parish school, one of the best in the county"
"Drinking habits were very prevalent among men, and were not in any way disgraceful, unless excessive"
"The Town Clerkship, however, was the means of giving me a lesson in electoral methods"
"Our South Australian farmers left their holdings in the hands of their wives and children too young to take with them, but almost all of them returned to grow grain and produce to send to Victoria"
"I had seen Adelaide the dearest and the cheapest place to live in"
"I count myself well educated, for the admirable woman at the head of the school which I attended from the age of four and a half till I was thirteen and a half, was a born teacher in advance of her own times"
"A glass of whisky in Scotland in the thirties cost less than a cup of tea"
"The first issue of The Register was printed in London, and gave a glowing account of the province that was to be - its climate, its resources, the sound principles on which it was founded"
"I had only two offers of marriage in my life, and I refused both"
"After the break up of the municipality and the loss of his income my father lost health and spirits"
"Probably my mother's life was prolonged beyond that of a long-lived family by her coming to Australia in middle life; and if I ever had any tendency to consumption, the climate must have helped me"
"I think I was well brought up, for my father and mother were of one mind regarding the care of the family"
"I had learned what wealth was, and a great deal about production and exchange for myself in the early history of South Australia - of the value of machinery, of roads and bridges, and of ports for transport and export"
"As we grew to love South Australia, we felt that we were in an expanding society, still feeling the bond to the motherland, but eager to develop a perfect society, in the land of our adoption"
"Even before the discovery of copper South Australia had turned the corner"
"South Australia was the first community to give the secret ballot for political elections"
