Bridget O’Connell
| Town/City | Ballarat |
|---|---|
| First name | Bridget |
| Last name | O'Connell |
| Country of Origin | Ireland |
| Date of Birth | 4/28/1868 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1890 |
| Submitted by | Margaret Lewis |
Story
Bridget O\’Connell was born on 28th April 1868 in Newbridge, County Limerick, Ireland, the daughter of John O\’Connell, a carpenter, and Mary nee Riordan. She was the eldest of twelve children. The O\’Connell family had been farmers in County Limerick before their land was confiscated by the English bureaucracy in the 1850\’s. Bridget\’s grandfather John was presumed killed by the Black & Tan soldiers at that time – a fact she was never to forget.
Bridget was 22 years old when she left London with her sister Mary on the 12th November 1890 aboard the ‘Tara’. They came as free passengers and both were listed as domestic servants. In Ireland they had been living at home and apparently left Limerick City one night without their parent\’s permission to take a small boat from Limerick to London. They had £1.0.0 each to pay the Shannon boat, which they had kept secret. Bridget left a note saying that Mary was determined to leave and that she was going to take care of her. The two sisters landed at Bowen on 31st December 1890, but seem to have parted ways soon after arriving in Australia for when they left the Immigration Depot at Townsville, Bridget went to a Convent and Mary went to the Cleveland Boarding House. Bridget moved north to the recently settled town of Geraldton (now known as Innisfail) where she worked as a servant. Mary eventually travelled south to Brisbane where she married in 1908.
Of the people who settled in Geraldton at that time, few would have seen as much of the world as Bridget had, for when she was about 18 years old she went to live with her uncle Thomas O\’Connell in Baltimore, U.S.A. He had asked for her to come and live with them, but his wife apparently was not very nice to Bridget, so she soon returned home to Ireland.
The Johnstone River area was first settled in 1880, as a sugar cane growing area. It was a male dominated, male orientated settlement. Not only were there very few women among the Chinese, Malays, Javanese and Kanakas, but also among the Europeans, most of whom were young men of marriageable age. One lady arriving about 1885 found that she made the fifth single girl in the place. Young girls, most frequently from Ireland, arriving in Townsville on ships ungenerously labeled bride ships, found ready employment as housemaids in hotels at Geraldton. In 1890 the town consisted of four hotels in Geraldton plus a boarding house and five shopkeepers. Bridget married Harry Wright on 2nd July 1893 at the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel, Geraldton. Bridget was listed as a servant and Harry as a labourer. They were both living in Geraldton. Their marriage must have been amongst the earliest at the Catholic Church which had only been completed in 1891.
Bridget had 10 children Ð Annie (born 1894), Frederick John (born 1895), Henry (born and died in 1897), William Vincent (born 1898), Eileen Mary (born 1900), Mary Bridget (born 1903), Henry George Ð known as George (born 1905), Albert Patrick (born 1908), Kathleen Margaret (born 1912) and Margery Monica (born 1913).
They lived initially at Stockton Road, Geraldton, then nearby Goondi, and finally at 5 Charles Street, Innisfail. Being in the tropics, they lived through a number of cyclones & floods including the large 1918 cyclone when their house was destroyed. The family took refuge with their neighbours the Noone family, and lived with them until their house was rebuilt.
Bridget was a very practical woman as evidenced by her dress which was made of a dark heavy material that never wore out, and her actions, such as when she baptized Mrs. Noone\’s youngest child when the child was seriously ill soon after her birth and the parish priest could not be found. She would also put orange, mandarin & lemon peels on the wood stove, dry them down and then use them to light fires.
When the sugar mills finished in December each year they would have 7 or 8 weeks off and Bridget would organize a family get-together around Christmas time. The family would often holiday on the nearby South Barnard Islands where they would camp and live off the land and the surrounding sea for a number of weeks. The Wright family were excellent and very keen fishermen, and had magnificent results which were shared with the Noone family.
Bridget Wright died at the District Hospital, Innisfail on Saturday, 20th September 1941 following a fall when she fractured her femur. She is buried in the Innisfail Cemetery, with her husband Harry.