The Lady Squatters: Anne Drysdale and Caroline Newcombe

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Anne Drysdale (b. Scotland, 1792-1853) and Caroline Elizabeth Newcomb (b. England, 1812-1874) were squatters in Victoria in the mid to late 1800s. They established a successful sheep farm at a time when women rarely owned property and they did so in the Port Phillip district, a place that, at the time, was still regarded by the British as terrifyingly remote.

European people had only been settled in the Port Phillip district for six years when Anne Drysdale arrived in Melbourne on 15 March 1840.

Not long after she arrived, Anne went to stay with Dr Alexander Thompson in Kardenia, Geelong. It was here that she became acquainted with Caroline Newcomb, Thompson’s governess.

Dr Thompson helped Anne and Caroline acquire the licensed run, Boronggoop. The run was 10,000 acres (4047 hectares) between the Barwon River and Point Henry.

A year later, in August 1841, Caroline and Anne finished building a new cottage located between the Barwon River and Geelong. They were business partners but also friends. In her diaries Anne writes:

Miss Newcombe who is my partner, I hope, for life is the best & most clever person I have ever met with. There seems to be magic in her touch, everything she does is done so well & so quickly. - Anne Drysdale

Drysdale and her young friend established a beautiful home along European lines that was renowned in the new colony for its ‘rare domestic character’. They had a piano in the parlour and a garden with gravelled paths.

In 1843 they increased their farming interests when they obtained Coryule on the Bellarine Peninsula. In 1849 they moved into the Coryule mansion, a stone building overlooking Port Phillip, designed by the Melbourne architect, Charles Laing.

In many ways their lives and experiences were utterly different to other women of their time and class:

They don't fit the usual images and stereotypes of 'colonial women' or 'pioneer women' or 'women of the bush'.  Those women were married, generally with children, and dependent on their husbands - the pioneer woman was part of the pioneer couple. While Anne and Caroline formed their own unique version of the pioneer couple, they maintained their separate identities.  But the chief difference between them and their contemporaries, apart from being unmarried and childless, was that they were landholders and pastoralists in their own right. - Bev Roberts (1)

Anne and Caroline were very successful. By the time of Anne Drysdale's death at the Coryule mansion in 1853, they had built up a large farming enterprise and were highly regarded in the community. Four years after Anne's death, Caroline married the Reverend James Dodgson. Caroline died 21 years later and, tellingly, she was buried beside Anne at Coryule. 

To the right is a photo of Caroline Newcombe. Sadly, there are currently no known photographs of Anne Drysdale.   

The blog Historical Ratbag has an extensive photo tour of Anne and Caroline's house, Coryule.

Photograph of Anne: Victorian Collections

https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/5abc17dc21ea670cb0862df6

Accessed 9 October 2024