Adelaide Mary Price
Daughter of James Price, a blacksmith & merchant, and Rebecca Hayward. A newspaper obituary after her death reported that her birth occurred on the ship Prince Charlie on which her parents had travelled to Australia. Her death certificate records that she was born in "Port Adelaide, South Australia". Her birth certificate reports only that she was born in "the District of Adelaide" on 31 May 1854. No record has been found of a ship of that name but a ship called Royal Charlie arrived in Port Adelaide on 24 May 1854 (South Australian Shipping Lists 1847-1886 at http://www.users.on.net/proformat/ships47.html. Given the similarity of names and the fact that it arrived in Port Adelaide one week prior to Adelaide's birth, this would appear to be the ship on which her parents arrived. Whether she would have been born on ship is a matter of guesswork; the date of the ship's departure from Port Adelaide is not known. The Royal Charlie had departed Southampton on 2nd February 1854 (reference: http://members.iinet.net.au/~perthdps/shipping/mig-sa3.htm
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The only other reference to a ship of this name was in 1875 when a ketch called Royal Charlie was sailing in Tasmanian waters. (http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/historic/shipw/cam.html) While it would seem unlikely that people would have sailed from England to Australia in a boat small enough to be described as a "ketch", the Prices came to Australia just as steamships were being introduced and small sailing ships may still have been in use. Then again, perhaps it was another boat of the same name.
Family tradition is that the baby girl was named for the place where she was born - the place which greeted her family on their arrival, seeking to make a new life in a new land.
Adelaide's earliest years were lived in South Australia and then, from the age of three, she lived in Wentworth, New South Wales, attending the public school in Wentworth. She lost her father when she was 15 years old. Perhaps she had worked in his store with him; perhaps as the eldest child she carried some responsibility for helping to support the family after her father's death.
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Adelaide subsequently moved with her husband as he was transferred to other locations, including Deniliquin. Ann Kerin, their great great grand-daughter, has identified that the Dunnes resided in End Street, Deniliquin; the cottage in which they resided probably survived until approximately 1970; at that time a number of cottages were demolished for a car yard and, later, for extensions to the RSL club.
A significant number of years were lived in Tocumwal, NSW, where her husband was postmaster. They later moved to Moruya on the south coast. After her husband's retirement, they lived in Gordon, in Sydney.
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Dunne family in front of the Tocumwal Post Office, c. 1900. photograph provided by David McKenzie-McHarg, grandson of Laura |
Children of the marriage were :
- Laura Mary Dunne (born 1877, in Deniliquin. information provided separately).
- Sylvia Victoria Dunne (born Tocumwal 1879; NSW registration no. 1879/12437, entered convent of Good Samaritan and took name Sr Ignatius. Conflicting information about death; one report is that she died in 1946, another that she was still alive and living in Preston, Victoria, in 1950 but had died by 1956.
- Peter Francis Dunne (born 1881, in Deniliquin; information provided separately)
- Gertrude Dunne (born Tocumwal 1883, birth registration 1883 no. 24494, entered Sisters of Mercy convent Albury and took name Sr Aloysius), teaching at Corowa, Tocumwal and Albury; reputed to be outstanding teacher of music and art; died 18 September 1950 at Albury, NSW)
- Winifred Dunne (Sr Flavia , of Good Samaritan sisters, Glebe NSW; aged 48 in 1933; in 1956 was in Reservoir, Vic.; possibly died 1962)
- Violet Dunne (presumed born in Tocumwal in about 1886; married William King, and lived in Sydney; reported to have died in 1965. Children John (b. 1923; married Joan Campbell) and Noela (b. 1928, married Roy Griffin).
- Flavia May Dunne (probably born Tocumwal in 1888; married Alfred Beck, in St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, 2nd October 1916; reported that she died in 1978)
- Isadore Richard Dunne (aged 42 in 1933; reported never married and living in Isisford, Queensland (near Longreach), where he died on 8 April 1951; death registration Qld. 1951 no. 1287; nothing else known)
- Kathleen Dunne (Sr Anthony) (age 40 years in 1933; in 1950 was at Northcote, and in 1956 in Marrickville NSW; reported to have died in 1971)
- Edmund Langton Dunne (born approx 1885; living in Sydney in 1950; reported to have died in 1968).
Some of the above information was provided by Caroline Dunne.
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One imagines Adelaide remained in contact with, and visited, her mother who continued living in Wentworth until her death in 1902. Adelaide's husband died in 1911 and she lived a widow for another 22 years. The last five years were lived with her eldest daughter, Laura McKenzie-McHarg, at Walwa, Victoria. Adelaide Dunne, died 13 June 1933 at the hospital in Walwa and is buried in the cemetery there.
The following obituary was published in a newspaper (publication details unknown, but apparently a Catholic religious publication)
MRS ADELAIDE DUNNE
The death occurred at Walwa (Vic.), on the 13th ult., of Mrs Adelaide Dunne, relict of the late Peter A. Dunne, for many years post and telegraph master at Tocumwal and Moruya. Deceased had resided with her daughter at Walwa for the past five years, and had just celebrated her 79th birthday. Her parents, the late Mr and Mrs James Price, of Wentworth, came to Australia in the sailing ship, Prince Charlie, in 1854, and Mrs Dunne was born aboard the ship in Port Adelaide. Deceased was a convert, and an ardent and zealous worker for the Church, and by her quiet and unassuming manner won the respect of all. A family of three sons and seven daughters survive. Messrs. Peter (Tocumwal), Isidore (Brisbane), Edmund (Sydney), and Mesdames McHarg (Walwa), King (Hornsby), and Beck (Scone), and Sister M. Ignatius (Koroit, Vic.), Sister M. Aloysius (Corowa), Sister M. Flavia (Marrickville) and Sister M. Anthony (Balgowlah). The remains were placed in the Church of Christ the King, and Mass was celebrated by the Rev. Father Awburn, who spoke of the exemplary life and true Christian faith of deceased, who was so well prepared to meet her God. The lengthy cortege moved from the church for the Walwa Cemetery, Father Awburn officiating at the graveside. - R.I.P.
