The Several Fates of Eliza Fraser

Abstract

The wreck of the 'Stirling Castle' and its outcome is a sorry tale, a Story of a woman's amazing fortitude and the miserable death of a gallant band of British seamen. (Bill Beatty. 'The Tales of Old Australia', 1966, p. 173). Objective fact in the 'Stirling Castle' story is an elusive spirit and just as it is about to be grasped has the habit of changing its form. (Michael Alexander, 'Mrs. Frazer on the Fatal Shore', 1971. From 1976 edition, p. 97). Let us consider the woman Eliza Fraser ... whose shipwreck among the aborigines ... and ultimate rescue by a convict ... (have) been the subject of much biographical reconstruction. (Jill Ward 'Patrick White's A Fringe of Leaves' 1978. p. 402). This topic should be one of particular interest to the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, not merely because the putative events associated with it occurred in the immediate Brisbane area, but from the fact that the 'events' themselves very soon became folk-history, with various conflicting interpretations, each concerned to embroider or interpret the happenings to suit seemingly dominant issues in the case.