Southern Cross Rising by Sharyn Bradford Lunn

Author:Sharyn Bradford Lunn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: thewordverve inc
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Across Bass Strait there was reason to celebrate. Little Tommy Willis McCabe, first child of Thomas and Susannah McCabe and the first great-grandson of Hawkin and Rosa, entered the world with a healthy squall during the height of February’s heat. In the preceding week, both the Willis and McCabe families had gathered at the couple’s home in the northwest, near Taswood, in anticipation of the happy event. The little boy, heir to the McCabe holdings, was showered with gifts and affection from the moment he was born.

Life in Ballaarat was less joyful.

Bonnie’s attitude began to change as she came to terms with the fact that there would never be any sort of friendship between herself and Jim McCabe. She saw that all the men in her life had caused her grief in some way. First, there was Griff McCabe and his oppressive prejudice, then Mr Herburton, who threw her out onto the street. There was her son Hawk, who hit out at everyone, including those he loved. Even her brother was incapable of enduring commitment. Jim turning his back on her again, not to mention his denying their grandchildren, capped it all off, and she was beyond angry. She wanted to hit out the way her son had done and grab hold of a shard of power. Yet she knew all too well the result of rage. She had seen how it had destroyed her Hawk and knew it was not the answer. Disillusioned and tired of being oppressed by the whims of men, she needed to take control of her life. Even her mother, God rest her soul, had found no escape. It was time things changed.

With this new mindset, Bonnie was drawn to the women’s suffrage movement, studying every newspaper article with great interest and talking about women’s rights and equality to anyone who would listen. Although the movement had commenced in Victoria in 1884, she had paid little attention to it beyond privately agreeing with the women’s goals and wishing them well. Women less complacent than she had rallied to the cause and similar movements had sprung up in various colonies, the most active being the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, which, by the time of federation, had branches in every state. Meanwhile, the National Council of Women had established branches in New South Wales, Tasmania, and Victoria. The Victorian movement was aided by Vida Goldstein, who had been an active women’s rights campaigner for over ten years, just before federation launched. She edited the first suffrage newspaper, The Australian Woman’s Sphere, a monthly newspaper that Bonnie religiously devoured. Vida inevitably became Bonnie’s idol. She came from a socially radical family, her father had formed a labour colony to assist the unemployed, and her mother had condemned the social inequality between women and men and advocated women’s rights, thus shaping Vida’s future.

Vida Goldstein’s ideals of absolute legal equality between men and women, as well as equal pay for equal work, appealed to Bonnie, who firmly believed the position of women must be improved.

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