ETHEL CALLED A 'SLOMMACK'

In The Breelong Tragedy by Alan Sinclair, the author claims that a woman at the Gulgong show in April 1899 called Ethel a 'slommack' for marrying a 'darkie'.
I had never come across that word before, so I just looked it up on the internet.
The first reference to it I found was the Merriam-Webster Dictionary which defines it as 'an awkward, uncouth or slovernly person'.
Then I discovered the word had been used by our own Australian feminist, Germain Greer, in a piece about gender roles in house-cleaning in her book The Whole Woman.
She says that a man who is slovenly and untidy is considered normal; the woman who is, either a slut or a slommack or a slovern or a slag. [Source: Daily Times, Pakistan, 27 January 2010]
Charming!
I can see why Jimmy reported the woman at the show to the police, and had her make a public apology to Ethel in the local newspaper.
The website Legends of America.com suggests 'slommack' is a word from the Old West meaning 'prostitute, floozie, slut or dirty untidy woman'.
There were American miners at the Gulgong goldfields and they may have introduced the word into the local vernacular.
POSTSCRIPT
Internet Archive (www.archive.org) reveals that the word 'slommack' was part of the south-east Worcestershire dialect in England in the 1890s as a verb meaning 'to shuffle along in an idle ungainly manner'. Another reference on that website suggests it was also one of the dialectic words of the counties of Northampton and Leicester.

GULGONG'S SOCIAL PECKING ORDER

Gulgong, the gold mining town where Jimmy married Ethel in 1898, had a distinct social pecking order.
A unique insight into this is given by the British novelist, Anthony Trollope, who visited the town in 1871, 27 years before Jimmy and Ethel married there.

Gullgong [sic] was certainly a rough place ... but not quite so rough as I had expected.
There was an hotel there, at which I got a bedroom to myself, though but a small one, and made only of slabs ...
Every habitation and shop had probably required but a few days for its erection ...
Everything needful, however, seemed to be at hand.
There were bakers, butchers, grocers, and dealers in soft goods.
There were public-houses and banks in abundance.
There was an auctioneer's establishment ...
There was a photographer, and there was a theatre, at which I saw the 'Colleen Bawn' acted with a great deal of spirit ...
After the theatre a munificent banker of the town gave us an oyster supper, at a supper-room ...
I was charmed to hear that a few nights before there had been a most successful public ball.
But I was distressed to find that there had been some heart-burning.
Where was the line to be drawn in reference to the ladies?
The postmistress would not attend the ball unless the barmaids were excluded. The barmaids - I think very properly - were admitted, and the postmistress, who enjoyed the reputation of being the beauty of Gullgong, remained at home.

Ethel bore the brunt of this social snobbery after she married a black man, Jimmy Governor.
But that's the way things were, and still can be, in Australian country towns where people appear to be more concerned about their social status and reputations than in the city.

PEAK HILL & TOMINGLEY

Peak Hill is directly west of Mudgee, and roughly half-way between Parkes and Dubbo.
Tomingley, the site of a gold rush in the 1890s, is north of Peak Hill.
It would have been Wiradjuri country.
See Google maps http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&q=tomingley

JACKY PORTER EXPOSED

When the elderly Jacky Porter was apprehended by police at put in a lock-up for the Mawbey murders, it appears that it was subsequently decided that he was too old to have been involved.
But the following newspaper article sheds new light on his level of fitness.

The Peak Hill Express, 31 October 1902
Jacky Porter who was acquited in connection with the Breelong murders is now among the shearers in Tomingly [a black's camp] who have been enjoying a high old time there for some weeks past.
It was reported during the week that a blackfellow had been murdered there.
On enquiry, however, it was found that the supposed murdered man was "Jacky" who had been quarrelling with another blackfellow, and had been rather severely dealt with.
[Source: Australian Indigenous Index, State Library NSW]

PETER PORTER REVEALED

Yesterday while doing research at the Mitchell Library I found Peter Porter, a brother of Jimmy Governor's father or mother.

Our Aim, 1 December 1921
God Answers Prayer - Peter Porter
Death of Peter Porter, "the poor little deformed uncle of Jimmy Governor".
[Source: Aboriginal Inland Mission, Australian Indigenous Index, State Library NSW]

Earlier that year, Peter Porter had accompanied one of the female missionaries as her assistant on visits to Dandaloo and Taree.

Jacky Porter, an old man, was at the Governor camp at Breelong at the time of the Mawbey murders.
So was Jacky Underwood was also recorded as a 'Porter' in a police report.

NEW PLAY ABOUT JIMMY

Posts in the Paddock is a new play about Jimmy Governor which includes the Aboriginal perspective for the first time.
The idea came from a descendent of the O'Brien family, three members of which were murdered by Jimmy and Joe Governor at Merriwa in the Hunter Valley.
Three years in the making, it sounds like it will be a fabulous production and well worth seeing.
Posts in the Paddock will be staged at the Performance Space at Carriageworks (the old railway workshops near Newtown) from Wednesday 9-19 November.
Tickets are $30, concessions $20 and are available now.
For further information see http://www.mydarlingpatricia.com/2011/posts-in-the-paddock/

My old computer, a HP Compaq, died two months ago after seven years of faithful service.
It was like an extension of my brain which shut down too.
I seem to have lost several IQ points since.
Hopefully they will return once I start blogging again.
Lots of very interesting news to report.
Be back soon.