Mrs Elizabeth Ann Hooke Buchan (b 1859, Collingwood) and her mother Mrs Sarah Jane Dunstone (b. Sarah Jane Hooke in 1843, Norfolk) both signed the 1891 Petition. They are among 30,000 Victorian women who did so.

This photograph is one of many sourced and researched by local historian Marie Kau, tracing the story of women’s suffrage in Central Goldfields area. Her research was part of Central Goldfields Shire Council’s Social Fabric Project , a recipient of a Centenary of Women’s Suffrage grant.

Mrs Dunstone first married Daniel Barwell in 1860, but he died two years later, leaving her with Elizabeth.

In 1863, the young widow married Cornish-born Thomas Willliams Dunstone from Amherst. Mr Dunstone was a great worker for the Amherst Methodist church, both as a preacher and, according to his obituary in the Talbot Leader, through his “splendid musical powers”.

Elizabeth married another Amherst man, miner James Lockhart Buchan in 1887. She became the Superintendent of the Amherst Methodist girls’ Sunday School. Tragically both women were widowed within the same week, with Mr Buchan dying of heart failure on 7 September and Mr Dunstone on 11 September 1909. The Photograph, dated c.1910 show the bereaved mother and daughter in mourning clothes.

Research Text: Marie Kau