Emily Childers (1827-1875), Diarist

Emily Childers lived the conventional life of a woman of her background and class.  She married at 23, emigrated with her husband to find a new life in Australia, had children, ran her household and led a busy social life. Her claim to fame rests with her diaries, which record in some detail the life and growth of early Melbourne during the gold rush of 1851 and into the mid-1850s. 

Emily was born at Norton-juxta-Kempsey, Worcestershire, England in 1827. She was the daughter of George Alexander Walker and his wife Frances Elizabeth (née Chamberlain) of Norton Villa. In 1849, she became engaged to Hugh Culling Eardley Childers, a graduate of Cambridge University and a close friend of her brother, George Edmund Walker. They married at the Parish Church at Norton on 28 May1850, and honeymooned in Paris. They were to have eight children, four born in Australia, the others in England.

Anxious to find well-paid work, Hugh determined that there were great opportunities to be found in the Port Phillip colony, soon to be separated from New South Wales. Armed with letters of introduction arranged by a well-connected aunt, the young couple boarded the Northumberland at Tilbury in late June of 1850. Departure was delayed by inclement weather until 10 July. The journey took 105 days, reaching Williamstown, Port Phillip, on 25 October, 1850. 

Emily began her diary a year later. She and Hugh had first rented a cottage in St Kilda, but, by now with their first baby, moved first to Brunswick St., Collingwood, and then to Jolimont, where they moved into the second of the pre-fabricated cottages brought out by Superintendent , then Governor, Charles Joseph La Trobe. This brought them in close proximity to Charles and Sophie La Trobe and to Bishop Perry and his wife Frances and the whole population of genteel Melbourne. H I Hall commented in Hugh’s ADB entry: 

They were soon accepted in the best society, she for her beauty, he for his family connexions, intellectual ability and as 'a sort of living lexicon in respect of reference' [1]

The first entry in Emily’s diary, for Thursday 1 January, 1852, demonstrates the nature of Emily’s daily activities:

Mr Close staying with us. Holiday in public offices. Cricket match between Single and Married men. Hugh played – singles won. Miss Butterworth called about bed for Mrs Heape. Afternoon walked with Abie into Bourke St. Met Mr La Trobe, Dr. Macartney, &c. and going t0 meeting. Ordered baby’s hat from Mrs. Studman, Mr Close dined with Mr Fenwick. [2]

Hugh by now was moving up the social ladder:

I am quite an official personage here now. I hold at the present moment, no less than four offices under the Crown, two of which will be permanent. [3]

Her diaries chart the massive impact on Melbourne of the gold rushes. Servants were difficult to find and keep; wages and prices were high. In her entry of 18 October 1851, Emily comments: 

…at first, the whole of the adult population began to take flight … In a week’s time six or seven thousand people were digging, washing and prospecting.

Those used to being waited on, soon had to wait on themselves: 

Mrs Perry … told us about the Bishop and herself watering their horses!  [4]

By 1855, Melbourne is an established city and Emily is there at the inauguration of Melbourne University: 

The Governor took me in … Mr Barry made a wonderful speech and Sir Charles Hotham a very bad one.

In all, the Childers stayed six years in Melbourne, before returning to England in 1856. Emily died unexpectedly in England in 1875. Her diaries are held with the Royal Commonwealth Society in London.

Sources:
Collingwood Historical Society Emily Childers
H L Hall ‘Childers, Hugh Culling Eardley’ Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 3 (MUP) 1969
Uhl, Jean  A Woman of Importance Emily Childers in Melbourne 1850-1856

Footnotes:
[1] ADB Entry Hugh Childers
[2] Uhl, Jean A Woman of Importance p.24
[3] Uhl P.20
[4] Uhl P.20