Agnes Adelaide Donaldson

Agnes Adelaide Donaldson (née Elms; 1866–1948) was an Australian botanical collector, governess, and sheep station owner. Part of the expansive network of collectors established by Ferdinand von Mueller to botanically describe and categorise the flora of Australia, she was the earliest recorded woman, and one of the earliest recorded people, to collect plant material around Alpha.

Agnes Adelaide Donaldson
Agnes Adelaide Donaldson, from a 1916 postcard.
Born1866 (1866)
Smeaton, Victoria, Australia
Died11 July 1948 (1948-07-12) (aged 81)
Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia
Occupations
  • Botanical collector
  • governess
  • sheep station owner
Years active1890–1891 (botanical collector)
Spouse
Robert Donaldson
​
(m. 1890)​
Children6

Life

Donaldson was born to pastoralists Hastings Alfred Elms (1832–1910), and Janet Beveridge Elms (1838–1899) in Smeaton, Victoria.[1][2] In the late 1880s, Agnes travelled to Lansdowne, Queensland to work as a governess at Lansdowne station. She met the station overseer Robert Donaldson, and they married in 1890 and they ultimately had three daughters and three sons.[3]

After the wedding in Victoria, the Donaldsons travelled to Alpha pastoral station in Alpha, Queensland where Robert was the manager.[4] At this time it is claimed that he employed Breaker Morant.[4]

In 1898, leaseholders with large landholdings such as Robert Donaldson were barred from taking up new leases in districts that had been opened up by the Queensland colonial government. Agnes applied to select 19,677 acres and a waterhole, which was probably an attempt to evade the selection restrictions imposed on her husband.[5] In 1910, this property was passed on to the Queensland pastoralist Eric Henry Mackay (1841–1923), and then his daughter Clara Miller.[5] When "government enquiries" were made in the 1920s regarding the original "unethical occupation" of the property by Donaldson, the property was surrendered to bailiff.[5]

They then moved to Medway homestead, Bogantungan in 1909, which Robert had purchased with a business partner.[2] By 1914 this partnership had dissolved and Agnes stayed at the homestead while their son managed the property. Agnes's descendants have continued to manage the property into the present day, as a cattle stud.[6] In 1946 she moved close to Rockhampton to receive medical treatment and passed away in July 1948.[2]

Botanical legacy

As part of Ferdinand von Mueller's plan to write a write a flora of Australia, he needed to recruit plant collectors from across the continent.[7] He therefore advertised in regional Queensland newspapers, including in Rockhampton, requesting for people to send him plant specimens.[7] It is possible that Agnes saw was recruited into Mueller's network by one of these advertisements, although no correspondence between them has survived.

Agnes collected botanical specimens at upper Belyando River, and Alpha Station in the early 1890s, forming an important record of past biodiversity in the region.[8] Today her specimens are cared for in the collections of the National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.[9]

Further reading

References
  1. "Donaldson, Agnes Adelaide (née Elms) (1865 - 1949)". Australian National Herbarium, Biographical Notes. Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria. 27 November 2014. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
  2. "Obituary Mrs A. D. Donaldson". The Central Queensland Herald. Vol. 18, no. 1013. Queensland, Australia. 19 August 1948. p. 29. Retrieved 28 November 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. "Agnes Adelaide Donaldson (seated) and her daughter, Aube, at Medway Station, Bogantungan, Queensland, 1916". State Library of Queensland. 1916. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
  4. "In the early days". The Central Queensland Herald. Vol. 3, no. 133. Queensland, Australia. 14 July 1932. p. 54. Retrieved 28 November 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. Robins, R.; Robins, T.; Tomkins, H. (2011). "Non-Indigenous cultural heritage assessment: South Galilee coal project Alpha" (PDF). The South Galilee Coal Project. Everick Heritage Consultants Pty. Ltd. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
  6. "Medway Droughtmasters". 2021. Retrieved 2 December 2022. Approximately 2100 head of breeders are run on 50,000 acres of grazing land....Medway has been owned by Donaldson family since 1908.
  7. Maroske, Sara (2014). "'A taste for botanic science': Ferdinand von Mueller's female collectors and the history of Australian botany". Muelleria. 32: 72. doi:10.5962/p.295689. S2CID 162606629. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  8. Maroske, Sara; Vaughan, Alison (2014). "Ferdinand Mueller's female plant collectors: A biographical register". Muelleria. 32: 112. hdl:1885/70771. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
  9. "Agnes Adelaide Donaldson". Bionomia. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
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