Q: You say she wrote fourteen novels. How could an uneducated woman achieve this?
A: These days we place too much emphasis on formal education. If you look at successful women writers of the past, you will find that many of them had no formal education. Winifred had an observant eye and her father was the son of a schoolmaster of Bath. In the few years’ schooling she had in England she learned to read and write. She was able to exploit her natural talents as a storyteller and writer.
Q: Why did she choose that name as her pseudonym?
A: Despite her success she never forgot the time when she was destitute, and went out doing washing for two and sixpence for a half-day’s work, so that she could support the three children of her second marriage. Later her children told her it was demeaning to use that as a pseudonym. But she took no notice. It had been honest work and she was not ashamed of it.
Q: Were her novels published?
A: I think the reason they weren’t published was that the plots were contrived. They all had a happy ending with the girl marrying some man who loved her, and cared for her child. Not only that, the problems of the young woman supporting her child were always solved by an unknown benefactor leaving her a fortune, or by her winning the lottery.
Q: What about her other writing?
A: She was a great storyteller with a racy style, so that she was dubbed ‘Australia’s foremost humorist’ because of her articles in the Chronicle in Adelaide every week for nine years. One was in the persona of a big gun-drover called Sapphire Bill, under the title of Tales of Sapphire Bill as told by Himself, and the other Star Dust and Soap Bubbles under the pseudonym of Winifred the Washerwoman.
Q: You did a lot of research. Was it difficult?
A: Not difficult, but demanding, although I enjoyed it. I don’t research on the internet. I prefer to go to primary sources, which I consider more accurate. I researched in libraries and did personal interviews with people who remembered Winifred. I travelled to many of the places where Winifred had been, both in Australia and overseas. I found the house where she lived as a child, at 98 Tradescant Street, South Lambeth, England. I also found her small house in Oodnadatta, and her later one in Watervale, South Australia. Later I found the property where she lived when she was married, and the cairn of stones at Dalby, on the land where she and her father lived when they first migrated to Australia.
Q: Are there any relatives living?
A: Yes. There are a lot. I discovered that they planned a family reunion because of my book. Once Winifred left home she was lost to them. They were glad to get her back. Earlier I had visited members of the family in Queensland, who told me the story of her unhappy marriage to Charles.
Q: Were there any mysteries left unsolved in Winifred’s life?
A: I could find no trace of Louisa Dennis, Winifred’s mother. I think what Winifred said in an interview was true: that her mother saw the chance to be free, and took it when she refused to travel to Australia with her husband and daughter. According to Winifred, they were never married. I don’t think Winifred ever saw, or heard from, her mother again.
QUESTIONS FOR READING GROUPS
1. The Washerwoman’s Dream is based on sound historical research. What do you think of Hilarie Lindsay’s method of using some fictional characters to tell Winifred’s story?
2. Do you think Winifred was justified in leaving her husband?
3. Do you think the work of the Afghan camel men, who helped develop the outback of Australia, has been fully appreciated? Was the Australian government too harsh in not allowing the men to bring their womenfolk with them?
4. Travelling across the outback with her husband Ali meant that Winifred deprived her children of a proper education. She tried to teach them by reading jam tin labels and similar, as she had done as a child. Do you think this was adequate, or was she being selfish, putting her own needs before those of her children?
5. For a white woman who had not been born a Moslem, to travel to Mecca was a rare occurrence. Would it be possible to repeat Winifred’s trip today?
SUGGESTED READING
Jones, Mary Lucille, ed., An Australian Pilgrimage: Muslims in Australia from the Seventeenth Century to the Present, Melbourne: The Law Printer, 1993.
Lindsay, Hilarie, ‘The Story Behind the Washerwoman’s Dream: An Extraordinary Life 1882–1981’, winner of the Walter Stone Gold Medal 2002, Fellowship of the Australian Writers NSW Inc., in Southerly, special edition published as a tribute to Professor Elizabeth Webby on her retirement from the Chair of Australian Literature, Sydney University, June 2007.
Musakahan, Mohamed, Islam in Australia: 1863–1932, Adelaide: Mahomet Allum, ed., 1952.
Rajowski, Pamela, In the Tracks of the Camel Men: Outback Australia’s Most Exotic Pioneers, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1982. The facts concerning Winifred’s personal life in this publication are incorrect, as the author relied on stories told by Winifred, which were false.
Stevens, Christine. Tin Mosques & Ghantowns: A History of Afghan Camel-drivers in Australia, South Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1989.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hilarie Lindsay has been writing professionally since 1964, with more than twenty books to her credit. She has twice won the Grenfell Henry Lawson Statuette for Prose, in 1966 and again in 1967. She was awarded the MBE for Services to Literature in 1974, the Queen’s Jubilee Medal in 1977, and the Order of Australia Medal in 2006 as an author and for mentoring aspiring writers.
Hilarie wears two hats. In addition to her writing, she has spent the last sixty years working in the family’s toy manufacturing company. In 1969 she became the first woman president of any division of the Chamber of Manufactures. She was inducted into the Australian Toy Association Hall of Fame in 1998. She is a past federal president of the Toy & Games Manufacturers Association of Australia, the Society of Women Writers (Australia) and of the Fellowship of Australian Writers.
Hilarie enjoys travelling, tai chi, swimming, the theatre and being with her family. She has three children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
SIMON & SCHUSTER
simonandschuster.com.au
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com.au/Hilarie-Lindsay
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DOCUMENTS
Archives of the Morven Historical Society.
Carter. G., Manager, Railways Historical Centre, Ipswich. Letter to the author, 18 August 1994.
Davis, Beatrice. Letter to Winifred Steger, 27 November, 1969.
Davis, Beatrice. Letter to W
inifred Steger, 2 December 1971.
Fanning, Pauline, National Library of Australia. Letter to Winifred Steger, 18 February 1974.
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Johnson, A.R. (Bob). Letter to the author, 1996.
Johnson, Ethel. Letter to the author, 25 February 1996.
Lindsay, Hilarie. Letter to the National Library of Australia, 4 February 1974.
Lindsay, Hilarie. Letter to Winifred Steger. 23 February 1974.
McGowan, A.O. Letter to the author, n.d.
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INTERVIEWS
Barker, Winifred. Personal interview, 9 January 1996.
Barnes, Rose, Oodnadatta Hospital and Health Services Inc. Personal interview, November 1994.
Bullock, Margaret. Personal interview, 9 January 1996.
Coleman Gill. Personal interview, 8 March 1994.
Diggles, Marionne. Personal interview, 8 January 1996.
Doherty, Hilda. Telephone interview, 10 December 1994.
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