Grace Elizabeth Jennings Carmichael (1867-1904), poet and nurse, was born on 24 February 1867 at Ballarat, Victoria, daughter of Archibald Carmichael, a miner from Perthshire, Scotland, and his wife Margaret Jennings, née Clark, from Cornwall, England. . She was educated at Melbourne and while still a child went to live on a station at Orbost, and grew up close to the bush she came to love so much. In 1888 she went to Melbourne to be trained as a nurse at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, and in 1891 published a small volume of prose sketches, Hospital Children. Having qualified she obtained a position on a station near Geelong, and subsequently married Francis Mullis. She contributed verse to the Australasian, and in 1895 Poems by Jennings Carmichael was published. She lived for a time in South Australia and then went to London, where she died in poor circumstances in 1904. Her husband, Henry Mullis, was last recorded in the workhouse in Woolrich, but then disappeared leaving the three children- Geoffrey 7 yrs, (Thomas) Clive 5 yrs & 4 year old (Archibald) Keith and one year old (Rupert) Wyatt, destitute & were sent to the Northampton workhouse, (Thomas ) Clive dying in 1906. In 1910, a group of Carmichael's admirers, discovered the whereabouts of her children, where a public fund was established to bring the children to Australia, the Victorian Government giving them free passage, arriving in Victoria in October of 1910. The children were placed in private homes and took on their mother's single name of Carmichael. In the late 1930s, plaques were unveiled in Orbost & Ballarat in honor of Grace Jennings Carmichael. The one in Orbost was part of the "Back To' celebrations. It hung in Mechanics' Institute in Orbost.This is significant to the Orbost region in that it is associated with a woman who is certainly our foremost female poet. A bronze cast memorial plaque set onto a wooden backing board. The plaque has an image of a woman, a candle and a book, and also some text (see below).Grace Jennings Carmichael, Australian poetess, 1868-1904, spent her childhood in this district, erected by Mrs G A Hunter & a few admirers.memorial-plaque grace-jennings-carmichael orbost-poet

Four ladies sitting in a row all wearing glasses and knitting whilst Tilly Aston stands and the end assisting one of them. Copy of newspaper photograph with negativeExpert knitter. Blind War Workers. Poetess has formed little band of blind women and girls who knit for Red Cross. Miss Aston assists, instructs. Experts describe work as of highest class. Blind are supplying fighting forces with socks and scarves.tilly aston, association for the advancement of the blind

This small book of POEMS by Jennings Carmichael is one piece of a large number of published works by this poetess and author. As a child in the 1880s, Jennings Carmichael lived with her mother and step-father on Orbost Station. She witnessed the early development of Orbost township and later wrote about this. She later trained as a nurse in Melbourne and wrote stories and reports about her experiences in this profession. Following her marriage to Francis Mullis, they lived in England where she later died. Jennings Carmichael had 4 sons and a daughter Audrey. Only three of her sons survived to come to Australia. Jennings Carmichael is a significant poetess and author and is well-known and admired. Her early association with Orbost is recognised by the development of a Sensory Gardens on Forest Road, by the Orbost Garden Club in the early 2000s, near where she lived. This small book of POEMS is significant because it represents part of the oeuvre by well-known author and poetess, Grace Jennings Carmichael who lived in the Orbost area as a girl in the 1880s.A small book with a brown leather cover, gold lettering on the spine with the words Jennings Carmichael. on the spine: Jennings Carmichael on title page inside: POEMS by Jennings Carmichael (Mrs Francis Mullis)jennings carmichael, orbost, poems

243 pages with illustrationsnon-fictionMemoir of blind activist and poet, Tilly Aston.tilly aston, association for the advancement of the blind

Tilly Aston moved to 42 Raleigh Street in 1913, after her mother had died and her brother married. She died there of cancer on 1 November 1947 and was buried in St Kilda cemetery; her estate was valued for probate at £1149. Her headstone is inscribed: headstone ‘Tilly Aston, Blind Poetess and Philanthropist, Died 1st Nov 1947, Aged 74, Resurgam.’2 x col. photographs of grave and headstonetilly aston, association for the blind

''Memories of the late Mrs Lucy Hill'' A series apparently published over the pseudonym of ''Joch'' in the Bendigo Advertiser (ca. 1973) with a variety of article Headings e.g. Bendigo Mining Fields; The Quartz King - and Quartz Crystal; The last cab home; Court Highlight. These are obviously drafts prior to publication. Mention in attached page (News Letter) that Mr and Mrs Hill published in the Bendigo Advertiser in a column titled ''In the Spotlight''. Attached page also is a short 'biography' of Mrs Hill (nee Lucy Robotham), wife of Mr W T Hill titled ''Success of Bendigo Poetess'' (may be extract from Bendigo Advertiser??)person, individual, lucy hill, journalist, advertiser, aunt evelyn, the centenary song, gravel hill state school, in the spot light, an unexpected achievement, bendigo.