2. Eliza Robins' Story, (1833-1921)
Irish Bounty Girl
Eliza Thompson was born in 1833 in Southern Ireland. As a 15 year old and poor circumstances, Eliza left her own country and headed for unknown Australia, together with fifty-eight other destitute, teenage Kilkenny girls, under the Earl Grey scheme, to become workers and wives for the new colony. Mr Joseph Jennings of Melbourne paid for her fare with the understanding that Eliza would work for 12 months for him. Seven months after arriving she had met and married Richard Robins in March 1850. Several children were born to her before the family made the move out to Clyde. There Eliza, along with her husband carried on a successful dairy farm and eventually they owned two properties. In her early days in Clyde the Robins lived near to the Bunurong tribe who camped at intervals along the Cardinia Creek.
She outlived seven of her fourteen children. Following the death of her husband, Richard in 1883 the remaining family moved to Cranbourne where she lived as a widow for the next 38 years. Upon her death in 1921 at 88 years she was considered a wealthy woman. Nine years before her death she donated a large sum of money that enabled the Church of England to build a hall next to their church. It has served the community for a hundred years. She came to Australia with nothing but was able to give back to a country that adopted her. She was a strong minded person known to smoke a corncob pipe and drive around in a carriage with her own coachman. Illness in 1920 prompted her to write her will . Six months later she died of shock and burns after stumbling with a candle in her Cranbourne home.
Newspapers report that she had 47 grandchildren and 29 great grandchildren. Eliza Robins was acknowledged as being a colonist of 72 years.
Source:
Bounty Girls Irish Famine Memorial
http://www.irishfaminememorial.org/
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Sources
1. Kath Soulsby – Robins Family historian
2. Maureen Cooney - Robins Family Historian
3. Trove: The Argus Newspaper digitised and online.
4. State Library Victoria - Map Collection
5. Ancestry.com
6. Historic Community Hall
7. State Library of Victoria Map Collections
8. Baillerie's Post Office Directories
1868 (
Victoria's First Directory)
Hathi Trust Digital Library - Clyde Entry Page 45 , Cranbourne Entry Page 49
9. Cranboure Shire Rate Books
10 Clyde North School History 118
11. Convict Records: http://foundersandsurvivors.org/pubsearch/convict/chain/c31a31370297
12 Irish Bounty Girls
www.irishfaminememorial.org/