Carlo shows support for women in the country

I came across this lovely quote from Carlo when I was researching his work in the town of Licola. The settlers were asking for bridges across the Macalister and Barkly Rivers.

It was not right, he added, to keep women in this back country unless they had proper road communication. The woman had to bear children. She was doctor, mother, teacher, everything, in this part of the world, and for her sake alone  it was the duty of Governments to provide roads to enable her to get in and out. She was entitled to the same rights and privileges as the ordinary civilised being. These she could not have without decent means of communication.   This is from the Weekly Times  of June 1 1912.

Carlo shows great insight into the isolated life of women in the country. In spite of Carlo's impassioned plea on behalf of the women of Licola the two bridges were slow in coming. I believe the bridge over the Macalister was put out to tender around May 1913 and it was opened by January 1915, but I don't have the exact date. The good people of Licola had to wait substantially longer for the bridge over the Barkly River - this wasn't officially opened until January 1931! The report in The Age of January 31, 1931 said that the bridge had been the subject of many years' agitation by settlers in the outback country.... Mrs Sweetapple  a resident of more than 50 years, cut the ribbon and declared the  bridge open.

The delightfully named Mrs Sweetapple was born Wilhemina Catherine Sweetapple - she was married in 1880 to Charles Henry Sweetapple, so I presume he was her cousin as they had the same surname. Charles Henry died November 24, 1918. They had twin boys Charles William and Henry (Harry) James, born 1883. Harry died in 1938 and Charles died in 1962. Wilhemina died January 18, 1939. The obituary in The Argus lists her age as 78, but she was actually born in November 1856, so she was 82.

It was fitting  that a woman opened the bridge as Mrs Sweetapple had lived at Licola since her marriage and had raised her sons there and in those days in that remote location she would have been  doctor, mother, teacher, everything, in this part of the world, to her children as Carlo so thoughtfully and eloquently stated.

I have created a short list of articles on Trove about the bridges at Licola, you can access it here. The articles provide my evidence for the date of the opening of the Macalister and Barkly bridges.

Rocky siding & Macalister River, Licola Road. N. Gippsland, c. 1913.

 Photographer: Arthur John Waugh. 

This would be the condition of the road when Carlo visited the town in 1912 and I am sure Mrs Sweetapple would have been familiar with this rocky road.

 State Library of Victoria Image H83.125/43

You can see the original image, which is '2 photographic prints on stereo cards' on the State Library of Victoria website here http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/361613