Skip to main content

Diaries of Catherine Currie and papers of the Currie family

Identifier(s): MS 10886

 Collection

Summary

Collection contains: Seven farm diaries kept by Mrs. Currie between 1873 and her death in 1908, and with selected entries by other family members who continued adding to the diaries through to 1916. The diaries contain accounts of life and work on family farms at Ballan 1873-1875, and Lardner 1875-1916; Seven volumes of photocopies of the diaries; Three cash books, 1887-1934, with loose interfiled financial documents, 1919-1959 (the second of the cash books includes a garden planting plan, 1889); Miscellaneous correspondence, receipts, press clippings and other ephemera; Two photographs (including a view of the homestead 'Brookvale' in Balmattum, Victoria; a portrait of Fern Currie with another woman, outside a cabin, ca. 1910); and a strip of Royal Stewart tartan fabric.

Dates

  • 1873-1990

Creator

  • Currie, Catherine, 1845-1908 (Person)

Biographical / Historical

Sarah Ann Catherine Wells was born in Suffolk, England, in 1845. She arrived in Australia 1853 with her family. In 1864, at the age of 19, she married Edinburgh born Scottish colonist John Currie (1834-1901). Together they worked a farm at Ballan until 1875, before moving to a farm at Lardner, Gippsland. Catherine Currie gave birth to six children, Catherine, Thomas, Albert, Jane, Fern, and Rose. Throughout her life Catherine Currie experienced periods of mental illness, starting from the death of one-year-old Jane in 1880, and was placed in institutions twice: in Yarra Bend Asylum in 1981, and another institution in 1895. She continued to live on the farm with her children, maintaining her diary until late 1907 when she fell ill, passing away in 1908.

Extent

60 cm.

Language

English

Additional description

Publication note

Analysis of, and extracts from, the diaries published in Catherine : on Catherine Currie's diary, 1873-1908, by Ailsa McLeary with Tony Dingle. Carlton, Vic. : Melbourne University Press, 1998.

Processing information

In 1980, bound photocopies of the diaries were made by the State Library Victoria with the permission of the Currie family. In 2013, the diaries along with additional cashbooks, correspondence, photographs, and other material, were gifted to the library. This finding aid was amended in 2022 into a three series structure, adding additional information about the diaries and description of the cashbooks and other materials.

Subjects

  • Correspondence.
  • Diaries
  • Ephemera
  • Farms -- Ballan -- Victoria
  • Farms -- Lardner -- Victoria
  • Photographs

Related names

Creator

  • Currie, Catherine, 1845-1908 (Person)
  • Currie family (Family)

Administrative Information

Title
Guide to the Diaries of Catherine Currie and papers of the Currie family
Status
Completed
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository details

Repository details

Part of the Australian Manuscripts Collection, State Library Victoria Repository

http://www.slv.vic.gov.au
Contact:
328 Swanston Street
Melbourne Victoria 3000 Australia
03 8664 7002