Nora (née Ford) MADDEN 

Nora Madden, carrier

Authored By Raymond J. Thurlow and Published in

Queensland Family Historian

February 2003

WAGNER (2002:181) states in her article "They Followed the Railway: Queensland's Bullockies" which appeared in the Royal Historical Society of Queensland's Bulletin (December 2002):

Women Carriers were observed at this stage [late 1890s], maintaining family enterprises. An 'old lady of seventy four' operating a horse team with her son on the border route, commented that many wanted to marry her 'for the team'. At the turn of the [19th] century Mrs Norah Madden operated a service between Cunnamulla and the border. By then Daniel Jounquay's wife Helen was living in her wagonette parked at the riverbank at Cunnamulla, with her son in a tent nearby; a decade later William Wright's daughter Eliza Angus retired with hers to Quilpie.

This "Norah" Madden was my great grandmother and it was quite by accident that I came upon this very welcome article in "The Year of the Outback [2002]" to supplement my Madden family research. My research to date has revealed that William Patrick Madden, Nora's husband deserted her and the remaining family of 5 children, under the age of 16 years, on 7th June 1896 and two years later Nora charged him with child desertion in the Cunnamulla court (QLD). In his defence to a claim for payment of money towards their upkeep, William said that he did not desert his family but went away with his two eldest sons to work on the Charleville to Cunnamulla railway and later contract fencing at Adavale, QLD. Whatever the truth of the matter, post office directories and electoral rolls disclose that she was working at the Cunnamulla laundry in the name of Ann Nora Josephine Madden in 1902 and this discovery confirms that they were no longer living together.

Nora's birth certificate shows her name as Ann Ford and that she was born in 1858 to an English father and an Irish mother at Warrowrie Station, Binalong, NSW. I can only speculate about the added name of "Norah", which she spelt without an 'h', and offer the suggestion that it was considered fashionable in the 1860s to have a second christian name. An air of mystery surrounds the addition of the third name—that of Josephine—which, until the turn of the 20th century, never appeared in official records that I have researched. Family lore states that she preferred to call herself Nora and it is by this name and spelling that her death and burial have been registered in Queensland records.

Nora Ford married William Patrick Madden at the Forbes Court House in 1873 at a civil service attended by John Taylor and Catherine Wickham as witnesses. According to their marriage certificate, they were both from Bushmanslead, (now Parkes) NSW. "Bill" as he was known, was the son of an Irishman who owned a bullock team and transported goods and chattels in the area of Binalong to Murrumburrah, NSW.

Olaf Ruhen, in his book, "Bullock Teams," quotes another author E.S. Sorenson, who wrote: 

Each man had his wife and children with him, his herd of goats and his coop of poultry. The camp resembled a prosperous farmyard. The women sat in groups under the trees in the evening cool, the men were by the wagons swapping experiences, the children were hard at play in and around the billabong.

Young Bill would therefore have learnt very early in life the ways of a bullocky and it is not so surprising to learn that Bill followed in his father's footsteps. He was accustomed to hard work and used his bullock team to haul large drays and wagons laden with stores, provisions and the like to western NSW pastoralists and return with wool either to the river ports of Bourke and Louth on the Darling or, after 1886, to the competing railway at Bourke to be transported for cleaning and processing. During this time the family resided at Cobar, NSW. Later, he carried further afield to and from properties in southwestern Queensland and based himself at Cunnamulla which became the family home when Nora and children moved from Cobar. After the shearing season he would backfill with baled wool destined for the railheads of Bourke, NSW and later, Cunnamulla, QLD. The latter town was the meeting point of roads to Eulo, Bourke, Charleville and across the Widgeegoara and Culgoa Rivers into NSW. The railway did not reach Cunnamulla until the end of 1898 which meant that until then, all rations for western Queensland arrived by road from Bourke, NSW, 180 miles away and the teams only came with fresh supplies at shearing time! The alternative source of supply was by dray or wagon from Charleville, St George, Roma or Dalby but because of state taxes, this method was more expensive.

Nora has been described by family members as being a Jewess, with long, jet black hair and having very beautiful skin. She dressed in long sleeved, black frocks which covered her body from neck to toe in the style that was fashionable for the era. I also understand that she was a mid-wife and this was quite usual for an experienced mother in the outback. Nora and family were reported to have been on friendly terms with the Aborigines—each accepting the other as equal. Nora often ate with the Aborigines and they were said to be fascinated with her long, black hair, taking great delight in running their fingers through it.  

The Madden children's birth records indicate that, as Nora's time of labour approached,   the family stayed on at a homestead to await the birth and when each baby was old enough to travel, off Bill would go once again in search of more work to support his wife and children.   Some homesteads at which Nora gave birth include Eremeran, NSW (John); Milo near Adavale, QLD (Bidelia); Mount Margaret, north of Thargomindah, QLD (Ann Norah); Langlo, north of Charleville, QLD (William Patrick) and Winbar, near Louth, NSW (Margaret). Some degree of permanency and stable family life was achieved when three children were born at Cobar, NSW (Rebecca, James Joseph Patrick and Mary Elizabeth) and three more at Cunnamulla, QLD (Veronica, Kate Madeline and Daisy Ethel).

Little did I know until now that Nora would also follow the nomadic lifestyle of her estranged husband and begin a carrying business (in partnership with her son) after separating from him [her husband] in Cunnamulla. But instead of bullocks, she used horses to pull her cart. Newspaper records were consulted following on from Claire Wagner's story and I discovered a Roma "Western Star" report of a court case on 17 May 1900 in which the prisoner denied a charge of horse stealing. The charge was brought by Nora Madden whose evidence is quoted in part as:

I do carrying and own a cart and harness, and my son owns two mares, a bay and a grey mare. I had some furniture to carry from Cunnamulla to Barringun for a woman named Mrs Laiff. My son had a bad hand and was unable to drive, so I arranged with prisoner to take the furniture to Barringun, a distance of 80 miles, for £2, with the cart and the two mares. He was to return the cart, harness, and horses in fourteen days. I saw him again in Cunnamulla, some time afterwards and asked him where the cart and horse were that he had taken away. He said that the grey mare was dead, and the bay mare and cart and harness were at Barringun. Saw him next in January this year at Cunnamulla. I asked him if he had written about the mare, and he said he had and would bring the letter down to me. I asked him how the mare was, and he said it was dead too. I never authorised him to sell the horses.

After hearing the evidence of several witnesses and taking into account the judges comments in his summing up, the jury, after a short retirement, returned a verdict of  guilty and His Honour "sentenced the prisoner to twelve months' hard labor [sic] in Roma gaol, the sentence to be suspended under the First Offenders Probation Act on the prisoner making restitution to William Brown [a witness] of the value of the horse—i.e. £7." More.

Nora eventually moved to Toowoomba and later to Brisbane where she resided with a married daughter in Spring Hill until her death in 1938. She is buried in Dutton Park cemetery. Her husband Bill's whereabouts were steeped in mystery as family lore claimed that he perished in the desert probably while in charge of a bullock team, or fell to his death off a horse. It was only in 2000 did I learn from the Campbelltown Pioneer Register (after submitting family information) that Bill Madden died in 1934 at Parramatta, NSW.  

See also