Lucy Harriet Eatock (née Lucy Wakenshaw; 7 June 1874 – 12 February 1950) was an Australian political activist with the

Communist Party of Australia The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an Australian communist party founded in 1920. The party existed until roughly 1991, with its membership and influence having been ...

(CPA). She married an Aboriginal man named William Eatock and had nine children. She and her children Participated in demonstrations and faced discrimination from authorities.

Life

Eatock was born in the Central Highlands of

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

in a town named

Springsure Springsure is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Central Highlands Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Springsure had a population of 950 people. Geography Springsure is situated by road ...

. Her Scottish-born parents were said to be Jane Lindsay (née Cousins) and her husband, Alexander Wakenshaw. She was their ninth child. Some sources have questioned whether her dark skin colour suggests that she may have had other parents. Her father, in time, became a pastoralist. On 18 November 1895, when she was 21 and still living in Springsure, she married an Aboriginal man named William Eatock, who was a stockman. In 1908, they were in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

where her husband was working in an

abattoir In livestock agriculture and the meat industry, a slaughterhouse, also called an abattoir (), is a facility where livestock animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a meat ...

. They had nine children and they lived in makeshift huts or tents near

Brewarrina Brewarrina (pronounced ''bree-warren-ah''; locally known as "Bre") is a town in north-west New South Wales, Australia on the banks of the Barwon River in Brewarrina Shire. It is east of Bourke and west of Walgett on the Kamilaroi Highway, a ...

, where life was difficult for the family. They agreed to separate, and William took two of their sons, while Lucy took the youngest children and an elder daughter. Lucy could only find work as a

domestic worker A domestic worker is a person who works within a residence and performs a variety of household services for an individual, from providing cleaning and household maintenance, or cooking, laundry and ironing, or care for children and elderly ...

, and she fostered the children out to a number of places, including the town of

Bowral Bowral () is the largest town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia. It is south-west of Sydney and north-east of Canberra. It is the main business and entertainment precinct of the Wingecarribee Shire and the Southern Highl ...

. In the 1920s she was living with her daughter and four of her sons, who were all employed and active members of the

(CPA). Lucy, who attended the demonstrations in smart clothes, and her family, along with the CPA, were frequently in dispute with the authorities. In 1932, she was assaulted by a police officer who was trying to keep order in the unemployed demonstrators in

Glebe A glebe (, also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s)) is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved to the church. ...

on 27 October. Her sons appeared in court for offences arising from demonstrating, and one of her sons, Noel, was at the centre of an incident that attracted wide support. Noel and another man were arrested following a demonstration at which a police officer had been hurt. Noel had witnesses who affirmed that he was not at the demonstration, but despite this he received the most severe sentence of two and half years. The man who had been arrested with Noel, and who some saw as a stronger suspect, was a former soldier and he was released. Non-aboriginal demonstrators were generally given sentences of three months but aboriginal people were given much longer sentences. Lucy was annoyed that the CPA had not done more to look after their members and that Noel, especially, had been badly treated. The family left the CPA. Noel did not renew contact with his mother after he completed his sentence. Lucy died in 1950, survived by five of her children. Her son, Lindsay, remained in politics but the rest of the family retired. Lucy's grandchildren became proud of their

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

ancestry and some argued that Lucy had indigenous ancestry, but Lucy herself never claimed this. Lucy's house in Glebe was nominated for a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...

to celebrate her life there.

References

External links

Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eatock, Lucy Harriet 1874 births 1950 deaths Springsure Australian activists Australian communists People from Glebe, New South Wales