Anne Drysdale

Geelong Pioneer

Anne Drysdale, born on 26 August 1792, was the daughter of William Drysdale of Pitteuchar, Fife, Scotland, town clerk of Kirkcaldy, and his wife Anne Currison, daughter of the town clerk of Hamilton. Her brother William was knighted while city treasurer of Edinburgh, 1841-43. Another brother, John, of Kilrie farm, married a first cousin and sister-in-law of George Russell of Golfhill. George Russell Drysdale, the artist, is John Drysdale's, and also George Russell's, great grandson.

Having farmed in Scotland on her own account, Anne Drysdale decided, for health reasons, to emigrate to Port Phillip and take up farming there. She reached Melbourne in the Indus on 15 March 1840, and by May had a temporary home with Dr Alexander Thomson, of Kardinia, Geelong, who helped her to secure the Boronggoop licensed run of 10,000 acres (4047 ha), about four miles (6.4 km) downstream, between the Barwon River and Point Henry. In August 1841 she moved in with Caroline Newcomb into a new cottage homestead between the river and what became the present St Albans stud. Together these partners set up an efficient establishment, where Dr John Dunmore Lang found a rare 'domestic character': a piano in the parlour, a fine garden with gravelled walks, and an abundance of good company. There was also 'a zealous observance of all the ordinances of religion'. Anne Drysdale followed the Presbyterian faith; Caroline Newcomb had joined the Wesleyan Methodist Society in 1839, and became the first secretary of the Methodist Church at Drysdale, founded in 1849. The partners enlarged their interests in 1843 by acquiring the Coryule run on the Bellarine Peninsula. Here in 1848 they obtained the freehold they coveted. When the government subdivided and sold their Boronggoop station in 1852, they had already spent three years in the fine stone Coryule mansion, still overlooking Port Phillip Bay, which the Melbourne architect, Charles Laing, designed for them. There Anne Drysdale died on 11 May 1853.

The township of Drysdale in Victoria takes it name from Anne Drysdale. The State Library of Victoria now holds Anne Drysdales diaries which 'provide a detailed account of daily life at ‘Boronggoop' and ‘Coriyule’ and of social life in early Geelong. They are also a valuable record of pastoral and agricultural work practices, informed by Miss Drysdale’s previous experience as a farmer in Scotland.'