Description
In 1855 Anastasia Burke, a 27 year old woman from Callan, County Kilkenny, Ireland, migrated to Adelaide, South Australia. For many post-Famine Irish emigrants there was no guarantee of a welcome in the host country and the following year, the South Australian government launched an enquiry into the influx of single Irishwomen to its shores.Anastasia stayed in South Australia for ten years before joining the exodus to the new goldfields in Victoria. Stockyard Creek, a goldfield in South Gippsland, ultimately became her permanent home.Widowed after a brief marriage to William Thornley, Anastasia was a successful businesswoman who owned land in the district, several gold mines and the biggest hotel in town, the Exchange Hotel. Anastasia visited her homeland in 1906 and returned to Victoria renovate her hotel in palatial style. She was tough and she was a survivor.This is the remarkable story of one Irish immigrant to nineteenth-century Australia and her never-failing support of Irish causes. Her legacy resonates today in Callan and in Foster (formerly Stockyard Creek).
ISBN: 9780992467197
Anchor Books
239 A'Beckett Street Melbourne, Victoria, 3000 
03 9326 9288 
office@historyvictoria.org.au 
Office & Library: Weekdays 9am-5pm
Joseph Kennedy –
An excellently well researched book full of rich detail.
It tells the story of a remarkable woman, Anastasia Burke Thornley, who came from very humble beginnings in poverty ridden Ireland of the mid 19th century to make a major mark later in the century on Foster, Victoria.
An inspiring read.