Alice Davies (1848-1930)

‘When I came to Healesville first I was very lonely and seeing Baron Von Mueller on the road, I spoke to him. He said I lived in paradise.’

Alice Davies was the daughter of Shropshire couple William and Martha (Liggett) Davies. The family arrived in Melbourne in March 1853 when Alice was five years old. Her childhood was spent in Melbourne but after her 1874 marriage to George Middens Davies the couple moved to ‘Fron’ at Healesville where they raised their six children.

Alice joined the Historical Society of Victoria in 1917, in response to a call for memories of early pioneers. In her reminiscences, held in the RHSV’s manuscripts collection, Alice wrote ‘When I came to Healesville first I was very lonely and seeing Baron Von Mueller on the road, I spoke to him. He said I lived in paradise.’

At Healesville Alice developed a great interest in the local aborigines and struck up a friendship with William Barak. In her collection were stone axes and grinders found in the Davies’ paddocks and ‘a tiny black stone axe that was found by splitters in the heart of a tree four feet in diameter.’ She also had some of Barak’s drawings in pipe clay and charcoal, given to her by the artist. Some of her letters, reminiscences and photographs relating to life in Healesville are to be found in the RHSV collection..

Alice Davies was a champion of William Barak (1824-1903). Barak, a member of the Wurundjeri Willam clan (part of the Woiwurrung language group), lived at Coranderrk Reserve near Healesville and in old age painted many ceremonial scenes remembered from his youth. The RHSV has one of his paintings in its collection, donated by another Barak admirer, Mrs Ann Fraser Bon in 1930. Another Barak artwork, ‘Corroborree’, originally owned by Alice Davies, now hangs in the National Gallery of Australia.

Kaleidoscope exhibition text by Cheryl Griffin, February 2022. Full entry to follow.