Euphemia Wilson (1838-1920)

Euphemia Wilson (then Euphemia Brisbane), her tinsmith father James Brisbane and her four siblings (aged four to fourteen) arrived in Hobson’s Bay in April 1840 in dramatic circumstances. The Glen Huntly, on its maiden voyage, had left Scotland in December 1839 and arrived at its destination nearly four months later with the label ‘fever ship’. One of its victims was 40 year old Euphemia (Brown) Brisbane, wife of James Brisbane. So instead of setting off immediately to embrace their new life, the bereft family found themselves in a makeshift quarantine station set up under canvas at Point Ormond (Elwood).

Her father established a business in central Melbourne where he remained until his death in 1852 when Euphemia was fourteen years old. By this time she was a boarder at Mrs Westlake’s boarding school, where she remained until she turned sixteen. She then moved to Berwick to be housekeeper to her three brothers until her marriage to local farmer William Wilson in 1859.

The couple set up home at ‘Quarry Hills’, Berwick where they raised their five children. It is said that Euphemia, an excellent horsewoman, stumbled over a stone on their property and this led to the quarrying of basalt stone at what became known as Wilson Quarry, established the year they married.

Much later, in 1902, William Wilson built ‘Liskie Brae’, their retirement home. He died a few years later. Little is known of the Euphemia’s life after the move to ‘Liskie Brae’, although she joined the Historical Society of Victoria in September 1917 after responding to the Society’s call for early residents to tell their stories and fill out an entry in its Pioneer Register.

Euphemia Wilson died in September 1920 aged 82. The 50 acre (20 hectare) site of the old Wilson Quarry, established by her husband so many years earlier, remained in family hands until 1973 when it was donated to the residents of Berwick for use as a public park. Today that gift is acknowledged in its name – Wilson Botanic Park.

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