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Biographies
Barraclough Family
Luke Barraclough (1835-1886)
Susannah Barraclough nee Hignett (1834-1901)
Luke Barraclough was born on 11 August 1835 at Wibsey, near Bradford, in Yorkshire. His father James was a weaver, and his mother, the former Hannah Carter, was the daughter of another weaver. He arrived as a single young man in Melbourne aboard the Prince Arthur on 24 January 1853, having spent his Christmas aboard ship.
Luke appears to have met Susannah Hignett in Melbourne, and by 1854 they were living in Richmond, where Luke was a brickmaker. Susannah, from Liverpool, who arrived in Melbourne in November 1851 aboard the Northumberland, was the daughter of a substantial hotelier and merchant, and the reason for her being alone in Australia is unknown. Their first child, Luke, was born there. By 1855 they were in Ballarat, still in the aftermath of the Eureka Stockade of 1854. Following Susannah's 21st birthday, they were married there in the Wesleyan Mission House.
For the next seventeen years they remained in Ballarat, living at one time at Madmans Flat on the Canadian Lead. Frank, Charles, Henrietta and Fanny were born there. In November 1866 Rose was born there and lived for only a short time. In 1869 Frederick Arthur was born there, only to drown in a nearby waterhole in January 1872. The family moved to the Bendigo area, living at Kangaroo Flat, where Major was born in 1873.
The family did not stay there long, and for an unknown reason, chose to move to the Darling River area above Wentworth. They made the trip by wagon, with all their possessions, with Major, the baby, almost dying in the heat around Ouyen. Once on the Darling, Luke and the older boys worked as tank sinkers, using the horse and dray as plant. Their last child, Edith, was born while they were working at Tapio in 1875.
On 27 March 1879 Luke made application to purchase Lot 8, Parish of Darling, and this became Kapana, which the family operated as a horse change for the coach run for Wentworth to Broken Hill. A simple home of Murray pine logs was built, with others being added later as older family members married, with some operating a wood pile there for the steamers. It included an Accommodation House, where coach passengers and others took meals.
Luke Barraclough died of dysentery at Kapana on 27 April 1886, and was buried at Pooncarie. Susannah lived on there with other family members, until the flood of 1890, which saw the family camped in temporary accommodation higher on a sandhill for well over six months. When the waters went down, a raft was madeof Murray Pine logs, Susannah's house was transferred to it, and Major and his future brother-in-law, Willy Walker, poled it downriver to Wentworth, about 190 miles by river. There they took it ashore, and Susannah lived for some years until her ill-health meant that she had to take up residence with her daughter, Hettie Baker, near Menindee. She died there on 13 June 1901 and was taken to Pooncarie for burial. She is remembered in her family as a staunch, sometimes severe Methodist, but a lively piano player - except on Sundays. Her children went on to operate many hotels and properties on the Darling from Wentworth to Wilcannia. [Linda]
Susannah Barraclough in later life.
Sources of Information
Linda: e-mail kapana@netspace.net.au
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Last updated on 28 February 2003