Ethel Pedley, a white woman with her hair pulled back. She stares off camera. She wears a lace dress and choker necklace. Note there are no available photos of Emmeline Woolley.
"To the children of Australia in the hope of enlisting their sympathies for the many beautiful, amiable, and frolicsome creatures of their fair land, whose extinction, through ruthless destruction, is being surely accomplished."
– Ethel Pedley
Within the story of every queer person lies a tangled web of connections offering a glimpse of the queer community at the time. From Emmeline Freda Du Faur, we find a couple: two women who spent their lives together and whose relationship remains mostly unrecognized. Freda and her aunt Emmeline Woolley shared a name and an orientation; throughout most of her life, Emmeline Woolley was in a relationship with famed Australian children's book author and musician Ethel Pedley.
Born on the 19th of June 1859 near London, Ethel Pedley's legacy as one of the most well known Australian children's book author was not clear from her early life. Pedley was far more drawn to music from the age of five, attending concerts and learning the piano even at that age. Her father's failing health brought the Pedley's to Australia, where Ethel would meet Emmeline Woolley.
A musician herself, Emmeline was born in 1843 to a scholarly family. Because of this, her musical education was wide and varied. She travelled to Florence and Munich for her schooling and learned under Alessandro Kraus, Pietro Romani, and Julius von Kolb. In 1866, she fell on hard times after her father's death left the family impoverished.
As she did not find herself drawn to performing, her skills were largely unhelpful, at least financially. She sympathized when her mountaineer niece's face a similar plight years later. For that moment, though, trouble was just trouble, and she took on teaching music to fund her career. Soon she began making a name for herself with her charitable causes and passion for women's education. She was described as "a pianist with a style at once scholarly and sparkling."
Ethel was also pursuing teaching at the time. When the two met, the connection was clear, and they agreed to start a women's choir. Emmeline was known for her feminist ideologies, and their shared passion for supporting female artists followed them throughout their lives. They would hold concerts and benefits for charities, specifically focusing on those that supported women.
In 1896 they travelled to London to request the Associated Board of the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music to begin holding examinations in Australia. Not only were they able to convince the boards, but Ethel became the board's only representative in Australia at the time, and only a year later, the first examiner arrived.
Emmeline and Ethel continued writing music and bringing in new pieces into the Australian music scene through all of this. Their most well-known piece was "The Captive Soul." Emmeline wrote it specifically for Ethel Pedley's libretto, though Ethel contributed, writing the libretto for Emmeline's cantata.
Ethel is the most well known for her children's book Dot and the Kangaroo. Based on her own experiences in the Australian bush, the book was only published after her death but began with:
"To the children of Australia in the hope of enlisting their sympathies for the many beautiful, amiable, and frolicsome creatures of their fair land, whose extinction, through ruthless destruction, is being surely accomplished."
Passionate about the Australian wildlife, Ethel spent the majority of the book discussing the harm done by hunters, taking time to specify that there was a difference between how the Aborigines and white people treated nature, writing:
"The Black Humans kill and devour us; but they, even, are not so terrible as the Whites, who delight in taking our lives and torturing us just as an amusement."
Her book is thought to be based on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, following a young girl who eats berries that allow her to both talk to and understand the animals around her. A helpful kangaroo guides her through a tour of native Australian bush species, focusing on how humans harmed their environment.
Now a classic children's novel, it is by far the most remembered part of Ethel's short life. At the age of 39, in 1898, Ethel died of cancer in the home she shared with Emmeline. Her book was published the next year, and her brother established a travelling scholarship for music students under her name.
Emmeline spent the rest of her life mentoring female musicians and conducting. It was only ten years after Ethel's death that Emmeline followed her partner, leaving her niece Emmeline Freda Du Faur all her money to start her career as a mountaineer. Emmeline Woolley was buried close to Ethel in the Anglican section of Waverley Cemetery.
As they lived relatively quiet lives, Ethel and Emmeline's legacies are hard to see as a reflection of reality. Though most of Ethel's energy went to her study and teaching of music, all of her work is overshadowed by a book she never got to see published. For Emmeline, her legacy is in the ways she touched others: her relationship with Ethel, which is most often diminished under the guise of friendship, and her impact on her niece. She is remembered through their stories more than her own. While her work was impactful, her discussions would likely be even shorter if not for those connections. It is impossible to know how she would have felt about that truth. Legacies are tricky and often don't look the way anyone expects. Emmeline is known as a woman who created spaces for others, a woman who loved others. A woman who pushed forward other women is a beautiful thing. Many stories of those who were there for others slip through the cracks over time; any story held, kept, and remembered beyond those directly affected is an incredible thing. While not a famous mountaineer or writer, being a famous woman who had a life of music and care is pretty memorable.
REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
Disclaimer: some of the sources may contain triggering material
Austlit. (n.d.). Ethel Pedley | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories. Retrieved December 15, 2020, from https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A16832
Ethel Pedley. (n.d.). HarperCollins. Retrieved December 15, 2020, from https://www.harpercollins.com/blogs/authors/ethel-pedley
Ethel Pedley | Blue Sheet. (n.d.). Retrieved December 15, 2020, from https://bluesheet.com.au/Decimal_Coinage/One_Dollar/Ethel_Pedley/
MISS PEDLEY’S BENEFIT CONCERT. (1886, June 12). Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 15.
Norst, M. (1988). Pedley, Ethel Charlotte (1859–1898). In Australian Dictionary of Biography (Vol. 11). National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/pedley-ethel-charlotte-8010
Pedley, E. (2014). Dot and the Kangaroo. HarperCollins Australia.
RETURN OF MISS PEDLEY. (1896, May 16). Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 7.
Rutledge, M. (1990). Cultural Advice. In Woolley, Emmeline Mary (1843–1908) (Vol. 12).
National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/woolley-emmeline-mary-9188
THE ETHEL PEDLEY MEMORIAL. (1906, September 29). Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 15.