By Fiona Grahame.

Eliza Fraser was one of a few survivors of The Stirling Castle, wrecked off the coast of Australia in the 19th century. Her story became a media sensation but in its telling it led to the massacre and dispossession of those who had saved her from starvation. 

In 1835, the brig,  Stirling Castle,  left London on 22 October, under the command of her Captain, James Fraser. Sailing from Sydney then on to Singapore with a cargo of mostly spirits, she  hit the Swain Reefs, Queensland, Australia. The vessel started to take in water and all on board took to two boats.

On this voyage James Fraser, due to his ill health, was accompanied by his wife who left her three children behind in Stromness, Orkney.  The children were left in the care of the Minister of the Free Church, Peter Learmonth.

The two boats, provisioned for their journey, stayed at sea for some weeks. Eventually the faster of the two, a pinnace, which included Fraser’s young nephew, went its own way, the crew discontented with the fears the Captain had of  putting ashore. Tales at this time in the newspapers abounded with those of white men captured by wild cannibalistic natives.

The Captain’s boat came ashore on Sandy Island on 22 May 1836. This area had first been charted by James Cook in 1770. For thousands of years, however, it was home to the Butchulla people. To them the island was known as K’gari.

The accounts of what happened next was for most of the 19th and 20th century, based on the testimony of the survivors, and  mainly Eliza Fraser. 

At some point, whether still on the lifeboat, or on the beach, it is said that Eliza Fraser gave birth to a child, who shortly after died. Those on the shore traded with the Aboriginal Butchulla, exchanging clothes for food and water. When nothing was left to trade the men were taken to the Butchulla camp and divided amongst families. K’gari was going through a severe drought, and everyone was expected to contribute through their labours to the supply of food and water. For James Fraser, already suffering from his poor health, this would lead to his death. Reports published later in the press say that he was murdered by the Butchullla when he was no longer of any use. 

Eliza Fraser was left on the beach. A group of Butchulla women took her in, treated her severe sunburn with traditional methods, and wrote upon her  protection signs that she was not to be harmed. 

As with the men, Eliza Fraser, was expected to contribute to the work of the group. This she clearly resented, both in her own account and that of the oral history of the Butchulla. Eliza Fraser lived with the Butchulla people for 5 weeks to be eventually ‘rescued’. She was located by John Graham, an Irishman who had been transported sentenced to penal servitude. Graham like many convicts, escaped and had lived with Aboriginal tribes for many years. There he learned their language and about their culture. In a deal with the military authorities, he agreed to use his skills to find Eliza Fraser as reports had come in of a white woman living amongst the Butchulla. 

The language in accounts following the rescue of Eliza Fraser is imbued with  racism and ignorance of the culture of indigenous people. Versions of her story still persist today in promoting the expression of white colonial repression  and exploitation. 

The John O’Groats Journal, 1 September 1837, reports:

“She was compelled by them to rub herself all over with green herbs, which had the effect of making her nearly as dark as themselves.”

Eliza Fraser was taken to Sydney where a large amount of money, over £400,  was raised for her. The white colonisers were moved by her tales of captivity and the hardships she had to endure, including the death of her husband. 

Passage was secured for her on a ship sailing to England captained by Alexander Greene, and she left Sydney on 3 February 1837. In England her story made her a celebrity. In London, she pleaded her case of poverty and hardship to the Lord Mayor, who, deeply moved, helped set up a collection. As the tales became more fanciful and the few other survivors gave evidence at the Board of Inquiry into the wreck, questions were raised about some of her accounts. 

“When first I heard their frightful yells, I expected nothing but destruction, but I never expected to witness anything like what I have seen. There is no difference between these savages and the beasts of the forests, except that savages are ingenious in their cruelty” – Eliza Fraser.

It was then discovered that Eliza Fraser had secretly married Captain Alexander Greene. Doubt was beginning to be cast on her story. Harry Youlden, also a survivor of the Stirling Castle referred to her as “ a most profane, artful, wicked woman.” Her case was defended by the Times journalist John Curtis who said that she had an ‘aberration of the mind’ due to what had happened to her and her mistreatment by the Butchulla.

Eliza Fraser, now Greene, continued to capitalise on her tale of cruelty and captivity: “Compassion is a thing wholly unknown to them”, she told the Press. 

Stories, such as those of Eliza Fraser, gave the British military  and white colonisers, ‘permission’ to hunt down and massacre Aboriginal  peoples. K’gari, once the home to 19 clans numbering over 2,000 people, in a couple of decades was reduced to an indigenous population of a few hundred. The island was renamed in honour of Eliza’s husband, and was known as Fraser Islander until 2021. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991, the name ‘Fraser Island’ still persists. 

Eliza Fraser, aka Greene, emigrated to Auckland New Zealand and was killed in 1858 in a carriage accident in Melbourne, Australia. 

The Butchulla people were  removed  to Yarrabah in 1902, and to Barambah station, where Aboriginal people from over 100 different areas were put, and prevented from speaking their own languages. Many of these languages have been lost as those on the reserve were compelled to speak only English. 

The island of K’gari, cleared of most of its indigenous people, was ripe for white settlement and its natural resources of timber exploited. The vast beaches were extensively mined for their sand until 1977.

In Stromness, Eliza Fraser, is remembered with a blue plaque on the house she once shared with James and her three children. It too continues the falsehood that she was ‘captured’ when she was in fact rescued by the Butchulla people. 

“Home of Eliza Fraser who in 1836 survived shipwreck on the Great Barrier reef and capture by Aborigines to become a legendary figure in Australian history.”

This article was first published in iScot Magazine.

The Extraordinary Life of Orcadian Jack Renton.

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