Caroline Woolmer Leakey was born in Exeter, England, on 8 March 1827, and moved to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) in 1847 to be with her sister in Hobart.
She fell ill within a year of her arrival and was an invalid for much of the following five years. During her time of ill-heath, she wrote a large amount of poetry. In an attempt to regain her health, she returned to England in 1853, where her health did indeed improve.
A book of her verse, Lyra Australis, or Attempts to Sing in a Strange Land, was published in 1854. She also wrote a novel about a convict’s life in Australia, The Broad Arrow; Being Passages from the History of Maida Gwynnham, a Lifer, which was published in 1859.
Leakey died on 12 July 1881.
Selected poetry by Caroline Leakey:
On Tasmania’s Receiving the Writ of Freedom [1854]
The Prisoner’s Hospital, Van Diemen’s Land [1854]
References:
J.C. Horner. “Leakey, Caroline Woolmer (1827–1881), Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University (accessed 5 August 2012)
“Caroline Woolmer Leaky, The Department of Premier and Cabinet (Tasmania) (accessed 5 August 2012)
“Caroline Leakey”, Wikipedia (accessed 5 August 2012)
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