In mid-January 1885, Joshua Stead pleaded guilty to assaulting Susan McGowan. He accused her of getting him two months’ imprisonment for an earlier assault, then knocked her down and kicked her two or three times. Stead was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment with hard labour and sent to St Helena.[i] Two months later, McGowan was assaulted by another man named Brittan. Notoriety within the legal system made redress virtually impossible, locking women like McGowan in the cycle of abuse and abusing.[ii]
Albert Street, Brisbane, 1883: ‘on the corner with Mary Street, is the Gympie Hotel.’ (State Library of Queensland 2543)
In July 1885, McGowan was beaten up again in Albert Street, this time by James Feeney. The two constables who witnessed the assault stated that ‘Feeney knocked the girl down two or three times, cutting her mouth’. Feeney was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment with hard labour.[iv] Despite these numerous assaults McGowan, her infamy in the system gave her a level of strength and independence in the colonial society. As cultural historian Melissa Bellanta argues, female ‘rowdies’ (such as McGowan), also known as ‘donahs’ or ‘molls’, had a much larger social role and formed a subculture of their own, independent of men.[v] Susan Hegarty, alias McGowan, was ‘a brazen larrikin girl’ in her own right.
By 1890, McGowan was ill and living at the ‘Chinese den’ in Lower Albert Street, Old Frog’s Hollow. On the north side of the street there was a row of nine shop-houses under one roof between Charlotte and Mary streets, which were colloquially referred to as ‘holes’. The hollow was a low-lying area with a stream running through it, which frequently flooded and flowed into the basements, backyards and premises of the workshops and stores.[vi] According to the reports of medical health officer Dr Joseph Bancroft from March 1890, the area where McGowan lived was ‘very unhealthy to the residents.’ Judging by the infrequency of her police court appearances after the 1890 flood, McGowan’s health was impacted by the poor living conditions.
McGowan was only 28 years old when she died in a cab on the way to a hospital accompanied by her friend Mary Burns. The official cause of death was given as phthisis and exhaustion. She was buried at Toowong Cemetery on 9 April 1891 (16-4-6).[vii]
IMAGE: Susan Hegarty is buried in one of the unmarked graves in plot 16, Toowong Cemetery.
Sadly, McGowan’s fate was not unique. The nineteenth-century ideals about morality and the position of women in society meant female offenders had few options and were policed much more harshly than men, while being given little opportunity for reform or rehabilitation.
Further Reading:
Dukova, Anastasia. To Preserve and Protect: Policing Colonial Brisbane, University of Queensland Press, 2020. <https://www.uqp.uq.edu.au/Book.aspx/1537/To%20Preserve%20and%20Protect-%20Policing%20Colonial%20Brisbane>
[i] ‘City Police Court’, Brisbane Courier, 17 January 1885, p. 10.
[ii] Dukova, A. To Preserve and Protect: Policing Colonial Brisbane, UQP 2020, 109.
[iii] Cohen, K, Donoval, V, Kerr, R et al. 2014, Lost Brisbane and Surrounding Areas 1860–1960, Royal Historical Society of Queensland, Brisbane, p. 80.
[iv] ‘City Police Court’, Brisbane Courier, 4 July 1885, p. 6.
[v] Bellanta, M, ‘The Larrikin Girl’, Journal of Australian Studies, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 499–512.
[vi] Boomerang, 14 January 1888, p. 8.
[vii] Grave location: Toowong Cemetery 16-4-6