And now, the Governors wife. 2016 Production at Enderslea Farm.

And now, the Governors wife. 2016 Production at Enderslea Farm.

 

 

And Now The Governor’s WifeGovernors Wife

The wonderful afternoon tea was provided by the Bindoon Country Women’s Association. Wine tastings from Carmel and Nick Humphry of Bindoon Wine gave a vintage flourish to finish the Friday 29th April, Saturday 30th April and Sunday 1st May 2016, Festival afternoons.
This new play was developed for production at Enderslea Farm during the National Trust Heritage Festival of 2016. Once again it was produced by Diane Pope and written and directed by Jenny Davis.
In the 19th Century Western Australia is an isolated, lonely British colony. Tragedy, amazement, determination and a little self-reflection colour three Governor’s wives as they reminisce about their experiences in this colony. Ellen Stirling, Mary Hampton and Lady Broome compare and contrast their experiences with each other. Ellen Stirling is young, popular with the settlers and newly married to Lieutenant- Governor James Stirling the founder of the colony. Initially she talks and sings with George Fletcher Moore an Irish lawyer who composed the song “Western Australia for Me” He sang this at the first Governors Ball in September 1831. It was the popularity and timing of this song that influenced the adoption of the name Western Australia rather than Stirling’s preference ‘Hybertia’ (which means facing west’)for the Swan River Colony.
Mary Essex’s husband, Governor Hampton, and their son the Comptroller General of Convicts, were very unpopular due to the harsh penalties they inflicted on the convicts that came between 1850 and 1868. A regular escapee during their time in office was Moondyne Joe made famous by the Fenian prisoner John Bourke O’Reilly. Lady Mary Anne and her husband Sir Frederick Napier Broome were in Government House when gold was initally discovered in the Kimberley.

ThisĀ  small description of the play was to entice people to once again come to historic Enderslea Farm for an entertaining afternoon in the country.