Rachel

by Jeff McGill

'Just a girl, but when it came to chasing wild horses nobody questioned Rachel Kennedy's skill in a saddle. What raised eyebrows was the type of saddle she used: a man's.'

Rachel Kennedy was a colonial folk hero. Born in the wild and remote Warrumbungle mountains of western New South Wales in 1845, she was described by Duke Tritton of The Bulletin as Australia's greatest pioneer woman of them all.

Rachel caught brumbies, hid bushrangers, went to war with squatter kings, fed starving families during the shearing strikes, worked as a revered bush nurse and midwife, and fought for the underdog after observing the bitter experiences of the Chinese on the goldfields. She also built rare friendships with Aboriginal people, including a lifelong relationship with her 'sister' Mary Jane Cain, a proud campaigner for the rights of her people.

Meticulously researched and written with compelling energy, this is a vivid and at times heartbreaking story of a pioneering woman who left a legacy that went well beyond her lifetime.

Genres: Biography

352 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 2022

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a biography written about Warrumbungle mountains pioneering woman Rachel Kennedy, written by her great-great-grandson, Australian freelance writer and newspaper editor, Jeff McGill.

Rachel was born in 1845 to Irish parents who began farming a small holding in the mountainous area of New South Wales in 1841. She grew up to be a renowned horse woman, a local midwife and medicine woman, and a pioneer who worked to set up a school and library in her area. Rachel’s life had many hardships and challenges, not the least the ongoing battle between the wealthy land-owning squattocracy and the struggling cockies with their small-holdings. These interactions, and the disdain with which they were treated by police and authorities in general, gave Rachel a deep suspicion towards the upper classes and the law. She may have even harboured and assisted bush-rangers at times. The story also focuses on her life-long friendship with Gamilaraay woman Mary Jane Cain, who was the matriarch at Burra Bee Dee reserve, and the courage Mary Jane showed in fighting for her people.
Rachel was certainly a dynamic character and the book gives insight into the harsh but rewarding life in isolated regions at this time. The book is extremely well researched even down to small details like the weather on the day of their wedding being taken from the newspaper reports of the day. I’m impressed by McGill’s ability to turn over so many details about Rachel’s life, but more than this to construct a background of the struggles and political machinations of the time. The way the squattocracy treated the small people on the land was appalling. My only criticism of this book is that at times it has a journalistic type quality with things reported very factually with little emotional depth. For example, after a huge fight to stay on her property Rachel losing her land must have been a terrible blow, but after the build up to this it feels almost glossed over. Nevertheless I found this an enjoyable read that gave me a picture of a this beautiful mountainous area and the context of the time.

[Lee McKerracher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this! Jeff McGill gave an author's talk at our local library focused on this book about his great-great-grandmother Rachel Kennedy and her life sounded intriguing.

The book does not disappoint. Rachel had a tough life as a pioneer out in the Warrumbungles. She was also a trailblazer - riding faster than her brothers to catch and break in brumbies and no riding side saddle for her! She married Robert and had a frugal life giving birth to 9 children, 2 of whom sadly died very young.

Life being random, Rachel had battles with wool kings, helped others during the shearing strikes, sheltered the odd bushranger and became a loved community member through her work as a nurse and midwife. Oh and she also got a school started with a library!

Her second marriage, bringing another 3 children was not as good as the first and Rachel's determination to succeed gets her through so many tough situations. She has a strength of character that is formidable and her love of the Warrumgbungles was lifelong.

An incredible woman that most of us have never heard of and we need to know.

[Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a first class book? An absolute pleasure to read. It tells the story of a pioneering woman who did it all and in the overall scheme of things was underrated in crediting her contribution to the settlement of the inland regions of Australia. She did it all. A pioneering horsewoman who rounded up the brumbies and the cattle, wife, mother, cook, midwife, nurse. At the same time she didn't have a vote or property rights and the ownership of the farm she carved out of the bush automatically passed to her husband and in the case of her second one, he was a drunken waster. And if you think that's unfair, consider the case of her close friend, an aboriginal woman, who had no rights whatsoever, to her land or even her children. The unfairness of that situation still makes my blood boil. Author Geoff McGill, who is Rachel's great, great grandson mentions the possibility of a film based on his book, which I hope becomes reality as I believe that the topic would make a great movie and give some recognition to the magnificent contribution of the pioneering women of Australia.

[Pat Flood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a fantastic read, especially knowing it was based on such detailed research by the author. I was getting a great understanding of what a great woman she was and she got better as the story evolved, a true pioneer of her time. I would love to see this as a movie. I highly recommend this book.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating tale of a tough, resilient woman from the Warrumbungals. I learnt a lot about my surrounding area and of what times were like in the late 1800s and early 1900s. While Rachel’s story is remarkable, she is just one of thousands of pioneer women whose own stories have gone untold or simply forgotten. Props to Jeff McGill for taking the time to research and document Rachel’s.

[Leanne Firth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was very interesting. Annemaree Harvey leant it to me; a friend related to Rachel Kennedy had given it to her. It was a fairly easy read and showed the experiences of a pioneering woman in Australia.

[Robyn Miegel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed the real life story of a brave colonial woman

[Simon Pockley · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Warrumbungle neighbour, Edna Denning, suggested I attend the Coonabarabran Library launch of Rachel: Brumby hunter, medicine woman, bushrangers' ally and troublemaker for good . . . the remarkable pioneering life of Rachel Kennedy. We sat together. Edna is in her 80s and lives alone in the mountains which she loves. Edna's not a brumby hunter but certainly a courageous woman. Aunty Maureen Sulter gave an excellent Welcome to Country and the author, Jeff McGill, delivered a well-worn promotional performance to a small group of locals.

I've long been interested in the early (unofficial) settlement of the Warrumbungles before the Selectors arrived, before Blaxland Lawson and Wentworth found a way through the Blue Mountains. Certainly before explorer Oxley saw the Warrumbungles (he called it Arbuthnot's Range), escapees, opportunists and cattle had found their way inland and somehow negotiated a some form of passage with local Indigenous groups. McGill’s story of Rachel comes a generation after this period but it's nonetheless fascinating for those who know the Warrumbungles.

Rachel joins the works of Eric Rolls’ A Million Wild Acres and Joy Pickette’s As it Was in the Beginning. A History of Coonabarabran to 1900 to provide an historical dimension to this intriguing place.

Apart from the faintest echo of Tha-a-ma now anglicised as Timor Rock (which McGill mentions), the remnants of Bora rings, various stone arrangements and tools, the Indigenous history is palpably missing. Apart from the scattered remnants of a shepherd’s hut on the ridge of Bugaldie Gap, the bushrangers cave, some wooden troughs and pipes and the persistence of family names, the settlement history is also easy to miss. Jeff McGill provides an expansive story of love and loss. Two resilient women who loved the Warrumbungles - as I do.

There’s a lot to recommend in this easy read. Not least the way Jeff McGill’s extensive research is woven into the context of larger historical events and land settlement movements. There were moments when I wondered if the story was needlessly polemic with its class struggles (workers against wool barons) but given the depth of some of these struggles for Rachel’s tenuous hold on country, who could blame him. IJeff has led me back to Joy Pickette's works and to re-reading The Red Chief, that important pre-settlement story of the area I have roamed for nearly 50 years.

I can assure readers that there are plenty of Rachel Kennedys still in the Warrumbungles; tough women with soft hearts.