Louisa Lawson and The Digitise The Dawn Project

Louisa Albury was born in 1848 in Mudgee, the second of twelve children. Although she was offered a position as 'pupil teacher' at school, she was encouraged by her parents to leave school in order to look after her younger siblings. It was a fairly common thing to happen to eldest girls at the time, but judging by Louisa's later life, it seems that she regretted it most severely. And who can blame her? She married Niels Hertzberg Larsen (who called himself Peter) in 1866 at the tender age of eighteen, and they later Anglicised their surname to Lawson. Peter, for good or bad, spent much of his time away at the goldfields, and left Louisa at home to look after their brood of five children alone. Eventually, his absences became longer and more frequent, and by the time Louisa moved with her children to Sydney in 1883, the marriage was all but over. Left alone with five children to support, and with very little and sporadic financial assistance from Peter, she turned her hand first to sewing and washing to earn money. She also took in boarders from time to time. In 1887, she took the opportunity to purchase The Republican newspaper, a paper about which I've been almost completely unable to find information on, sadly. The one thing I have learned, though, is that it (apparently) "called for all Australians to unite under 'the flag of a Federated Australia, the Great Republic of the Southern Seas'"[0]. By all accounts, it didn't last long though, and ceased production the following year, in 1888. But Louisa'a political leanings were very much beginning to show.

Apparently bitten by the publishing bug, and probably eager to continue publishing her own essays and works of poetry, she started publishing a magazine called The Dawn in 1888. It was printed as "A Journal for Australian Women" and "publicize women's wrongs, fight their battles and sue for their suffrage"[1]. It was the first newspaper printed in Australia that dealt with issues of feminism and suffrage, and is considered perhaps the single most important factor in the beginning of the suffragette movement in Australia. Shortly after The Dawn's inception, Louisa's husband Peter died, leaving her with a large inheritance, which was immediately spent on improving the printing press and increasing the circulation of the magazine. She also hired ten staff, all of whom were women. The NSW Typographical Association did not accept female members at the time, and took exception to the fact that a magazine could be edited, printed, and circulated only by women. They took up arms against Louisa and the magazine and encouraged advertisers to boycott The Dawn and reportedly harassed the women on site.

As evidence of Louisa's strength, she did not let this discourage her, and in 1889, she began running meetings at the Dawn offices which became known as The Dawn Club. The Club discussed issues relating to the "evil laws" made by men, and encouraged women to infiltrate male-dominated arenas such as debating clubs, and Louisa herself became the first female member of the board of management of the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts.

The Womanhood Suffrage League of NSW began in 1891 and, hardly surprisingly, Louisa was elected to its council. She offered the Dawn offices and printing press for the League to use for meetings and pamphlets free of charge, and this remained the case until the League's demise, despite the fact that Louisa herself withdrew from the council in 1893 after an ill-documented dispute.

By the time women were given the vote in 1902, Louisa was starting to slow down. In 1900, she had a fall from a tram and was badly injured, although she was politically active again in 1902 itself, when she was introduced to the Australia parliament as "The Mother of Suffrage in New South Wales"[2]. During the early 1900's she took several extended 'rest' periods from her campaigning and the magazine. She was 54, not old by our modern standards, but perfectly elderly by the standards of the day, and she had worked hard both physically and mentally all her life.


With the coming of the women's vote, Louisa aged and so, sadly, did The Dawn. The columns grew fewer and less fervent, the advertisers gradually departed, and in 1905 the newspaper printed its last edition.

Louisa continued to write for several Sydney-based publications, and she also produced an extensive volume of poetry.

I have been unable to find out what mental ailment troubled her in her final days, but dementia appears to be the most likely. She died in the Gladesville Mental Hospital aged 72, in 1920. The fight gets to even the strongest of us in the end.

Unfortunately, The Dawn has so far not been included in the National Library's 'Trove' Digitisation Project, despite it's great historical significance in gaining Australian women the vote, and despite Louisa's passion and fervour in promoting women's rights of all description. Do you feel it's an important part of Australian history? If you do, why not contribute to the project? It's being run by the lovely Donna Benjamin and she needs your help to raise the funds to make the digitisation a reality. You might also like to follow @digitisethedawn on Twitter to keep up with progress, and to help spread the word.

Oh, and as a postscript: yes, Louisa did have a very famous son, but her story is so much more interesting than that, don't you agree?

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[0] http://www.nla.gov.au/guides/federation/people/lawsonl.html
[1] http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100019b.htm
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisa_Lawson